Playwright Mr. Tatsuhiro Oshiro and the Manoa Readers/Theatre Ensemble cast of The Cocktail Party

The premiere performance of The Cocktail Party, a play by author/playwright Tatsuhiro Oshiro, was held on Wednesday, October 26, 2011, at the Hawaii Okinawa Center. Nearly 200 people attended the performance by the Mānoa Readers / Theatre Ensemble.

The Cocktail Party was originally written in 1967 as a novella, and with this work, Mr. Oshiro became the first author from Okinawa to win the Akutagawa Prize, a prestigious Japanese literary award. It was later transformed into a play, which was translated into English by University of the Ryukyus Professor Katsunori Yamazato.

A second performance of the play was held at UHM’s Orvis Auditorium on Thursday, October 27, 2011. A talk was given by Mr. Oshiro following the play and people were given the opportunity to ask questions.

This play is included in an anthology of Okinawan literature, Living Spirit: Literature and Resurgence in Okinawa.  The book was co-edited by Professor Yamazato and University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa English Professor Frank Stewart and published by Mānoa Journal.

For more on The Cocktail Party, please also see:  MANOA Journal Facebook page, Voices of the Okinawan Spirit.

Click here to download The Cocktail Party program.