Artistic Director's Statement

During the last year, it has been my honor and pleasure to work with an extraordinary group of people of the Japanese, Muslim, Mexican and African American community and beyond. Most in the core group had never performed on stage before. They are teachers, activists, poets, a visual artist, a chiropractor, a masseuse, a monk. But all came wanting to explore how their voices, their efforts could somehow be an offering of peace and healing in this time of war and violence.

Hosted at Senshin Buddhist Temple, our residency started September of 2003, offering a sacred space to tell and listen to each other’s stories, share common and uncommon histories, and experience each other’s cultural and spiritual traditions. We trained in theater techniques, exercised, wrote poems, sang, broke bread together and during Ramadan, some of us fasted. Gradually we became a new kind of community…one without boundaries.

In the process, pieces of the puzzle emerged, experiences became poems woven with music and movement. We did small works-in-progress performances in the community, and the creating re-writing and training continued. Guest artists were invited. Music was composed. Last minute offerings appeared, like the paintings of Seifu Nishijima. We were weaving, weaving….the piece revealing itself.

To me, “Sacred Moon Songs” is more than a theater production, it is an offering made sacred by the generous hands, ego-less minds, open hearts of the many who have contributed to its process. I also believe it is a testimony of how our diverse society can work and create a better world together.

Gratitude to all my relations,
Nobuko Miyamoto
Founder/Artistic Director



"To All Relations: Sacred Moon Songs" was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Leadership for a Changing World-Ford Foundation, California Community Foundation, Japanese American Community Services, Hitachi, Ltd., Aaroe Associates Charitable Foundation, and the California Council for the Humanities.