![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kimiwomatteruanyways!
ORIGINAL SCANS: CLICK HERE
TRANSLATOR : rosie twt@igarism
CORRECTOR: emily twt@_toshipi
WANNA READ KONPI'S PART ? CLICK HERE
Please do not repost the translation else where.
If you want to re-translate it in another language, please dm me.
If you want to quote the translation, please tag my twitter account.
Like my translations and want to support me ? Consider buying me a ko-fi !
I’ve always wondered how I should express myself the first time I am on stage for a stage play…. I want to stand up on stage because this is my vocation.
When I heard that I was allowed to perform for a stage play, I was very happy. I was also surprised to see that other members of 7MEN Samurai would join me but the biggest surprise was that it was only the two of us (with Konno Taiki) (laughs). Since I thought that he didn’t know about it, while we were shooting for a YouTube video I told him that we were casted for a stage play and he was just like “Bro, I already knew”. I was so sad that I failed to surprise him with this. The first time I was in a non-Johnny’s stage play, it was for “Nounai Poison Berry” and I was on my own, but now I’m grateful to see that I have a comrade with me, however the fact that we are the main characters for the stage play brings much more pressure that we must not succumb to.
This work was originally written for adults, not for children, but the story has been arranged so that it corresponds even more to an audience composed of adults. We're working on incorporating elements of comedy alongside the strong rock vibes and despite the fact that I'm playing a statue, I will definitely move around… (laughs). I won’t be made of steel though. I can’t really imagine how it will turn out but somehow I’m positive this will be fun.
When I was in my first stage play, “Nounai Poison Berry”, it finally took shape only two weeks before the actual first show, and it was just at that time that I could finally relax and take it easy. Until then I was always super anxious, and I only could take a break with myself once I could see how the play would take shape in front of the audience. While I was preparing for the play, I was just stumbling through everything, so much so that I felt like I was going to be completely crushed by anxiety; but the others members, (Nakamura) Reia and (Sasaki) Taiko were also practicing for their musical “SUPERHEROISM” at that time kept telling me stuff like “you just gotta have fun” and “you’ll get there eventually!” so I guess the preparation differs from company to company.
“The Happy Prince” company might rely entirely on Konpi (Konno) and me. Konpi always tells me not to boss him around but because I kept watching the previous leader of the troupe, Ichihara Hayato, as training, I’m worried that I will follow in his footsteps (and show leadership) (laughs). But if I do that, I can already see myself getting carried away so I really should pay attention to that. I really admire Konpi who plays the role of Sparrow because I know that he is a very quiet person, yet I also know that he works hard behind the scenes. When it’s about singing, I always get help from him so whenever I need advice about my singing skills, I want to turn to him.
This time, I want everyone to look forward to our visuals! But as for myself, and since I get to play a character who comes from a royal family, I really want to do my best so I can feel like a prince. Today, I wore my costume for the poster photoshoot and I got called “Prince” by several people…. But to be honest, it really felt weird. (laughs) On stage, I want to be a prince, like Domoto Koichi, who is a Prince amongst Princes; I aim to become THE Prince. But above everything, before I do anything else, I want to make absolutely sure that I understand the fundamentals of what the essence of what a “Musical Dramatic Reading” really is.
I want to research “how should a stage play like this be performed?”. I’ve only seen performances done by A.B.C-Z Hashimoto(Ryosuke)-kun so I’m interested in learning the basics first. For example, when I read a book out loud, I don’t know where I should stop and breathe so I think I have to work on this first. (laughs) Because even if I learn how to do that, I still have to understand how to make the audience feel something through the words we say. I find it quite difficult to make people laugh or cry just by saying something out loud. I'm a little worried that I'll be leaving too much for the audience to interpret by themselves or that I'll just be leaving them behind I still haven’t really understood how to express the merits of dramatic readings and fully grasping the purpose of making this play a reading play while making it interesting is always on my mind.
“Nounai Poison Berry” was a regular play, so I could just move around on the stage, but for this time I won’t be allowed to move much and I will probably even have a book in my hands. So I would like to work on that side of things with the director, Suzuki Katsuhide. Speaking ofSuzuki-san, he was the one who worked with SixTONES’ Kyomoto Taiga on a previous stage play named “BOSS CAT”. If I ever have the opportunity, I’d love to ask Kyomoto-kun about Suzuki-san or just his views about stage plays in general.
The situation of the world we live in is very unstable, our value of the word “happiness” may be changing from moment to moment and at many moments we might realize that we were obviously happy too late. Now I guess that we have to question ourselves about the meaning of this. The Happy Prince might seem childish because it’s a story for children but the theme of “what happiness is” is actually a profound one. It is our mission as entertainers to be able to help bring the answer to the audience without actually pushing our views onto them. In the end, I want to be able to produce something that the customers will be able to get something out of.
