ACT3! 1/2 “EVER LASTING”

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A3! ACT3! 1/2 “EVER LASTING”

“In the Spring when I was sixteen, I met a man akin to the devil.” -From Reni Kamikizaka 1. Devil’s Way We were assigned to a new class in my sophomore year of high school. As I moved to my new classroom, I took a side glance at my classmates who got together with their friends, who were separated from their friends and who were wavering between joy and despair. It didn't matter to me who I was with in my new class. As I checked the seat arrangement on the black board and organized my desk, someone suddenly started talking to me. He asked me whether my first name was my real name. "What the heck is this guy talking about," is what I thought at first. The guy who talked to me so friendly that time was in the same class as me. I've never planned to get close to my classmates, nor did I plan to remember their names. But that guy strangely stood out so much I ended up remembering his name even when I didn't want to. Even if he did stand out, it was not in a good way. He fell where there was nothing, spilled his stuff, spilled his lunch box and laughed at his unbelievable clumsiness. Even when I ignored all his stupid questions, that guy kept talking to me so persistently. Moreover, he shortened people's names and even came up with bad nicknames as he pleased. "You probably don't really have a chance to write your name, right," so that guy said straight at me as he handed out a club registration paper with my name written on it. I was taken aback, and that guy simply smiled and told me, "Let's do theater together." 2. In the Light of Young Boys Back when the drama club had just started, he dragged me around all the time. Almost every day, we watched a series of free plays at the small theaters in Veludo Way and observed Street ACT. As we continued doing that, my knowledge and skills of theater started increasing. To be honest, I found it troublesome and was unwilling to go with him at first. But theater is something that becomes deeper and interesting the more you watch it. I became absorbed in it more and more as time passed. I didn't have any intention to tell my parents about my theater club activities. But he talked me into telling them and in the end, I got my parents' permission after I promised that I'd only do club activities after school on weekdays until high school graduation. I never expected them to give me permission, but it seemed they were telling me to use theater to help me develop my artistic skills. Even though the theater club had started doing real activities, our advisor was mere decoration and one of our members was a horrible student who did not partake in the club activities. Sometimes we'd invite him to join our activities, but he never came. It was practically impossible to do any decent club activities with merely two members. We missed the chance to recruit freshmen in our first year, and as a result of that, nobody joined the club. The two of us continued doing club activities alone. We managed to gain more members by recruiting helpers within the school and took part in NCFUSS, but we were utterly beaten. During this time, even that guy was depressed. In the spring of our third year, we continued doing small-scale activities. We were enthusiastic and managed to recruit several freshmen. One day, like he always did, he suddenly brought me to a luxurious traditional Japanese house. While I was at a loss wondering just whose house this was, Tachibana repeatedly hit the intercom without hesitation. I tried to stop him in a hurry, but it was too late. A boy who was about the same age as us came out from inside. I was surprised when I learned who the owner of this premises was. It was a very famous playwright who was known to everyone in the industry. 3. One Way That person only gave us a page of handwritten manuscript filled with one long line. That guy gleefully memorized that line over and over again. Even when I wasn't sure what we could do with merely one line, I could understand why he was in high spirit. The line was extremely poetic and beautiful. It showed the deep personality of the speaker and made us feel that we could expand the story in infinite ways. Based on that one page, that guy created a whole scenario that we decided to perform during the school's cultural festival. Beside us third years, our club was mostly filled with new members, and the one that he chose to take on the lead role was a ham actor with zero experience. I was the semi-lead actor. The fact that I wasn't the one given that long line made me dejected and displeased, but that guy told me he wanted to write a role that was perfect for me. I accepted his explanation. Given my position, it was inevitable that he'd ask me to help organize the play. Our next play was the last play that I could produce with that guy. With that thought in mind, it was only natural that I got passionate in both our daily rehearsals and teaching our juniors. Not only the actors, but I also put more effort in organizing the lightning and audio. It had to be a perfectly, beautifully coordinated playーsomething that was suitable to culminate our three-year effort. But that guy, being both the theater club's president and director, opted out from giving the actors strict coaching. It was in contrast to how I thought. I got so irritated seeing him not criticize our actors when they made mistakes. “I could no longer return to the place that I have lost for eternity.” -From Reni Kamikizaka 4. You and Me After graduation, I decided to continue doing theater with that guy. My family couldn't forgive me for breaking my promise, and thus they gave me some money before kicking me out of the house. Before long, that guy moved into my apartment and we started living together. Every day, we spent all of our time doing part-time work to save up funds to build our own theater troupe. Whenever we had free time, that guy would talk about his plan for our theater troupe. He said our company would consist of four units taking turns to perform their plays in our personal theater building. It was such an outrageous dream. However, if that dream did come true, I might be able to see him on the stage once again. Having thought that, I didn't mind doing part-time jobs that I didn't like. With the help of that person, we managed to get a connection to establish a theater troupe in Veludo Way and moved on with the preparation. The script from that person had also arrived in our hands, seemingly telling us to hurry up as he got tired of waiting. It was an expansion from the line we performed in the cultural festival. Both of us got completely absorbed into that person's world, which was completely different from what that guy had written. In order to present this play to the public, we needed to gather members first. And even though we worked so hard day and night to earn money for our personal theater building, it apparently was still far from enough. Due to that, I offered to pay the construction cost with the money I got from my parents. Tachibana was bewildered, but he eventually agreed after I pressed him over and over again. With that, we started the construction of our theater building. As that guy seemed to have a connection to help us gather troupe members, I entrusted that part to him. As for me, I took charge in planning the theater building's design. While fulfilling his requests, I paid attention to every detail so that we could comfortably use the building as long as possible. Then, when all I had to do was just wait for the construction to be finished, I asked that guy about our troupe members. The answer that I got from him was unbelievable. He found two beginners from his part-time job and two actors he met by chance at the Veludo Way. Putting the actors aside, I thought he must be joking when he said he recruited amateurs from his part-time job. I made a mistake by leaving this thing to him. In the end, I decided to make flyers for auditions and distributed them. The day of the audition finally came. The first person to show up was someone I had known well. Just when I was able to feel a little relieved that he kept his promise, he pushed someone forward. A familiar pair appeared in front of us. “The flowing days that imprisoned the four seasons.” -From Reni Kamikizaka 5. The Prisoner Our debut show was a success, and we had even appointed four members to be the unit leaders. With that, we had finished recruiting members without any problems. Just as that guy originally planned, we were able to put out plays constantly and started achieving some results because of that. Furthermore, we started gaining popularity. In the meantime, that guy and I started arguing more and more due to our different values. People around us soon learned of our tension and treated me, who was in a constant bad mood, like I was someone who couldn’t be controlled no matter what. One day, when I thought that we should talk things out one more time, the two of us finally got the chance to talk after a long time. But for some reason, that guy came to my house along with an ugly stuffed doll in his hand. When I asked him, “What’s with that ugly-looking thing,” he told me it was something that he happened to find and that he intended to use it as a prop for our upcoming plays. Not only our hobbies, but our principles were basically different from one another. Seeing that our ideals were different, it was useless to discuss things with him. We would remain far apart. Before we even noticed, we kept arguing until late at night and both of us grew increasingly frustrated. It was pointless to continue our talk by that point. He then asked me whether he could sleep at my place since he missed the last train. Fed up, I told him to do whatever he wanted. The next morning came, and we noticed something strange happening. 6. The Fugitive That guy disappeared from Veludo Way. There were all kinds of false rumors about the truth behind his disappearance. Before long though, they stopped talking about himーand that was when that person contacted me. I wouldn’t say I never thought about his disappearance. However, I’m sure that devilish man would return all of sudden even while disturbing people’s hearts. That man is as stubborn as a donkey. Once he makes a decision, he would not change his mind. He doesn’t even think whether he will cause everyone’s troubles. It’s pointless to even be worried. Instead of that guy, I was more worried about that person’s new work that was announced at the same time as his disappearance. At the time, that person called me to come to a certain hospital. It surprised me to learn of him lying on the hospital bed. Still, I was hoping that the reason why he called me all the way there was because he agreed to create new work for my theater troupe. However, that carefree wish disappeared right away in front of his skinny self. The words that came out of his mouth were beyond my imagination. He told me his disease progressed quite rapidly, and that he would not live for long. He also told me he had written a scenario to serve as his posthumous work. I was overjoyed for a moment when he said I could present the play at the theater troupe I established. However, there was one particular condition that I needed to meet before that. I was shocked when I learned what it was. It was impossible for me. I couldn’t accept that. However, I couldn’t refuse it once I heard about his circumstances, and he even said that he put faith in me both as a director and a reader. Seeing him close his eyelids looking like he was relieved to be able to get rid of the burden on his shoulders, I couldn’t tell him there’s no way such a future would come. 7. Time Regained The address of an old, small theater building was written on the memo. When I opened the door into the building, I found that guy surrounded by children on the stage. He beckoned the moment he noticed my presence. Reni Kamikizaka ACT3! 1/2 “EVER LASTING” NEXT Proceed to the “ACT3! 2/2” ?

nids.

A3! ACT3! 1/2 “EVER LASTING”

“Spring, at 16 years old. I met a devilish man” -From Reni Kamikizaka 1. Devil’s Way Highschool 2nd year’s class change. Friends uniting, seperating, new classmates shuffling into new classrooms, glancing at each other with excitement yet anxiety. Who I was with did not matter to me. Whilst checking the seating arrangement on the blackboard and organizing my desk, suddenly someone spoke from beside me. “Is that first name real,” the voice asked. At first, I wondered what was up with this person. The one who’d struck up such friendly conversation was a boy in the same class as me. I had no intentions of becoming familiar with any of my classmates, I didn’t even plan on remembering their names. But he alone stood out among others, and despite myself, I couldn’t help but remember him. He stood out, but not in a good way. He would trip on nothing and scatter his things across the floor, or spill his bento all over. Each time, he brushed off his unbelievable clumsiness with nothing more than a smile and a laugh. I ignored his inane question, but he stubbornly kept trying to talk to me. He even shortened my name and gave me a nickname without my consent. “Besides, you won't even have much of a chance to write names.” I replied. At that moment he shoved a club creation form at me, with my name already filled in. To me who was taken aback, he smiled widely. “Let’s do theater together.” he said. 2. In the Light of Young Boys At the beginning of the drama club’s establishment, he completely dragged me around. Almost everyday we watched free performances by small theaters on Veludo Way, observing street acts and gradually increasing our knowledge of theater. To be completely honest at first it was a hassle and accompanying him was a pain, but theater was something that became much deeper and interesting the more you watch. Slowly, I became absorbed into it. I didn’t have intentions of telling my parents about my theater club activities, but he persuaded me, and in the end I managed to negotiate with them, promising that my theater activities would be limited only to weekdays after school up until I graduated high school. but it seems that theater would help me develop my artistic skills, or so he told me. Although the drama club was meant to earnestly start our activities, our advisor was merely a decoration, and one of our members was a horrible student who frequently ghosted us. Once in a while we would invite him to join our club activities, but it didn’t sway him at all. Naturally, we couldn’t accomplish much as a group of two people. We missed the recruitment period for new students in our first year, and proceeded activities with just us as members. We managed to become more complete by hiring someone to help on campus, but we were miserably defeated. As expected, at this time, even he was depressed. After various things happened, we did smaller scale activities and continued to third grade in spring. This time I’d put more spirit into it and recruited new members. At that time, out of the blue, he brought me to a luxurious looking Japanese house. While I was bewildered at whose house could this possibly be, Tachibana hit the intercom button repeatedly without hesitation. Though I meant to stop him, I was too late, and a boy of around our age came out from the house. From the boy’s words, I was shocked when I learned about the master of the house. The master of the house was a famous scriptwriter that no one in the theater-world wouldn’t know of. 3. One Way That person sent me a one page hand-written manuscript. On the manuscript paper was only one long dialogue. During that, he was excitedly hyping it up. Though i was busy thinking of what I could possibly do with just one dialogue, I could understand his hype. The line was poetic, beautiful, the speaker had deep humanity, and I felt that this single dialogue could expand in infinite ways. The school festival theater performance were to be performed based on the single page of manuscript that he gave us. Excluding us third years, most of the drama club members were newbies. He then decided to choose a daikon actor who had no stage experience to play the lead role. I was chosen to play the deuteragonist. I was disappointed with the fact that I was not the one given that one long dialogue, but he said he wanted to write my character to be perfect for me, and I somewhat understood. He asked me to continue organizing the play with this position, It couldn’t be helped. This next stage would be the last stage I could make with him. When I thought about that, naturally I became passionate about daily lessons and instructing my juniors. Not just to the actors, but also the lighting, sound, I can’t afford to take my hands off it. A stage where everything is perfectly and beautifully coordinated, a harmonic, completed stageー The stage was to be worthy of being the fruits of our three year long effort. Contrary to my method, he who was the director of the drama club gave others lukewarm guidance. To his methods that didn't point out others' faults, my annoyance reached its peak. “I can no longer return to the place I have forever lost.” -From Reni Kamikizaka 4. You and Me After graduating high schoolー I decided to continue pursuing theater by his side. I broke my promise, my family would never forgive me. They kicked me out of the house. Shortly after, he rolled in to the room I lived alone in, and we started living together. For the sake of setting up a theater company, we both did plenty of part time jobs every day. He said he had a concept for a theatrical company, if only he had free time. The theater would have four units, taking turns performing plays. It was a tremendous dream. But if that dream were to come true, I might be able to see him standing on a stage once moreーー When I thought of that, even part time jobs that I didn't like were not a problem. With the help of that person too, I got contacts to set up a theater company in Veludo Way, and steadily prepared. The script arrived from that person. It seems he was impatiently told to hurry. The script was expanded from the dialogue we got for the school festival. That person’s version was so different from the world that he wrote, we were both absorbed in it. First, we have to gather members to perform the play. We did our best to earn money for a private theater, but it couldn’t possibly be enough. I suggested using the money I got from my parents for construction costs. Tachibana thought about it and eventually agreed. With that, the construction of the theater started. He said he had help to look for theater members, and I left him to that task while I went to direct the design of the theater. While fulfilling his demands, we paid attention to every detail so that the theater could be used comfortably for as long as possible. All we had to do was wait for the completion of the theater. While we waited, I asked about the company members, and I couldn’t believe the answer he gave me. Two amateurs that he met in his part time jobs, and two actors who he met by chance in Veludo Way. It’s one thing if they were actors, but amateurs he met in his part time job? This has got to be a joke, I thought. It was a mistake to have left this task to him. I made sure to make pamphlets for auditions and distributed them. And on the first day, the first person to come was a man I knew well. He came as promised and sighed in relief, then he pushes someone forward. The person that appeared before us was a familiar duo. “What was flowing was days that confined the four seasons.” -From Reni Kamikizaka 5. The Prisoner Our debut performance somewhat managed a success. The leaders of the four groups were decided by the members from the debut performance. We safely completed the theater. According to his original concept, plays would constantly be performed, and the company steadily increased in popularity. Meanwhile between us, our different valued increased our arguments. My surroundings picked up the air, and treated me like a swelling, constant bad mood that they had to deal with. One day, with the plan to talk properly, we finally got the opportunity to talk to each other just between the two of us. He who came to my house at the promised time, for some reason was holding an ugly stuffed toy. When I asked him what that ugly thing is, he said he was thinking of using it as a prop for upcoming performances. It was obvious that our taste don’t match, and we fundamentally had different principles. Our ideal forms were different, and even after discussion, the lines remained parallel. Without realizing, we talked until the middle of the night, and we both became increasingly frustrated. It was no use to talk even further, but he missed the last train home, and decided to sleep in my place. “Do what you want” I told him all fed up, and the morning came. We noticed something was strange. 6. The Fugitive He vanished from Veludo Way. There were all sorts of rumors about the truth. Things that didn’t happen, or did happen. Soon after people stopped talking about it, I got contact from that person. It’s not that I didn’t have thoughts about his disappearance, but... that devilish man, though while disturbing other people’s hearts, I thought he’d come back one way or another. When that man decides on something, he doesn’t think about how it’ll trouble others around him, like an unmoving lever. There’s no use worrying about it. Rather than that, when he disappeared, I was more concerned that we couldn’t announce a new work by this person. At that moment, he called for me. The designation was a hospital. I was surprised that he was bedridden, but I had hopes that he went through the trouble of contacting me to write a new work for the theater. But when I saw his thin figure, my thoughtless desire immediately vanished. What he had to say to me was beyond my imagination. To briefly say, his illness was progressing, and he doesn’t have long. The other day, he wrote a script as his posthumous work I was shortly delighted that he allowed me to perform it in my own troupe, but he gave special conditions to performing the script. When I heard his conditions, I was stunned. It’s impossible, I couldn’t accept it- I thought. But after hearing that he trusted me, as a director, as a reader, I couldn't refuse. As if a weight has been lifted from his shoulder, the man closed his eyelids, and I couldn’t say that such a future would never come. 7. Time Regained What was written in the memo was the address of an old tiny theater. I opened the door to the audience seating, and saw his figure on stage, surrounded by children. When he noticed my presence, he beckoned to me. Reni Kamikizaka ACT3! 1/2 “EVER LASTING” Proceed to the “ACT3! 2/2” ?

Lia --- with help from Nyannya & Carp