Astro Boy and the God of Comics - Live!

A new live theater stage production based on the life and work of Osamu Tezuka is set to debut in Washington D.C. next month. Natsu Onoda Power, who wrote God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga will be bringing "ASTRO BOY AND
THE GOD OF COMICS" to the Studio Theater starting on February 15th, 2012.

Here's a brief description from the show's creator herself:

Astro Boy and the God of Comics combines three narratives — the fictional story of Astro Boy, the story of how the Astro Boy series was created, and the story of the series’s creator, Osamu Tezuka. It’s about a little boy robot who tries to be “human” and fails (and eventually come to terms with his identity... he is a robot and he is proud); it’s about a comic book series that becomes a national icon; it’s about a cartoonist who is admired as the “god of comics”; it’s about a young artist transforming the dehumanization of World War II into something hopeful. It’s really about “trying to be human,” whatever it means in all these different situations. I am hoping to explore this theme in the staging too... what does it mean to be “live theatre with real humans”?

You can read the entire text on the Studio Theater website, or by clicking the link below for an archived version.

Sounds like a very exciting project! Wish I could go see it. If anyone in the Washington area is lucky enough to be able to check it out, please let me know what you thought of it.

Trying to Be Human: Astro Boy and the God of Comics
Natsu Onoda Power is a director, writer, and designer. As rehearsals for Astro Boy and the God of Comics approach, Literary Director Adrien-Alice Hansel chatted with her about the inspiration behind her newest work, which combines Tezuka’s life, the history of Japanese animation, and the fictional world of his greatest creation: Astro Boy, a crime-fighting boy robot.

AH: You’ve literally written the book on Osamu Tezuka (God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga) and now you’re exploring his life and cartoons theatrically for Studio 2ndStage. Why are you drawn to Tezuka’s work?

NOP: I’ve loved his work since I was a child. He is a genius at borrowing techniques from other art forms, like theatre or film, to make his comics alive and interesting. One of the most interesting things that he does is what he calls the “Star System” — he “casts” his comics from an ensemble of fictional “stars” (really, stock characters) that he has created. It’s like the Star System in film, where an actor brings all kinds of associations with him/her into a character, making the character all the more complex. Tezuka is also a master storyteller. He can create absorbing narratives, but will always pull you back and make you aware that you are reading a comic book. It’s really Brechtian.

What do you hope to explore in the story of Astro Boy?

Astro Boy and the God of Comics combines three narratives — the fictional story of Astro Boy, the story of how the Astro Boy series was created, and the story of the series’s creator, Osamu Tezuka. It’s about a little boy robot who tries to be “human” and fails (and eventually come to terms with his identity... he is a robot and he is proud); it’s about a comic book series that becomes a national icon; it’s about a cartoonist who is admired as the “god of comics”; it’s about a young artist transforming the dehumanization of World War II into something hopeful. It’s really about “trying to be human,” whatever it means in all these different situations. I am hoping to explore this theme in the staging too... what does it mean to be “live theatre with real humans”?

That’s fascinating—the idea of playing with real humans and real action on stage. Astro Boy, like some of your other work, will feature live animation—actors drawing while the audience watches. Why do you think it’s so engaging to watch people draw on stage?

I am obsessed with watching skilled people carrying on a task. I love great acting for that reason, but I also enjoy watching people draw, paint, cook, knit, build things. I once stood outside watching a person spread plaster on a wall on stilts for an hour. It was completely mesmerizing. There is magic to witnessing an object come into existence in front of you. Sort of the same idea as an open kitchen.

You describe this play as a sort of high tech/low tech retro-sci-fi piece. Can you talk a little bit about the aesthetic you’re going after and how you and your design team are hoping to achieve it?

Astro Boy gives us a vision of the “future from the past”... an image of the early 21st Century from the perspective of the 1950s-60s. I just love this. Growing up, I was also obsessed with Tex Avery cartoons from the 50s (“The Farm of Tomorrow,” “Cars of Tomorrow” and the like). It is completely anachronistic. Astro Boy periodically has to “change his vacuum tube” because they sometimes fail... like an old TV. I am trying to do something similar with the staging. We will use video (Jared Mezzochi, who is doing projection design for the show, is the master of high-tech), but mix it with low-tech elements like drawing. It should be clunky and cartoony. Not at all slick. My goal is to make the show look like it was an animation made by Tex Avery or Tezuka in the 50s/60s: “The Theatre of Tomorrow.”