Keiko (pronounced Kayko) was born in Japan where her interest in art, especially music, opera and theatre, grew. This lead her to travel to England to study theatre direction. Keiko's musical background lead her to focus her attention on visual theatre in combination with sound.
Keiko's performaces are inspired by a personal response to the cultural ambience of places she has visited.
DIRECTING
"What Comes Out Of Women?", directed by Keiko Sumida
There were several coincidences around me which made me create this show. First I happened to watch a film by Mike Leigh "Vera Drake" which provoked my fascination towards pregnancy and feminist issues. Then this made me think of my childhood in a traditional Japanese family, where people have different attitudes to gender. Then I found Dario Fo and Franca Rame's amazing one-woman monologue about feminism and pregnancy. Then at the time I was living in an area where we have many young families and you encounter young mothers with prams on every single bus you take. All of them merged into the idea of devising theatre about the theme of pregnancy, birth and a journey of a girl becoming mother. I also couldn't resist incorporating my ongoing fascination with time and generation which had made me create “How to walk in Barcelona” in 2006.
"The Rock Garden", devised by Keiko Sumida
This performance is the result of ten weeks' rehearsal, based on proxemics and the Japanese concept of 'ma'. Proxemics is the study of people's behaviour in public spaces, and ma is the concept of a spacial or temporal 'gap'. This came from Keiko's personal fascination for public transportation in London and the mixure of the Japanese zen garden, 'ryoanji'.
This performance is part of Keiko's continuing quest to make theatre that doesn't rely on verbal language.
"The New World Order", by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter's ten-minute piece full of silence. When two children start to play with LEGO, this is the beginning of their torturing game, and Pinter's 'silence' becomes something else.
"How to Walk in Barcelona", devised by Keiko Sumida
Barcelona is a city full of strangely-shaped paving stones. How can we make theatre from those stones? The Flamenco dance is the clue for this performance.
PERFORMING
"Face to the Wall", by Martin Crimp
In this performance Keiko played 'Voice 4', and played the piano.