Honda Theater, Theatre in Shimokitazawa district, Tokyo, Japan
Honda Theater is a theatre building in Shimokitazawa, Setagaya, Tokyo, with a white facade whose rounded upper section is edged by a pale pink trim line. A large curved window wall framed in a red grid occupies the left side, with a gold cloud-shaped emblem and the gold characters 本多劇場 below it. An open entrance at the base holds a staircase, and a blue MARCHÉ sign marks the curved white wall to the right. The auditorium has 386 seats on a single floor.
Kazuo Honda opened this theatre in 1982 with a performance of Juro Kara's play The Secret Flower Garden. The venue soon became an important address for contemporary Japanese theatre in Tokyo.
The venue carries its founder's name and presents works by young Japanese playwrights and experimental productions. Visitors often notice groups meeting outside before heading in together to watch a show.
The theatre stands about 185 meters (200 yards) from Shimokitazawa Station and can be reached on foot through narrow alleys. Performances run regularly, and information about shows is mainly available in Japanese.
The basement gallery called Hoshi no Teate holds stone slabs with handprints and signatures of actors, transferred from the Aoyama You's supermarket that closed in 1982. It was installed in 2005 in the theatre's underground parking area, but as of November 2020 it is not open to the public.
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