Yukio Ninagawa (?? ??, Ninagawa Yukio, born October 15, 1935 in Kawaguchi, Saitama) is a Japanese theatre director, particularly known for his Japanese language productions of Shakespeare plays and Greek tragedies. He has directed Hamlet differently six times.Although most famous abroad for his touring productions of European classics, Ninagawa has also directed works based on contemporary writing from Japan, including the Modern Noh plays of Yukio Mishima (which toured to New York's Lincoln Center in early summer 2005) and several other plays by Japanese dramatists, including Sh?ji Terayama and Kunio Shimizu. His production of Titus Andronicus was performed in England in June 2006, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford and the Theatre Royal in Plymouth. In 2007 his company participated in the Barbican International Theatre Event (BITE) series at the Barbican Arts Centre in London, with their production of Coriolanus.
He combined elements of Kabuki theater with Western realism to create original, critically-acclaimed productions of classic Greek and Shakespearean plays. He employed modern music, Buddhist imagery, and Japanese flora. He worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Edinburgh Festival, and the New York Shakespeare Festival.
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He initially wanted to become an artist but failed the entrance exam for the Tokyo University of the Arts. When he was 20, he joined a theater company as a trainee actor. He eventually became interested in directing.
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Masterful theatre director, he became a member of the Shakespeare Globe Council and was made commander OBE in 2002.