Mission of Teams
Internalizing and Expressing Technological Innovations
A job that promises ongoing interaction with local people
I joined Theatre Workshop in April 2017, and am currently the manager of the company’s Theatre Technician Department. I provide guidance and advice for technical management at Yurihonjo City Cultural Center Kadare in Akita Prefecture, and also conduct lighting design for the venue’s in-house productions. I find it highly rewarding when a job earns customer satisfaction and the project is repeated the following fiscal year as a result. I also enjoy the interaction that the job brings with members of the local community.
In the area of consulting, I provide theater equipment support for venues in a sort of “agony aunt” role. Though it is not the norm for a consultant to be heavily involved in theater operation once it is completed, I offer proposals spanning five, or even ten, years for improving user-friendliness on an ongoing basis, taking advantage of my long practical experience as a stage-lighting engineer. Because the job requires attention to detail so that not a single cable or screw goes amiss, safely delivering a piece of equipment to a customer gives me a significant sense of accomplishment.
My previous employer was a public venue where I supervised a team of engineers as a facility maintenance section manager. Although my job did not involve constructing new venues from zero, I had the experience of working with Theatre Workshop on projects. Joining the company made me freshly aware of its excellent know-how and teamwork. Bringing my perspective as a theatre technician to the team, I am sharing with my colleagues the excitement, thrill, feeling of expectation and sense of responsibility that go with bringing a venue up to completion. Although I am nearly 60 years old, as a newcomer I am enjoying fresh challenges, among them being dispatched to India only a few months into my new job, which proved highly memorable.
Working with people in their twenties on fresh challenges
Up to now I had placed emphasis on sharing what I had gained from my experience. However, over the years I have gravitated toward exploring ways of helping people in their twenties find outlets for their unique talent in the world of theater and performing arts. This includes both co-workers and people like directors and producers. I also think it is important for me to keep myself open to technological innovations.
The shift from tungsten to halogen, and to LED, and the outcome of that shift are among the other things that preoccupy me at the moment—whether the transition would be smooth, what new possibilities it would bring to stagecraft, and so on. How one internalizes and expresses such technical innovations is a challenge I am eager to take on.
Keisuke Mochizuki joined Ohba Illuminating Laboratory in 1979. After working for Hakuhinkan Theater and Imperial Theatre, where he mastered carbon arc followspot and worked on numerous commercial theater productions, he joined Tennozu Art Sphere (present Galaxy Theatre) in 1992, where he was involved in all of the Tokyo Opinions productions and provided lighting coordination for overseas productions. He worked at the Iwaki Performing Arts Center Alios since it’s launch in 2007 for eight years, focusing on the planning of dance, ballet and high school theater productions, as well as technical workshops. He joined Theatre Workshop in 2017, where he has launched a Theatre Technician Department and is a trusted mentor to younger staff members, providing guidance on everything from site management and design to consulting.