Meet World-Renowned Stage Director Ariane Mnouchkine, Livestreamed by UC San Diego for Virtual Kyoto Prize Symposium, March 24

Livestreamed event is free and open to the public; registration requested before March 24

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--University of California San Diego will virtually host world-renowned stage director Ariane Mnouchkine on March 24, 3:30-5 p.m.-PDT, during the annual Kyoto Prize Symposium, which is free and open to the public via livestreaming. This unique occasion will be the third time in the past 50 years for the iconic artist to share her personal life experience and performative work to a U.S. audience. Mrs. Mnouchkine joins the program from Paris.

The event will be moderated jointly by Professor of Theatre Allan Havis, UC San Diego; and Robert Marx, President of the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation in New York. Marx has previously served as director of the National Endowment for the Arts Theatre Program in Washington, DC. Their conversation with Mnouchkine will highlight previously unpublished insights into her groundbreaking career. Please register before March 24 at http://kyotoprizesymposium.eventbrite.com to get log-in instructions well before the event.

Mnouchkine is founder and director of the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris. Since 1964, she has produced masterpieces with historical and political themes referring to traditional performances of both the East and the West. She started her theater in a transformed factory outside of Paris, where it embodies the ideal of “public theater.” Theatre du Soleil often uses physicality, inspired by Japanese Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku, Indian Kathakali and Western works, including Shakespeare. Mnouchkine has been innovating theatrical expressions through her collaborative creations based on the methodology of her unique theatrical organization, which eschews hierarchical order. She holds honorary doctorates from the University of Oxford and Roma Tre University, and was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2007 by the Venice Biennale as well as the 2019 Kyoto Prize.

In addition to Mnouchkine, the 2021 Kyoto Prize Symposium includes lectures by OLED pioneer Ching W. Tang, Kyoto Prize Laureate in Advanced Technology, March 25 from 2 to 3:30 p.m.-PDT; and pioneering astrophysicist James E. Gunn, Kyoto Prize Laureate in Basic Sciences, March 25 from 4 to 5:30 p.m.-PDT. For more information and event registration, please visit http://kyotoprizesymposium.eventbrite.com.

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About the Kyoto Prize

The Kyoto Prize is an international award created in 1984 by Japan’s non-profit Inamori Foundation to honor those who have contributed significantly to humankind’s scientific, cultural and spiritual development. The prize consists of a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash award of 100 million yen (over $900,000) per prize category, presented during annual ceremonies each November 10 in Kyoto, Japan. The Kyoto Prize Symposium, co-hosted by UC San Diego and Point Loma Nazarene University, brings the latest Kyoto Prize laureates to North America each year in March, followed by Oxford University’s annual Kyoto Prize at Oxford events in the UK in May. Since 1984, the Kyoto Prize has been awarded to 111 extraordinary individuals from 17 nations.