Elise THORON (ACC 2008, 2010, 2015) is a writer and director, working cross-culturally abroad and within the United States. She collaborates with poets, fine artists, and musicians to create performances in multiple languages. She is also the Co-Founding Artistic Director of Literature to Life, a highly successful theater literacy program, now in its third decade nationwide, adapting books into solo performances with facilitated discussion to spark a passion for reading in young people.   

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ACC: Briefly describe your three ACC grant fellowship experiences (awarded in 2008, 2010, and 2015) to Japan (what you did, where you went, who you met, etc.) 

ET: My first ACC fellowship (2009) was to live for 3 months with paper artist, Kyoko Ibe, at her studio in an artist village on a mountain top above Kyoto. I learned about washi (Japanese handmade paper) and how Ibe uses traditional papermaking craft to create her extraordinary pieces of fine art, recycling handwritten 19th century documents from Northern Japanese villages that no longer exist. My goal was to create a theater piece springing from Ibe’s washi artwork, which would also become our set and costumes. Spending days in Ibe’s studio, and evenings in long after-dinner conversations, I wrote the first draft of Recycling: Washi Tales – a project and performance of human stories contained in a sheet of washi as it is recycled through time – in the voice of a papermaker, telling tales of papermaking from different periods of Japanese history. I worked closely with Ibe’s papermaker, Tamura Tadashi, and traveled to visit different papermakers for several days at Awagami Factory on Shikoku Island, where Ibe did large-scale work.  

 


Kyoko Ibe and Thoron in Kyoko's studio, Nishiyama, Kyoto 2016

Through each of these fascinating encounters, and my own wandering in Kyoto, I learned about Japanese culture, absorbing temples, shrines, museums, tea houses, and gardens. To gain a better feeling of the natural landscape in my body, I walked a pilgrimage trail (Kumana Kodo) for a week in the sacred mountains in the Kii peninsula. 

ACC supported the development of Recycling: Washi Tales with grants for me and New York-based ACC grantee Karen Kandel – who collaborated on creating the project and plays the role of the papermaker/narrator – to return to Tokyo for rehearsals with the Washi Tales company in Japan and train in papermaking. Later, ACC provided support for our washi company to evolve as we performed in different venues. Beyond essential financial support, ACC’s staff expertise and enthusiasm helped the work flower in different settings.  

 


Karen Kandel (ACC 2006), Thoron, Misuzu Yamamoto (ACC Tokyo Office), Makiko Sakurai (ACC 1993, 1995, 2005)

ACC: What did you get out of your ACC fellowship experience (particularly in terms of your career and personal outlook on the world)? 

ET: My ACC fellowship was a life changing experience: it changed what I eat, how I think about craft, and how I approach creating bilingual work with other cultures in the United States.  I now have a growing “washi family” of collaborators, across the globe, who are witness to my life and events from a different perspective that enriches my own, as I enrich theirs with my point of view.  This sense of ongoing reciprocity and connection has led to me now directing an American play for eight women at a theater in Tokyo (to come in 2026). I am finally learning the language.  My first ACC fellowship fostered a deep appreciation for Japanese culture, enduring relationships with artists, and curiosity to continue exploring this rich terrain between our cultures where we can learn so much from each other.  

  
Thoron in process in rehearsal at Saison Studio, Tokyo 2010; image by Mishiro Akiko

ACC: Do you still connect with ACC/other ACC alumni? If so, please share more about those connections.  

ET: Yes, practically every day. Relationships formed during my first ACC fellowship were strengthened over time and geographies to build Recycling: Washi Tales and generate new projects. Our Washi Tales company includes five ACC grantees (including myself), so we remain in touch and come together in different configurations to work. 

 
Karen Kandel (ACC 2006) and Soeda Sonoko (ACC 2008, 2009) in Naijo Gawa, Recycling: Washi Tales

ACC: How do you view the importance of cultural exchange? Do you have a memorable story you’d like to share that speaks to your experience? 

ET: Vital to humanity, particularly, in a period of rising divisions and hostility growing out of fear of the unknown other. Working across cultures to make something together is a good way for people to learn about each other in a way that recognizes their differences but highlights common humanity. It is important to have examples of beautiful things created in cultural exchange, to show that we are stronger together than in isolation. The core of cultural exchange is listening.  Ongoing cultural exchange is a living entity, simple in its essence, but requiring tenacity, perseverance; it’s vastly complicated to execute artistically and logistically, to assemble the funds, schedules, travel, places to work; this is where ACC’s support is crucial, not just financially, but also through connections and thought partnering. As my Japanese collaborator Kyoko would say: “Is worth the sweat.”     

  
Fujiwara Tamiko (Sakurai Makiko), Asia Society, New York, (2016); lighting design by Nicole Pearce, image by Ellen Wallop

ACC: What does ACC mean to you?  

ET: A growing web of independent artists working in the world informed by a shared experience of mind-expanding cultural exchange. We ACC fellows learn vastly different things in different cultures and take them into our own disciplines in different ways, but there is a common bond of gratitude for what we’ve learned from the people we met on our fellowship and a desire to reciprocate. I am so grateful to the extraordinary artists and craftspeople in Japan who shared their art and life with me. I happily open my doors to visiting ACC fellows in New York or talking with anyone I might be helpful to. ACC, with its amazing staff on site in different locations, is vital to making these connections happen. During my first fellowship, the director of the ACC Tokyo office helped me develop a brilliant reading list, obtain difficult permissions to see a National Treasure tea house, and meet extraordinary artists. I felt cared for and given such access, that I dared to do things at the threshold of my abilities.   

  
Papermaker Karen Kandel (ACC 2006) and Noh drum player Okura Shonosuke (ACC 2000) at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, U. Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2011); lighting design by Nicole Pearce, image by Valerie Oliveiro

ACC: What have you enjoyed most about being an ACC alum? 

ET: The fun of meeting and connecting with other alums at ACC events. Opening my rehearsals and kitchen table to current ACC fellows visiting New York. I was once paired with a Japanese theater-maker to be a “local mentor” for the duration of his ACC fellowship in New York. Our dialogue was enriching – I learned about his intriguing work on the border of photography and theater, and tried to connect him with performances and practitioners that might expand his vision. As an ACC alum, there is an ongoing opportunity for a reciprocal flow of ideas and cultural exchange that continues long after the fellowship has ended.   

 

Learn more about the book Thoron wrote with Japanese paper artist Kyoko Ibe The Way of Washi Tales on their decade-long cultural exchange journey launched by Thoron’s first ACC fellowship in English here and in Japanese here.