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Kameron Steele (Artistic Director)
Born in Duluth, Minnesota and raised in Baltimore, Maryland; Kameron Steele received his theatre degree from Northwestern University's School of Speech in 1991. He then moved to Tokyo and studied at the Kita School of Noh and Waseda University through which he met Tadashi Suzuki and joined his SCOT company, based in the remote mountain village of Toga in western Japan. From 1991-to present, Mr. Steele has appeared in a variety of Suzuki’s productions at the Toga Festival, Art Tower Mito, The Mitsui Festival and the Lincoln Center Festival. In 1992 he helped Suzuki form the Saratoga International Theatre Institute (SITI) company with American director Ann Bogart, and organized the first training sessions of the company in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Since 1994 Steele has been based in New York City, where he has been seen in a number of off-Broadway venues including Classic Stage Company, Century Center for the Performing Arts, and The Culture Project, where he won critical acclaim in Will Pomerantz’ adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s "Prater Violet". In 1998, Mr. Steele became involved in Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, and from 1998-2002 performed in Mr. Wilson’s "Persephone" , "The Days Before", "Woyzeck" and the title role in the Iannis Xenakis opera "Prometheus" at the Megaron Mousikis in Athens. Through Wilson and the Watermill Center, Mr. Steele has worked with exciting figures in the world theatre and music, including Phillip Glass, Michael Galasso, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tom Waits, Isabella Rosellini, Arco Renz and Felipe Fernandez del Paso.Also quite active in the Tokyo Theatre scene, Mr. Steele has worked on three national tours of new works by Yoji Sakate, played opposite Kei Yamamoto in Ren Saito’s "Deserters Next Door" at Kinokuniya Hall and appeared in the Mayu Nakamura feature film "Summer of the Stickleback".

In 2000, Mr. Steele began to change his focus from acting to directing and teaching. During various tours with Mr. Wilson, he was repeatedly asked to lead short workshops in the Suzuki technique until, in 2003, he completed a six-month residency at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. There he, along with Ivana Catanese and Nathan Guisinger, formed The South Wing company and developed a unique style of presenting the Suzuki method. Lauded as a more balanced and dynamic way to approach this very volatile technique, The South Wing's version of the Suzuki method has since been taught in Argentina, Japan, France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Greece as well as New York and has recently become part of the regular curriculum at several leading theatre institutions in Europe and Argentina. As a first time director, Mr. Steele opened the New Teatro Mendoza Opera House in Mendoza Argentina with Euripides’ "Las Bacantes" in 2000.

The South Wing’s first production, Yukio Mishima’s modern Noh play "Hanjo", was presented at the Teatro Degollado Opera House in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2003 and took the best play of the year prize from El Mural magazine and toured to New York in 2004 as part of the MexicoNow Festival. In 2005, he presented an original work based on Jorge-Luis Borges’ “The Circular Ruins” entitled "Saudade" at HERE’s American Living Room series, and remounted Hanjo in a revamped version HANJO REDUX, at CRS Studios in Union Square. In fall 2006 he presented an original translation/adaptation of Terayama Shuji’s “Death in the Fields” entitled "DEATH IN VACANT LOT!" at LMCC Swing Space in NYC, and another translation/adaptation of Mishima, this time his Noh play The Lady Aoi, titled AOI! which was presented at The Japan Society in May, 2007. In 2008, through The South Wing's residency at HERE Arts Center, Steele has been developing an adaptation of Abe Kobo's novel "Secret Rendezvous" in collaboration with Japanese art collective Nibroll and directing Yoav Gal's opera in Hebrew, "Mosheh". Future projects include a restaging of AOI! at the Underground Zero festival at PS122 in July 2009; the Japan Project, a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Eric Schorr. In August 2009, Steele appeared in Suzuki's "Tale of Lear" at the Toga Festival, and toured with SCOT's productions of "Electra", "Dionysus' and "Cyrano de Bergerac". Steele's continuing work with Suzuki can be followed via his blog Mnemosyn.