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Kameron Steele
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 1991-1994 Mr. Steele appeared
in a variety of Suzuki’s productions at the Toga Festival, Art Tower
Mito, The Mitsui Festival and the Lincoln Center Festival, mostly
notably in Waiting for Romeo as “Romeo’s Ghost”. As a translator and
assistant director for Mr. Suzuki, Mr. Steele worked with many figures
in the world theatre, including Nuria Espert, Yuri Lubimov, Theodoros
Terzopoulos, Michael Kustow, Katie Mitchell, Anatoly Vasilyev, Lech
Mackiewicz, Wlodzimierz Staniewski, Robert Wilson, and Ratan Thiyam.
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. He was also involved in developing American director
Eric Hill’s Suzuki Method of Actor training program at StageWest in
Springfield, MA. Disillusioned with the direction Suzuki's work and
training was taking in the West, Mr. Steele left the SCOT company in
1994 and moved to New York where he was 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 and Joanna Settle’s production of Penthesilea. 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,
and played opposite Kei Yamamoto in Ren Saito’s Deserters Next Door at
Kinokuniya Hall.
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, Mr. Steele’s translation/adaptation of 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; a series of new works by Mexican writer Jorge Zul de la Cueva at Repertorio Espanol, and an all female version of Hamlet to be created by The South Wing.
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