Four Seasons Pictures!

As promised, here are a few pictures from the Four Seasons performance. Enjoy! Special thanks to Kaminari Mai for taking these shots!

This is me (Okamisan Aisya) sitting on a bench in the front of the stage. I was narrating for the show; it was our longest performance ever (roughly one hour and forty five minutes). 

The first half of the performance featured a humorous exchange between two priests; their laughter awoke two rather larger butterflies (the young girls dancing in red) and dozens of others (the actual butterflies) all of whom were hiding in the grass. Tomesode Shinzo Hamayu and Yakusha Kara played the butterflies while Oiran Kaminari and Furisode Shinzo Umeko were the priests.

The second half of the performance was based on the songs of ‘Lady Midnight,’ or Zi Ye. "The History of the Tang states that her songs were sung with intense grief, and the music to which they were set was supposed to have been deeply plaintive" (quote from The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry edited by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping). We separated these songs into four seasons, each representing a different phase of a woman's experience in love. Spring, played by hikikomi kamuro Medusa-chan, enjoyed a series of firsts with love and was the epitome of youthful optimism. 

In summer, she experienced passionate love; the songs here were focused on the physical expression of their amorous feelings, yet never became explicit or inappropriate for the audience. Above you see, Jinchi-san, the co-leader of Shinmachi, as Summer. 

Towards the end of summer, there were hints that not all was right with their romantic relationship. Umeko-chan sat alone, despondent, wandering about the location of her lover and why he's left her. 

Above is a long-shot view of all of the seasons together. During winter, the woman succumbs to her intense sorrow; the snow serves as a outward manifestation of the chaos swirling in her mind brought on by her grief. Oiran Kaminari Mai returned to the stage to play the heartbroken Winter. 

All in all, it was a great show. It's one of my favorite performances, highly emotional and utilizes the joys of SL (like, the ability to control the weather) wonderfully.