"Our Blue Planet -- Will It Survive Until Tomorrow?" Stony Brook Southampton Hosts Important Musical from International Troupe

Performers from the Japan Classic Live.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y., October 23, 2009 — In one of just a handful of US appearances – the others for the UN and the Smithsonian – Japan Classic Live For the United Nations, the ecologically focused international troupe that includes Japan’s First Lady, Miyuki Hatoyama, and former Environmental Minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, as participants, will visit Stony Brook Southampton’s Avram Theater at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend this riveting, future-focused gala production.

The performance is a blend of Japanese music and the music of Gershwin, Beethoven, Bach and Mozart; accompanied by a mix of traditional and modern dances of Japanese and western origin with over 50 performers.

“Our Blue Planet – Will It Survive Until Tomorrow” is an eclectic theater piece with elaborate song and dance numbers interspersed with serious messages about environmental disaster should we not take precautions today. The Southampton production will be filmed and later aired in Japan and at the COP 15 Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Our environmental musical sets the stage for 2100, when mankind and the Earth are facing a critical moment of self-destruction, and offers a warning to our generations now to do everything possible to prevent such natural and human disasters,” said Prof. Ryokichi Hirono, who translated Mariko Hashimoto’s inventive script and helps lead the US troupe. “If all the countries should take united, bold actions now and fast to deal with the climate change, there is no doubt mankind will be able to survive, and so will our Blue Planet.

“Let people of the world be united to create a dynamic world without poverty and human rights violations, promoting democratic governance, and building a world without nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, as agreed upon by the UN Security Council in September of this year.”

Japan Classic Live For the United Nations is a non-profit organization with co-sponsorships from the Japanese Prime Minister’s office, Foreign, Education, Environment ministries and national NGOs, in addition to funding support from government and private foundations.

Classic Live will celebrate its 18th anniversary with this year’s performance. Over the past 10 years, Classic Live has performed with an environmental message throughout Japan, Asia, Europe and the US. In 2008, they performed in cooperation with G 8 Tokkai Summit and received a letter of appreciation from the Prime Minister of Japan.

The performance is 90 minutes with three acts. The year is 2100... Act I is performed against a background of changing images of the beautiful scenes of the blue planet earth, climate change, global warming, melting of polar ice, Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes in Japan, and atomic bomb blasts in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It will be a recalling people’s wisdom throughout the millennium and querying how, what and where it all went wrong? Act II recollects a United Nations setting in 2009, nearly one hundred years prior, where delegates used to debate over what should be the response options, giving priority to their respective national interests, rather then global interest. Act III presents a strong message that all countries must come together and take all necessary steps now in 2009, and without further delay, to prevent the ecological and human disasters that would have happened in the year 2100.

The event is sponsored by Stony Brook Southampton Dean/Vice President Mary Pearl and the campus’ Sustainability Forum, organized by noted professor and former UN environmental official Dr. Nay Htun. For further information about the lecture, call 631-632-5152.

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