Cosmopolitan (09/99)

The Secret Pleasure of Goro Inagaki as A Stage Person

This is little bit late, but thank you for your great work on the stage play "Gesshoto Kitan". I love going to theaters. As an actor, what kind of theater does Goro kun like? Also, please tell us about what is going on in the dressing room and the backstage. (from Yumiko, 29 years old)

"I am God. As long as I am God, this war is for the justice."... At the last day of the play, I jumped into the water tank just as Major Minami was dipped into the formalin tank. I answered to the curtain calls totally wet. After the last "thank you" to the audience, I went back to my dressing room worrying about my wet hair. In my dressing room, a bottle of Champaign in an ice bucket full of ice was waiting for me. I was wondering who sent the Champaign which might have some special meanings. I thought it was funny to be excited by this mysterious gift. However, the Champaign was from my friend Mr. Hirose who is a sommelier. I met him when I did the drama "Sommelier" last fall. He has been my friend since then. He used to work for Hotel Seiyo Ginza which is right next to the theater. He sent me the Champaign at the last day of my stage play.

I have been doing stage plays once a year for four years. Although I feel some pressure of not having any understudy and loneliness of fighting alone on the stage, I do find the pleasure doing stage plays. More than anything else, I can keep regular hours by doing stage plays. I take a bath after the matinee and get ready for the evening show. I went jogging before the play wearing pedometer. ( By the way, I walk 4,000 steps in one play.) Or, I will just watch other actors doing stretches and voice training on the stage before the play starts...

Some actors have preferences about the theaters, but I like all the theaters I played. It felt good to go up to the roof of the Parco Theater, which I did the re-production of "The day we bomb Hiroshima", to watch the busy streets of Shibuya with crows. The Artsphia, which I did "The Nocturne", had the door on the right side of the backstage which opened to the ocean view. I was intoxicated by the night view of the ocean while I was waiting for my turn during the play. The stage manager, who was a hairy guy, often came to let me know "It's your turn". The Oriental Theater in Kobe was a good place to know the city of Kobe. Since the theater was in the department store, I did some window shopping there.

Everyone have his or her own "cozy space". For me, it was the theater before the play; museums, interior shops, and the library when I was a student. Many of these places are quiet and roomy. These are the paces with unassumed calculations. However, I also feel cozy at my Japanese chef friend's place which is very small and cluttered. Then, the most cozy place in my place is not on the antique Kilim carpet or on the couch which is used as claw sharpening place by my cats. The most cozy place in my place is a gray office chair with arms and adjustable back which is popular in the offices. This is supposed to be for a PC desk. Obviously, it does not match with my living room furniture at all, but I feel really cozy sitting there. My two cats are also using it as their main claw sharpening devise now. I guess they also like the chair.

Goro this month (a little talk with Goro):

The meeting with Goro was held in between the special drama taping and the concert rehearsal. He was thinking after listening to the fans' request, "SMAP was debuted on September 9th, 1991. Please write about each member in retrospect.". He said, "It is difficult. If I talk about other members, it is my personal subjective opinion. However, once it became as a written statement, it became an objective truth. I don't think that is an accurate or a fair way of talking about other members." This was his way of saying "No." to the request because he is a member of SMAP and he loves SMAP very much. We are sorry but we understand.