Space Force spouse Victoria Humpert, left, starred in Sheepdog Theatre’s production of “The Little Fellow,” which ran early this month in Tokyo. (Andrea Prandolini)
TOKYO — Applause rumbled through the audience as the curtain fell this month on the final scene of “The Little Fellow” at The Sheepdog Theatre, an English-language stage company in Tokyo’s Nakano ward.
The Sheepdog, now in its fifth year, attracts a mix of people, many with stage training and experience, to its cast and crew.
“Our theater is unique because we have a beautiful blend of foreign and local talent that works with us on every production,” company stage manager Julia Joseph told Stars and Stripes by email June 12.
Among that talent is Space Force spouse Victoria Humpert, who played Harriette Wilson, an early 19th-century English courtesan, in “The Little Fellow.” A 2008 graduate of the American Academy of Arts in New York City, Humbert performed with its repertory company for 10 years.
She still exercises her acting chops as a military spouse, the wife of Lt. Col. Geoffrey Walker, who works for U.S. Forces Japan at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.
“Theater is all about connecting people through story,” Humpert told Stars and Stripes at a Tokyo coffee shop on June 27. “Maybe you’re going to see a play or a musical about someone’s life that you don’t know, but through that experience, you might get to learn more about what these people are like and connect with them.”
Sheepdog opened its doors in 2019 for one season. In July 2023, the group was back with a production of Samuel D. Hunter’s “The Whale,” in its current venue, Studio Actre, a small, black-box theater that seats 77 people.
“The audience is close to the actors, so it feels like you are part of the action,” said Michael Walker, the theater’s founder and artistic director, at the same interview. “It’s very immersive.”
Walker, a graduate of the Theatre Nepean program at the University of Western Sydney, has been acting for over a decade.
“I found that there wasn’t a lot of international theater in Tokyo,” he said. “There’s a lot of Japanese theater, but there just wasn’t much in the way of English-speaking theater.”
Walker said he wanted to start something different.
“I like things with a bit more of an edge — a bit darker, a bit more actor-driven,” he said.
The company staged its first production, Ingmar Bergman’s “Through A Glass Darkly,” in November 2019 at Theater Shine in Asagaya. The COVID-19 pandemic put the second season on hold.
The theater is also accessible to the Japanese community. Japanese subtitles are projected on a structural beam so people who sit near the back can read them without distracting the audience in the front, Walker said.
The company’s most recent show, “The Little Fellow” by playwright Kate Hamill, ran early this month. The next play, Lucy Pebble’s “The Effect,” is scheduled Nov. 7-17 at the Actre.
“There’s some really talented actors in Tokyo and there’s not a lot of opportunities for them for work in theater,” Walker said. “I want them to develop their craft and get pushed as actors.”
