The time had finally come for the premiere of Meja i spökjägarnas sal (”Meja in the ghosthunters’ hall”), the manga puppet show which we’ve been working on together with the Stockholm City Theatre. After roughly seven months of hectic work, it was time to go see the premiere, our hearts filled with pride. The lovely audience was there. The press was there. And as the guests of honor, representatives from the Japanese embassy and the ambassador, Mr. Nakajima Akira himself, were there as well! Our own Yosh was to be awarded with a prize for her achievement in The International Manga Award by the Japanese ambassador, on behalf of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the show, we had dinner with the cast and crew to commemorate the premiere. In other words, we had quite a lot of fun waiting for us, so read on to find more about it!

Photo: Anja Olofgörs.

Photography was unfortunately prohibited during the play, but here are a couple of lovely pictures that Stockholm City Theatre has released for the press to use.

The show was met with huge applauses at the end. The puppeteers, the art director, Yokaj Studio and the composer were called up to the stage to receive flowers.

Then followed the prize awarding ceremony. Mr. Nakajima Akira, the ambassador, held a speech about The International Manga Award and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ efforts to encourage professional as well as aspiring manga artists all over the world.

Yosh’s entry, “Beneath the Surface”, was appreciated by the jury and was awarded with a bronze prize in the competition.

The ambassador handed out a certificate and a small gift to Yosh.

And then it was Yosh’s turn to hold her thank-you speech.

The incredibly skilled puppeteers in their ninja outfits! Left: Kay, Magnus, Andreas and Annika.

After that, we took the opportunity to shoot away. Here, Yosh is pictured with Helena, the art director.

Mingling awaited some of us, while others started heading home. In the middle of the picture, we see the ambassador, a most respectable man (whose name and title unfortunately escaped us (we’re very ashamed)), and even Roger Klein and Kurihara Noriko from the culture department at the Japanese embassy.

DoraJen was taking care of some of the family members and relatives who were invited on the studio’s behalf.

Here we see Yosh speaking to a couple of Kick Off fans, and together with Kajfa discussing manga with Roger Klein and Ueda Shoichi, second secretary at the embassy.

The children could even try their hands at being puppeteers! Magnus, for example, was showing how Krille could be moved (who, by the way, just as in the manga, was the character who managed to make people burst out in laughter).

At the end, we drank to a successful premiere! Helena Nilsson expressed her thanks to everyone who had contributed to the play with their specialist skills.

Then followed the highly anticipated dinner that we mentioned in our podcast! We celebrated at a restaurant called Nam Kang, which serves Korean and Japanese food. To Soya’s delight, Magnus, the puppeteer, showed her some of his magic tricks! He also kindly enough taught Soya a couple of them. Who knows, in a few years time Soya might’ve taken the magician route?

Of course, a couple of speeches were held during the dinner! Here, we see Annika the puppeteer holding a speech for Appel, who was ill during the show, but went through with it despite everything and oing his best. Go Appel!

Unfortunately, we were so occupied with eating and chatting that we forgot to take pictures of the whole event! But we had fun and had good food, leaving empty plates after us. Bellies filled, the studio left the restaurant happily.

This was our “haul” for the day. We received a gift from Andreas (one of the puppeteers), a CD with extra, unfeatured material from the composer Torbjörn Svedberg, a brochure with lovely pictures from the show, Meja’s ghost stickies (they’re real stickies!!!), a pin formed like a speech bubble with the word “Manga” printed on it as a symbol of the The International Manga Award, and the certificate.

This is a really cool certificate in more ways than one. Firstly, even the Foreign Minister of Japan himself, Mr. Okada Katsuya, has signed and stamped the diploma! Secondly, Yosh is addressed with the suffix “dono”, which is very humble and respectful. Wow… Quite cool, huh!

It was not without sadness in our hearts when we said goodbye to the theatre crew. It has been a very creative and inspiring encounter, which started out as an unpredictable meeting, blooming out into a marriage between manga and puppet theatre. We are incredibly proud over this collaboration, and honored to have been able to work with such amazing people. Now, when the premiere is over, our work is done. But for the puppet show crew, this is only the beginning. It is now that the play will start living its own life, continuously developing as each show is performed.

We hope that you’ve had fun reading about our work with the theatre. Please continute to support Swedish manga and puppet theatre. “Meja i spökjägarnas sal” is something that must be experienced!

Buy tickets and find out more about the play (applicable to Swedish residents only for now)
Stockholm City Theatre’s website for Meja i spökjägarnas sal (the last show runs May 23rd).

Related blog entries
Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall trailer!
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 5
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 4
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 3
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 2
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 1

Links
Kick Off’s official website

Yokaj Studio on Facebook

Please join and support us!

As you may have noticed, we are a little bit behind schedule in blogging as the premiere of Meja in ghost hunders’ hall has already been taken place. But we’d still like to turn back time and give you a behind the scenes glimce of what happened the week before the premiere.

It was a very hectic time for the puppet theater, who was busy with the rehearsal. We were also busy creating the last projections needed for the show, participating as test audiences, doing interviews with press and so on. It was a great week with other words!

A couple of days before the premiere two groups of test audiences of different ages were invited to watch the rehearsals. By doing so we were able to have an initial idea of what in the play was working and what needed to be improved. Having a test aduience is really great!

We also participated as a test audience in order to sit among the audience and understand them better. On this photo you can see Soya and DoraJen being excited about their task.

And so it was finally time to be let in! Art director Helena Nilsson welcomed the curious audience.

Photo: Andreas Braula who plays Meja the ghost hunter and Kay Tinbäck Du Rées who plays Chiko.
It was a great experience to get response from the audience for the first time. We were relieved when we heard their delightful comments, giggles and some times even showed fear (!) at the right sections. The smaller kids were specially alert when the great ghost showed up! The teen audience thought it was “cool”, which we think is the best appreciation you could get from the target group. And the adults were the one with the loudest laughs.

Puppeteer Annika Arnell waves after a successful
show with test audience. Even though the aduience had left a while ago you can still see the smokes used in the play.

One of the parts of the show that got most laughters were the Pacman labyrinth section. On this photo Annika shows us one of the smart solutions they had made for Pacman.

Small and simple solutions indeed, but so incredibly smart and fun! Puppet Theater in Stockholm City Theater has a couple of aces in their sleeves.

Photo: Helena Nilsson in discussion with the lightning and sound technicians. In the bakground is Kay.
After the audience left part of the ensemble gathered to discuss the audiences’ reactions, how we experienced the play ourselves and discussed what parts we thought would need improvements.

Technician Appel and composer Torbjörn Svedborg discussing the timing of the music. Torbjörn was a part of the test audience together with us.

Puppet costume maker Anna-Lisa Persson was also a part of the audience. She immidiately gave her assisstence when the puppets needed something repeared.

Stockholm City Theater has been successful in getting the press to write about the play.

On this photo local paper Mitt I was visiting to interview Yokaj Studio and Helena Nilsson about our joint project. Yosh and Helena Nilsson in the middle of an interview.

Jenny, patiently waiting since there was no more rehearsal that day until the next day.

We left the ensemble after the interview. But before returning home we wanted to take some photos since the theater had been decorating with big signs to make sure noone misses the puppet show.

Look! There’s a big banderole in the entrance hall.

And so we left the theater. We find it a little bit exciting to be able to cross roadblocks like these while working with them.

Where to read and purchase tickets to the play
Stockholm City Theater’s website: Meja i spökjägarnas sal (Swedish)

More related blog entries
Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall trailer!
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 5
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 4
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 3
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 2
Sneak peek: Making of “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ hall” part 1

Links
Visit Kick Off’s official website
Read our entry about Kick Off receiving the award for “Best comic 2008″ in Sweden.

Did you know we have a Facebook group?

Please join and keep supporting us!

Wow! We received an e-mail from librarian Rose-Marie Törnqvist who had arranged a “Book jury” at Lärbro school in Gotland in Sweden. During last year, the kids from Lärbro school got to read all the new books released in 2009. And now they had selected their five favourite books from year 2009. Of ALL children and teen books released last year, Lärbro school voted our manga Kick Off 2 as the second best book of 2009!!! This was really unexpected. We are so happy and proud and a little bit shocked. Actually, we look a bit like this right now –> O()O; Thank you Lärbro School for this wonderful award! And thank you Rose-Marie for arranging it and telling us the results. We will work hard on the next book Kick Off 3!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our fans and readers who voted Kick Off 1 as “Best comic 2008″ at last years national “Book jury”. It was the best present to the studio ever! It really warmed our hearts.

THEATER!
Did you know that “Kick Off” is being made into a puppet show at Stockholm City Theater, the most popular stage in Sweden? It’s a spin-off play called “Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ Hall” with premiere scheduled 19 February. Read more about it and how to book tickets at Stockholm City Theater’s website!

LINKS
Visit Kick Off’s official website
Read our entry about Kick Off receiving the award for “Best comic 2008″ in Sweden.
“Meja in the Ghost Hunters’ Hall” at the Stockholm City Theatre’s website (Swedish)

Did you know we have a Facebook group?

Please join and keep supporting us!