James Sutherland

Personal Bio

James Sutherland trained at the New Zealand Drama School、has a Masters in Theatre Directing and is the founder of CITA/International Centre for Theatre Arts based in Tokyo, Japan. He has taught, directed, performed and judged at international festivals across four continents and in over nine countries including Colombia, Iran, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, England and New Zealand. He was invited to be a member of the international jury at the 33rd Fadjr International Festival of Theatre in Iran in 2015, and was Maestro by special invitation at the 2014 Iberoamericano Festival de Teatro in Colombia. From 2007 to 2012 he was responsible for building a three year Physical Theatre course at East 15 Acting School in London. He has worked on major motion pictures, television and theatre as a director, performer and choreographer in both New Zealand and Japan. Since he moved to Japan in 2012 his work includes performances for NHK, Mitsui Homes, Midori Anzen, Canon, Nintendo and Honda commercials and the new Dome Theatre project, The Man from the 9 Dimensions, directed by Takashi Shimizu. Also, Kodomotsukai (Takshi Shimizu Dir), The Last Recipe (Ryojiro Takita Dir), and Ito Shunya’s upcoming film on The Japanese Constitution. His work with CITA includes upcoming projects with English and French theatre companies, he wrote choreographed and directed EMOTO, which played at the Satohsakichisai festival in Tokyo and then at Artistree in Hong Kong, Richard III (in pre-production with the Nowhozenrounar Theatre Agency in Iran) 重力/EARTHBOUND (as an award winning Director), Romeo and Juliet (as Director) Nose, (Tokyo, Korea) the EU Japan Festival supported ICARUS, research and development for CITA’s new theatre project, and their short film The Immigrant in which he is Co-directing and performing in for an international film festival event in Japan. Other recent work includes War Knocking on My Window (Korea) Kanadehon Chushingura (England) The Bag (Korea) Albert Speer (New Zealand) Hole in the Roof (England). He is currently employed as a script consultant and is writing a book on actor training exercises.

Resume / CV