Colleen Lanki

Colleen Lanki is  a Canadian theatre artist who, for many years, has lived in Japan, where she has studied noh (traditional Japanese masked drama) and nihon buyoh (the dance of the kabuki theatre).

She has an MFA in Asian theatre from the University of Hawaii, where she trained in both Japanese kyôgen and kabuki. As a student, she also toured to China, performing in an English-language jingju (Beijing Opera).

While living in Japan, she founded Kee Company, a Tokyo theatre group that creates collaborative, intercultural performances. She also worked for a variety of theatre companies and was active as a voiceover actor, during which she did the English voices for television program "The Iron Chef."

She is currently based in Vancouver, where she has taught at the University of British Columbia, SFU, and the University of the Fraser Valley. She is directing contemporary Asian scripts and creating new works based upon various traditions.

Her articles or co-translations of contemporary Japanese plays have been published in the Asian Theatre Journal, Half a Century of Japanese Theatre (Japan Playwrights Association), Women and Performance, and Performative Body Spaces (Rodopi Press). Lanki is also the artistic producer of TomoeArts: www.tomoearts.org

Previously taught: