Current students and alumni support comedy live performance in memory of Specially Appointed Professor Toru Watanabe

Students preparing for the start of the performance by packing materials to hand out to visitors.

With performance ticket in hand, Associate Professor Junkichi Mochizuki (right)

In addition to being active as an actor, the late Toru Watanabe, who was a specially appointed professor at our university's Faculty of Media Studies, taught students, and the comedy live show ``Toru-za,'' which he had been involved in for many years, was held as a memorial project on September 2nd, in honor of Watanabe. Current students and alumni of the event were responsible for tasks such as setting up the venue, providing guidance, and dismantling and transporting the event after the event.

Mr. Watanabe, who was appointed as a specially appointed professor in April 2017, will be teaching acting twice a month at the Tokyo Kioicho campus for five and a half years until his death in November 2022, and will also teach acting to first-year students every year. He once held a special lecture on ``What is an actor?'' At the "Tetsuza" live concert that we have been doing since 2015, we have students as staff members, giving us the opportunity to experience a professional setting.

This memorial project "Toruza 7☆THE FINAL" was held at Asakusa Public Hall (Taito-ku, Tokyo), and front-line entertainers such as the Nakagawa family, Sandwich Man, Knights, and U-ji Kenji performed, and ended at the same time. The event was so exciting that it lasted an hour and a half. Staff members Nao Tadaki (3rd year), Kengo Kumagai (2023), Anna Komai (2023), Satoshi Yoshida (2023), Tomoki Nagase (2020), and Sumito Itoyanagi (2022) The six students (who graduated in 2016) shared the work with Associate Professor Junkichi Mochizuki, who taught the seminar, and provided support for the stage performance.

Associate Professor Mochizuki said, ``I would like to express my final gratitude to Mr. Toru, who brought together students of all generations in my seminar and taught me not only the specific techniques of acting, but also the important spiritual aspects.'' I was able to do that.''