PSU Magazine Fall 2005

Some say zen is aboul Lranscending Lhe pain and disappointmenL or life by LhoughLfully accepLing whaL is noL, as well as whaL is. Take PSU professor Laurence "Larry" Kominz, for example. One day Lhis nice UniLarian kid from Washing– Lon, D.C., had Lo accept LhaL his life goal was nol going Lo be easy-mighL nol even be possible al all. He was in KyoLo, Japan, onsLage in Lhe middle of a classical Japanese Noh play. He was a gaijin, a while foreigner, surrounded by Japanese professionals who had devoted Lheir lives Lo per~ cl– ing Lheir arl. Then Kominz commiLLed the most unthinkable taboo possible on the Noh sLage. "l forgot my lines and I Lried– unsuccessfully-LO extemporize in medieval Japanese," he says. "The master of Lhe school was there. 6 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 2005 "lt was like screwing up a piano recital in front of Rachmaninoff." Yet ironically, once Kominz accepted thaL he had no fuLure on Lhe classical Japanese sLage, he started on Lhe palh to becoming one of Lhe foremost experts on Japanese Lheater in Lhe UniLed Stales. D uring the pasl year alone, Kominz presented conference papers al SLan– ford, Yale, and at the Shakespeare The– aLre inslilule in WashingLon, D.C. He wroLe a chapter in a volume published on world liLeraLure and is wailing word on three more chapters. He's per– formed Japanese dance and comedy all over Oregon, including Lwice with his son, a bilingual Japanese-American 16- year-old. He was named LO Lhe perfor– mance advismy commiLLee of the prestigious Japan SocieLy of New York. This language professor teaches and performs Japanese theater. By Lisa Loving Oh, and in June, Kominz helped organize the 2005 Chikamatsu-za Grand Kabuki Tour, bringing a master Grand Kabuki troupe direct from Tokyo LO eaLLie, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. Kominz wrote all Lhe tour~ program notes, wrote and recorded the audio guide for theater audiences, and wrole rour articles for The Seattle Times used in a public school educaLional curricu– lum on the project. His only regret was thaL Lhe LOur didn'L slop in Portland. "We couldn'L get a big enough venue," he says. Au LhaL work comes on LOp of his regular Leaching of Japanese language and culture classes, and, starting Lhis fall, Kominz will fill in as direcLOr of PSU's CenLer for Japanese Studies,