Co-Director·2024
Hadestown
A reimagining of the myth through movement, atmosphere, and music, holding the tension between the world above and the world below.
View projectSatoe Tohi
Theater Director / Actor / Designer
01 Artistic Statement
I make theater as a room, not as a statement.
I am a Japanese theater artist based in the United States, working at the intersection of devised, experimental, and visual theater. My practice is rooted in collaboration, exploration, and discovery. Theater, to me, is the process, a space where emotion, visuals, and movement come together into work that resonates.
I am drawn to work that transforms the symbolic into the deeply human, where emotion bleeds through what you see. My experience spans acting, directing, lighting design, set design, and theater research. I have reimagined productions such as Hadestown as co-director through movement, atmosphere, and music, and assisted with lighting design for Blithe Spirit. I also contribute to International Baccalaureate theater education, creating study guides and resources that explore how process-driven creation shapes performance.
Influences
- Bertolt Brecht
- Robert Wilson
- Samuel Beckett
- Sarah Ruhl
- Steven Berkoff
- DV8 Physical Theatre
“Inviting audiences to feel before they understand, experience before they define.”
Satoe Tohi.
02 Selected Works
Exhibition
of practice.
A record of productions where I served as director, designer, or collaborator. Each entry links to an expanded page with imagery and process notes.
Assistant Lighting Designer·2023
Blithe Spirit
Assisted the lighting design for Noel Coward's comedy, shaping a domestic interior that a ghost slowly refuses to leave.
View project03 Creative Disciplines
A practice held
across five rooms.
01
Direction
Shaping the architecture of a piece so meaning arrives through movement, atmosphere, and rhythm rather than exposition. I approach directing as choreography of presence.
02
Acting
Working on stage and on film with attention to the body as a language, treating each role as an instrument for a specific mood rather than a character to be explained.
03
Lighting Design
Using light as tempo, temperature, and revelation. Assisted the lighting design for Blithe Spirit, learning how a wash of light can hold a room together or quietly break it.
04
Set Design
Building spaces that behave like collaborators, favoring restraint and material honesty over illustration. A set should let the performance breathe into it.
05
Research and Writing
Contributing study guides and resources for International Baccalaureate theater education, and writing about how process-driven creation shapes what performance becomes.
04 Process
How a piece
comes to stand up.
The order changes. The instinct does not. Every production I work on moves through some version of this sequence, in whichever direction the room requires.
- IConcept
Locate the question the piece is asking. Nothing is decided yet.
- IIMovement
Bodies improvise the shape of the room before language enters.
- IIISpace
The set is drawn from what the movement needs, not the other way around.
- IVLighting
Light becomes tempo, temperature, and the play's second author.
- VPerformance
Rehearsal ends when the room can hold a live audience without collapsing.
- VIAudience
The final collaborator. Their attention writes the last draft each night.
05 Writing
Words about
the work.
Selected writing and directing documents. Both are available on request. Please reach out through the contact section below and I will send a copy.
Expressionism in Metamorphosis
An essay on Franz Kafka, adapted and directed by Steven Berkoff
A close reading of Berkoff's stage adaptation of Kafka's novella, tracing how expressionist gesture, choral bodies, and a single collapsing family unit turn interior alienation into a physical language on stage.
Untitled Solo Performance
Directing pitch deck for an original solo work
A directing proposal for an original solo performance built around presence, silence, and slow transformation. The full deck outlines concept, staging language, design references, and production considerations.
06 Acting
On stage,
on film.
Acting work developed across stage productions and independent film. Roles that lean into physical presence, silence, and the tension between what a body says and what a line refuses to.
Acting Reel
07 Gallery
A room of
images.
A drifting reel of stills gathered across directing, performing, and designing. It keeps moving. Hover to pause.
08 Resume
A working
record.
Selected training, education, productions, and writing. The full document is available as a downloadable PDF.
Download PDFTraining
- Devised and Physical Theatre PracticeOngoing studio work
- Lighting Design AssistantshipBlithe Spirit production
- Direction, Movement, and Score StudyIndependent
Education
- Theater StudiesUnited States
- International BaccalaureateContributor, Theater Program
Productions
- HadestownCo-Director
- Blithe SpiritAssistant Lighting Design
- Original Solo PerformanceDirection, in development
Writing and Research
- Expressionism in MetamorphosisEssay on Steven Berkoff's stage adaptation
- International Baccalaureate Theater ResourcesStudy guides on process-driven creation
09 Contact
Let's begin a conversation.
For collaboration, commissions, teaching, or to request a copy of writing or a directing deck, please reach out. I read every note.
- satoetohi@gmail.com
- Phone
- 224 436 2031
- linkedin.com/in/satoetohi