ARISA YURA is a Japanese Australian actor, voice over artist, writer, director and taiko drummer working extensively across theatre, film and television in Australia, Canada, USA and Japan.
In 2016, Arisa was selected to participate in Director's Workshop with Paige Rattray programmed by Sydney Theatre Company and CAAP (Contemporary Asian Australian Performance).
Arisa is an ensemble artist with Clockfire Theatre Company. She is a proud member of Nikkei Australia.
Biography
Arisa has most recently performed in Sydney Theatre Company’s Top Coat by Michelle Law, directed by Courtney Stewart.
Arisa has worked on Night Parade of One Hundred Goblins with Clockfire Theatre Company co-presented by Art Gallery of NSW for Sydney Festival 2020. Devised and developed by the ensemble from various disciplines, Arisa has co-directed with the artistic director Emily Ayoub. Night Parade of One Hundred Goblins was nominated for the 10th Anniversary APDG Awards for CREATIVE CRUNCHERS DESIGN COLLABORATION FOR A LIVE PERFORMANCE OR EVENT AWARD (Clockfire Theatre Company)and HLA MANAGEMENT COSTUME DESIGN FOR A LIVE PERFORMANCE OR EVENT AWARD (Tobhiyah Stone Feller).
Arisa wrote and starred in a one woman play, Confessions of A Custard Melon Pan set in a Starbucks café in Japan in 2010. It was inspired by her reverse culture shock of being a Japanese girl who grew up in Australia arriving back in Japan - she has developed two incarnations of the show; one in Japanese and one in English. During this time, Arisa was an active member of renowned avante-garde theatre company, Marshmallow Wave.
In 2018, Arisa presented a work-in-progress Sydney reiteration of her solo show at Flying Nun@Brand X, and in July 2019, it had it’s first development at KXT as part of Write Up Festival. In September 2019, Confessions of A Custard Melon Pan, directed and dramaturgy by Courtney Stewart, was presented at Sydney Fringe Festival for which the play has received two Sydney Fringe Awards nominations; BEST IN THEATRE and NIDA STANDOUT ACTOR OF THE YEAR.
Arisa has performed at various arts festivals around Australia, touring to Darwin, Broome and Adelaide with the show, Yasukichi Murakami: Through A Distant Lens by Mayu Kanamori produced by Performance 4A (currently known as CAAP). Arisa was active in its development from early on and has continued to develop and adapt the piece over three years and several sell-out seasons. The show had its Sydney premiere as part of the 2015 program at Griffin Theatre Company and enjoyed further success with a 2016 remount at Parramatta Riverside.
Her film acting debut, Ballard of the Praying Mantis was selected for 2002 Sydney Asia Pacific Film Festival and was also a winner of SBS Eat Carpet Award.
Arisa has appeared on Channel 7’s new hit sketch comedy show, Orange Is The New Brown playing the role of Kojima alongside the show creator Nazeem Hussain, comedians Broden Kelly and Becky Lucas.
As a voice over artist, some of Arisa’s work includes reading for Julie Koh’s short stories, The Patternmaker (Sydney Noir audiobook) and Workers of All Lands Unite (ABC RN OZGothic radio play). Arisa was the Japanese audio guide narrator for Art Gallery of NSW’s exhibition, Japan Supernatural for which the audio experience has been chosen as a finalist for Museums and the Web GLAMi Awards in 2020.
Training
Kevin Jackson; Les Chantry; Voiceover Course AFTRS; ATYP Camera Workshop; Sandra Lee Paterson; Lynette Sheldon; Bill Pepper Voice Coach; Pat Wilson Singing Coach; Lyn Pierse; The Groundlings LA
Theatre
2022 Top Coat (Sydney Theatre Company), Courtney Stewart
2020 Night Parade of One Hundred Goblins, Emily Ayoub & Arisa Yura
2019 Confessions of A Custard Melon Pan, Courtney Stewart
2018 Visiting Hours (bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company), John Harrison & Michael Dean
2017 Erth's Dinosaur Zoo (Erth Visual & Physical Inc.), Scott Wright
2017 The Japanese Princess (Lyric Opera), Miki Oikawa
2016 Visiting Hours (bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company), John Harrison & Michael Dean
2016 The Bear (Marshmallow Wave), Kenzo Kimura
2015 we,the lost company (Clockfire Theatre Company), Emily Ayoub
2014 Yasukichi Murakami:Through A Distant Lens (Performance 4a), Malcolm Blaylock
2014 His Mother's Voice (bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company), Suzanne Millar
2013 Teen Dream (Fu-Gen Theater Company), Jiv Parasram
2011 Rival of Men (Marshmallow Wave), Kenzo Kimura
2010 Farm (Marshmallow Wave), Kenzo Kimura
2009 YSpace (STS), Cristobel Sved
2009 The Miracle (STS), Michael Pigott
2009 The Tempest (STS), Malcolm Frawley
2006 William & Oscar (Short & Sweet), Malcolm Frawley
2005 After Dinner (Darlo Drama), Craig Ilot
2005 Joe Dolce Live (Cracker Comedy), Andrea Del Bosco
2003 Nippon Memories (NIDA), Sachiko Tange
Devising/Writing/Directing
2020 Night Parade of One Hundred Goblins, Sydney Festival with Art Gallery of NSW
2019 Confessions of A Custard Melon Pan, Sydney Fringe Festival at 107 Project
2016 Tsukioka Yoshitoshi exhibition at Art Gallery of NSW
2015 we,the lost company (Clockfire Theatre Company)
2015 Awase Miso (Soundbite) with Mayu Kanamori & Terumi Narushima
2011 Confessions of A Custard Melon Pan, Kenzo Kimura
2004 WA with Yuji Sekiya
Film
2013 Hen's Night, Garnet Mae
2013 Veda, Umar Bakhtiar
2011 Misao, Andre Casaclang
2008 The Unfamiliar Sense, Sup Lee
2007 The Fall, Juliet Lamont
2006 Not Quite Sure (VCA), Alex Murray
2004 Moonfall, John Prescott
2002 Chronologic-POV, Naoki Tsukushi
2002 El Burro-The Mule, Mark Lee
2001 Ballard of the Praying Mantis, Naoki Tsukushi
Television
2018 Orange Is The New Brown, Hayden Guppy
2005 Lifestyle Cafe (Foxtel), Andrea Del Bosco
2004 The Brush Off-The Murray Whelan Series, Sam Neill
Voice Over/Narration/Video
2020 Workers of All Lands Unite by Julie Koh, ABC Radio National (OZ Gothic series)
2020 Art of Supernatural Japan (Art Gallery of NSW)
2020 Japan Supernatural exhibition - Japanese Audio Guide (Art Gallery of NSW)
2019 The Patternmaker by Julie Koh, Amazon Audible
2016 Japan Foundation Sydney
2010 Kokoda, Donald Featherstone
2009 Happy Family Plan (DVD), Naoki Tsukushi
Others
2019 Retro Horror: Live Ghost Reading - Japan Foundation Sydney/Art Gallery of NSW
2018 Reading for White Pearl by Anchuli Felicia King - National Play Festival AUS
2017 'The Mummy' Real Escape Game Room by SCRAP, LA
2015 Carnival of Bold (Vivid Sydney at MCA)
2015 Mini Griffin@Circular Quay, Sydney