Sengawa Theater, Chofu (調布市せんがわ劇場)

The idea of a theatre in Sengawa came before the building: the city had a district plan titled "building a district with music and a small theatre", which residents could read about in the municipal bulletin. Residents also asked for a place to gather, like a meeting hall.

The building came out of the rebuilding of Sengawa's municipal nursery: on that occasion the site received a theatre and a community room attached to the nursery. Tadao Ando is its architect.

The theatre opened on 1 April 2008 and was first run by the city itself. Since 1 April 2019 it has been entrusted to a designated manager, the Foundation for Promotion of Chofu City's Culture and Community.

From April 2008, concerts of about 45 minutes were held there on Sunday mornings, once or twice a month, from classical to traditional music and jazz; the 200th took place in July 2018.

The theatre is one of the buildings of Sengawa's "Ando Street", where constructions such as this theatre and the Tokyo Art Museum follow one another on both sides of the road. On the street side, the entrance is made of concrete pillars and glass.

It is a reinforced-concrete building of three storeys, with 1,255 m² of floor area. It brings together the theatre, Sengawa's municipal nursery, which lies on the other side of a wall, and a neighbourhood community room on the top floor. The intention was for the building itself to become the face of the district and to blend with the streets and landscape around it; the community room and the nursery were added to it for that purpose.

The 188 m² hall has 121 tiered seats; it can also be set up with 162 seats on a flat floor. The stage is normally 7.8 m wide and 6 m deep, and can be set to three heights (60, 30 or 0 cm). With no acoustic reflector and a reverberation time of about one second, the hall is designed for drama: one senses the actors' expressions and breathing close at hand. The soundproofed rehearsal room measures 42 m² and holds 16 people, and one of its walls is fully covered with mirrors.

The theatre is devoted to the performing arts, drama and music: the theatre's own productions, including stagings by its artistic director and a Christmas show for parents and children, as well as shows put on in partnership or co-hosted.

A drama competition is open to companies and performers from all over the country: the grand prize and the audience prize bring a performance at the theatre the following year. Theatre outreach is also carried out in the city's schools and social-welfare facilities, and workshops are offered.

The hall and the rehearsal room can be hired by anyone who registers.

The theatre is open from 9:00 to 22:00; the box office closes at 18:00. It is closed on the third Monday of each month (the following weekday if that Monday is a public holiday) and from 29 December to 3 January; irregular closures for inspection are possible.

The theatre is a 4-minute walk from Sengawa station, on the Keio line. It asks visitors to come by public transport: it has no parking for audience members.