julia izumi

90min, 2F, 1M + audience

Tonight we welcome Murasaki Shikibu in conversation to kick off the book launch of The Tale of Genji, one of the first novels ever written. Like, in the whole world. Granted, the event is over 1000 years late, but to make up for lost time, Lady Murasaki has a lot to say. If you’re lucky, she might even talk about the book. She will take questions and give autographs following the discussion. Priority seating with book purchase.

Selected History

December 2019: Avant Bard Scripts in Play Series (Arlington, VA) - Staged Reading

August 2018: CAATA National Asian-American ConFest (Chicago, IL) - Staged Reading

February 2017: Brown University (Providence, RI) - Staged Reading
August 2016: New York International Fringe Festival (New York, NY) - Non-Eq Production

June 2016: New York Society Library (New York, NY) - Staged Reading

May 2016: Great Plains Theatre Conference (Omaha, NE) - Staged Reading

August 2015 Dixon Place Lounge (New York, NY) - Workshop

Awards

2016 Puffin Foundation Artist Grant

2016 NYC Society Library Emerging Women Artist Grant & Residency

100min, 3F, 2M + gods

Miku wants to be a god. Ephraim wants to be an Olympian. Grandma wants to remember. And Shara wants people to just include him in the conversation, you know? But what do the gods want? What do beings who have everything in the world want? miku, and the gods is an epic and small adventure that braids friendship, death, and power beyond what one could ever desire.

Selected History

November 2020: Pork Filled Productions Unleashed (Seattle, WA/Virtual) - Staged Reading)

October 2019: San Francisco Playhouse (San Francisco, CA) - Staged Reading

August 2019: NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights' Workshop (Washington, DC) - Workshop

February 2018: Writing Is Live Festival (Providence, RI) - Workshop

Awards

Honorable Mention on the 2019 Kilroys List

Finalist for the 2019 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference
2019 Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival

Runner-up for the 2019 Paul Stephen Lim Asian-American Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival

Semi-Finalist for Barrington Stage Company's Burman New Play Award

90min, 4F, 3M, 1 gender neutral

The Little Mermaid is Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved and well-known fairy tale, which is why it’s not the story our friend, Dolan, is going to tell you today. No, he’s going to tell you the story about a Little Rain Cloud who falls in love with a human. They are not the same story at all, he swears.

Selected History

July 2020: Virtual Theatre of Arizona (Virtual) - Staged Reading

April 2020: Villanova University (Villanova, PA) - Reading

April 2018: Brown University Sock and Buskin (Providence, RI) - Student Production

February 2017: Writing Is Live Festival (Providence, RI) - Staged Reading

Awards

2018 Dorry (RI Theatre) Award for Best New Play

100min, 4F, 1M

In 1945 Japan, right before World War II comes to an end, the Tazwa family receives word that the patriarch has died overseas in Manchuria, but his bones are not sent home. The local town take this to mean he has done something dishonorable so Atsuko, second daughter of the family, decides to go to Manchuria alone and find her father’s bones so she can clear her family’s name and properly bury him. Inspired by a true story from the playwright's family history, (An Audio Guide for) Unsung Snails and Heroes is an epic yet personal tale about discovering truth and discovering self.

Selected History

March 2020: MTC's Ted Snowdon Reading Series (New York, NY) - Staged Reading

May 2019: WP Theater (New York, NY) - Staged Reading

October 2018: Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Lab: API 2x2 (Ashland, OR) - Developmental Reading

4F, 2M, 95min

Illy and Neel fall in love and Mora is so upset she decides to go on a journey to find her birth mother. Meanwhile, Neel discovers he’s tone-deaf and decides to go on a journey to find himself. Meanwhile, Illy doesn't go on a journey because she's bought a part of the sky, so what more does she need? Meanwhile Elinore is in jail and Cam is melting . . .? A farcical tragedy that questions the destructive nature of the American need for identity, while trying to wade through the murky waters of Asian-American-ness.

Selected History

Fall 2020: Ojai Playwrights Conference (Virtual) - Workshop

August 2019: Williamstown Theatre Festival (Williamstown, MA) - Workshop

90min, felxible cast

Tonight we welcome Akira Kurosawa, the acclaimed filmmaker, who will give us an exclusive peek into his brilliant mind and the thrilling world of his movies. But, you know, it’s so weird, every time he talks about his films, it kinda sounds like he’s talking about yogurt? Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (With Live & Active Cultures!) is a fantastical lecture/performance hybrid about identity, cultural imperialism, and “healthy” consuming.

Selected History

December 2019: Strong & Wrong Festival (New York, NY) - Staged Excerpt

June 2019: Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor (Berkeley, CA) - Residency

February 2019: Brown University's Writing is Live Festival (Providence, RI) - Workshop

July 2018: Barn Arts Collective Hamilton Project Residency (Bass Harbor, ME) - Workshop

80min, flexible cast who also play puppets

In May of 2001, Kim Jong-nam, who was then heir apparent to Kim Jong-il, was caught sneaking into Japan so he could go to Tokyo Disneyland. Also in May of 2001, Masako, who was then the Crown Princess of Japan, was pregnant with a baby girl. This would be the beginning of both of their downfalls. Where Dynasties Come True... interweaves the stories of two souls who are unknowingly trapped in American Dreams halfway across the globe.

Selected History

March 2020: Bushwick Starr Reading Series (New York, NY) - Staged Reading

Musical, 90min, co-written with composer Grace Oberhofer

Welcome to Bunny Isle, home to the happiest bunnies! And when they’re at their happiest moment in life they do the only logical thing: they end it. Speaking of life, pop superstar bunny, Mayda, loves hers. So when her fiance, Duane, proposes to be crushed by the weight of two tons of carrots together at their wedding, she has very, very last minute regrets, hops out of the way, and causes a Rabbit Revolution. In Hot Cross Buns, a twisted new musical, Mayda is forced to confront the meaning of life and what’s worth fighting for. Nothing fluffy about it.

Selected History

October 2018: Brown University (Providence, RI) - Developmental Reading

August 2017: Corkscrew Theater Festival at the Paradise Factory (New York, NY) - Staged Reading

90min, 3 M or F, 1F

A pair of people, one older, one younger, as often is the case. They grow up together, they rely on each other, which is necessary when your Mother has a very, very demanding job. Sometimes they fight, sometimes they don’t. And when it seems it may be this way forever, in comes a little Poison. And then they grow apart. And grow back together. And then apart again. Just a story like any other. Sort of.

Selected History

May 2018: Roo/Brown/Trinity MFA Program (Providence, RI) - Workshop

August 2017: On the Verge Summer Repertory Theatre (Santa Barbara, CA) - Non-Eq Production

December 2016: Brown University (Providence, RI) - Reading

June 2015: Martin E Segal Theatre Center as part of SUMMERTIME RE-WRITE (New York, NY) - Staged Reading

Flexible Cast

Since the dawn of language, almost every culture and community on earth has used storytelling to answer the question, "How and why are we here?"  THE MAKERS seeks to explore a variety of creation myths from around the world and illuminate their similarities and differences through theatre and more.

Selected History

November 2015: HB Studio First Floor Residency (New York, NY) - Workshop

October 2014: The Wild Project (New York, NY) - Workshop

90min, 3F, 2M

Four people who are not quite friends are led to a stranger’s apartment by the same enigmatic therapist. When the owner, a very old Japanese lady, arrives, she traps them until she gets what she wants: a friend. Chaos ensues as the four struggle to meet her demands and in the process understand human connection. (Oh, and by the way, the old lady has a gun.)

Selected History

July 2014: Martin E Segal Theatre Center as part of SUMMERTIME RE-WRITE (New York, NY) - Staged Reading

May 2011: Tufts University (Medford, MA) - Staged Reading