Boulder Asian Films

“No-No Boy” opens on stage in LA

LOS ANGELES, CA – Timescape Arts Group presents No-No Boy, running March 27 – April 18, 2010 at the MilesMemorial Playhouse, 1130 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90403.

Ken Narasaki’s stage adaptation of John Okada’s ground breaking novel No-No Boy had its world premiere March 27, 2010.  Set after World War II as Japanese Americans return to the West Coast, the play follows draft resister Ichiro Yamada after he is released from prison and struggles to come to terms with the consequences of his choices, while the rest of the community tries to get back on its feet after a war that has uprooted them all.

The same artistic team produced Innocent When You Dream (Critic’s Choice LA Times, Pick of the Week LA Weekly), which had a successful run at Electric Lodge in Venice and was later invited to perform at the Smithsonian Institute (Washington, DC) in 2008 (www.timescapearts.com).

Playwright Ken Narasaki has written Ghosts and Baggage (produced at LATC), The Mikado Project (with Doris Baizley, produced at Lodestone Theater Ensemble), and Innocent When You Dream (produced at Electric Lodge).  Innocent When you Dream won the 2006 Kuma Kahua Pacific Rim Playwriting Award, and The Mikado Project won the 2008-09 Pacific Rim Award.

Director Alberto Isaac most recently directed ART at East West Players; some of his other directing credits include Innocent When you Dream, Ghosts and Baggage, The Maids and Yankee Dawg You Die.  He has won three DramaLogue awards and one L.A. Drama Critics Circle award for outstanding direction.

Appearing as Eto Jun is Chris Tashima, who was the special guest at the Boulder Asian Film Festival in 2005.