Plays
Michael is an emerging playwright whose work has been developed with the Rhombus Writers' Group, Boston University, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Brown/Trinity Rep, Fresh Ink Theatre, and more. His plays encompass the nuance between being an American born abroad and how it intersects with the language of American Realism, a language that has never truly belonged to Asian-Americans. NPX Profile Here.
someone who isn't me
At the intersection of Long Day's Journey Into Night, A Doll's House, and To Pimp A Butterfly, someone who isn't me follows the story of the Wakahisa family, a Japanese-American family of four living in Cambridge, MA. Cathy's an ex-music producer from L.A. Leo is on faculty at Harvard, going up against his Institutional Review Board, Cody's an Olympic wrestling hopeful, and Felix loves "How I Met Your Mother." When an opportunity in L.A. comes knocking and a prank goes awry at Cody's school, Cathy must decide what comes first: her happiness, or her family's.
Developed with generous support from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Fresh Ink Theatre, and Boston University.
Developed with generous support from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Fresh Ink Theatre, and Boston University.
Weeaboo*
Hiro's a recent Berklee grad who spends his nights playing Ed Sheeran covers on the Boston Common and in dive bars in Cambridge. Fiona's an ex-aspiring actor attending a prestigious Boston Law School. When his sushi chef father falls ill in Tokyo, Hiro asks Fiona to leave Boston behind and move to Tokyo to help him look after his father. A year later, Hiro returns to America to find his now ex-girlfriend Fiona dating a new guy, Daniel, who's Irish-American, but who just happens to be obsessed with Japanese culture.
Developed with generous support from the class of '22 at Brown/Trinity Rep's MFA Program, and the Rhombus Writers' Group.
Developed with generous support from the class of '22 at Brown/Trinity Rep's MFA Program, and the Rhombus Writers' Group.
The Melting Pot*
Matt just landed his first job out of college. The only problem? It’s a Chinese hot pot restaurant, and he’s the only white boy working there. Armed with just his New Hampshire isolationist personality and an Associate’s degree in nursing, Matt takes on the flurry of his Vietnamese-American supervisors, Korean-and-Chinese-American servers, Honduran dishwashers, and the Cambodian busboys. As he works his way up the food chain from busboy to bar-back to food runner to server, he wonders: Will he ever make supervisor? Does he even want to? The Melting Pot takes us through the post-graduate life and what it means to really have a survival job.
A Dream of the Most Beautiful Future*
Part Tedtalk, Part Political Campaign, A Dream of the Most Beautiful Future is a solo show exploring how we can keep having hope when the world looks so grim.
For My Brother, A Forever Away*
T has one night left in America. M is one of T's closest friends. But the impending deportation brings to light the privileges of what it means to be Asian-American, and what it means to be Asian.
*Denotes still in development/workshopping processes