| AWARDS AND HONORS
2008 Made in America Award for raising visibility of Asian American community via the arts, East West Players
2007 Ivey Award for Messy Utopia
2007 American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg New Play Award, Finalist, for Calling Aphrodite
2007 Semi-finalists, The New Harmony Project, for The Last Resort
2007 Semi-finalist, The Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis PlayLabs, for The Last Resort
USC First Contact Initiative Undergraduate Programs Breaking Bread Mini-Grant 2007
USC First Contact Initiative Undergraduate Research Grant 2007-2008
USC Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative Grant 2007-2008 with Carol Muske Dukes
2006 Semi-finalist, The Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis PlayLabs, for Calling Aphrodite
Who’s Who of American Women 2006-2007
Who’s Who in American Education 2005-2006
2005 Semi-finalist, The Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis PlayLabs, for “The Peculiar and Sudden Nearness of the Moon”
2003 Silver Medal, Pinter Review Prize for Drama
2002 to 2003 James Zumberge Fellow (interdisciplinary collaborative grant with Dr. Dorinne Kondo)
1999 to 2000 James Zumberge Fellow (individual grant)
1999 to 2000 Japan Foundation Fellow (individual grant)
1997 PEN Center USA West Literary Awards,Top Five Plays, Best New Play Award finalist for “Cultivated Lives.”
1997 Honorable Mention for “Cultivated Lives,” Jane Chambers Memorial Playwriting Award.
1997 Honorary Co-Chairperson for New York Asian Women's Center Sixteenth Anniversary Celebration.
1997 Profiled in UCLA Magazine.
1996 Po’okela Award, Best Original Script, Hawai’i State Theatre Council, for “Hula Heart”
1996 “Kokoro (True Heart),” The Best of the Weekend, Los Angeles Times
1996 Who’s Who in Asian America
1996 Honorary Co-Chairperson for New York Asian Women's Center Fifteenth Anniversary Celebration.
1995 “Kokoro (True Heart),” Critic’s Pick, Backstage West magazine
1995 Best Produced Play, Santa Monica Theatre Guild, for “Tea”
1995 Best box office records in 50-year history of Morgan-Wixson Theatre, Santa Monica Theatre Guild for “Tea”
1995 Honorary Co-Chairperson for New York Asian Women's Center Fourteenth Anniversary Celebration.
1994 Asian American Studies Association National Book Award nominee for The Politics of Life: Four Plays by Asian American Women
1994 Best Original Script nominee, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle awards for “Kokoro (True Heart)”
1994 Who's Who in Asian America
1994-1996 All-University Pre-doctoral Merit Fellowship
1994 Keynote Speaker, Phi Beta Kappa Regional Banquet, Kansas State University
1994 Guest Speaker, KCRW-National Public Radio's "Which Way L.A." Program
1994
Guest Speaker, The Colored Museum Project: Multiculturalism and Theater
in the 21st Century, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
1994
Guest Speaker, “Women, Writing, Herstory and Representations” panel on
the topic of "The Japanese International Bride: History's Refugee and
Theater as History," University of Hawai'i at Manoa, East-West Center
1994
Guest Artist, The Asia Society (New York) for its “Out of Asia: Asian
American Artists Explore Issues of Identity in America” symposium for
which I performed on National Public Radio "Japanese and Multicultural
at the Turn-of-the-century"
1994 Guest Speaker, Japan Society, New York.
1994
National Judge (along with several nationally recognized playwrights,
including Edward Albee), 21st Century Playwrights Festival sponsored by
The Gypsy Road Company, New York, to award excellence in student
playwriting
1994 Panelist, The Center for Multiethnic and
Transnational Studies, University of Southern California; discussion of
Asian American and Asian immigrant issues along with Trisha Murakawa,
president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union; Phyllis Murakawa of the Asian Pacific Women's Network; and Los
Angeles County Public Defender Phyllis Shabata
1994 Honorary Co-Chairperson for New York Asian Women's Center Thirteenth Anniversary Celebration
1993 "Necessities," Finalist in Julie Harris Playwriting Awards
1993 "Necessities," Finalist in Jane Chambers Memorial Playwriting Awards
1993 Initiated into Phi Beta Delta International Honor Society for international scholars
1993 Playwrights’ Advisory Committee, Audrey Skirball Kenis Theatre
1993 "Tea" honored by Smithsonian Institution as kick-off event for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
1993 Keynote Speaker for Mayor Tom Bradley's Asian Pacific Heritage Month banquet, Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles.
1993
"The Matsuyama Mirror" recognized by The John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts for excellence in theater for young audiences.
1993 Honorary Co-Chairperson for New York Asian Women's Center Twelfth Anniversary Celebration.
1992
Inaugural Recipient of the Remy Martin New Vision Award from Sidney
Poitier and the American Film Institute for recognition of literary
accomplishment and work that “contributes to the culture of our society
and our world.”
1992 Honorary Co-Chairperson for New York Asian Women's Center Eleventh Anniversary Celebration.
1991 Top 100 Asian Americans by Transpacific magazine.
1991 Profile of career featured in Los Angeles Times Sunday Calendar section, July.
1991
“Kalito” honored in “Celebrating Women's Work” by Northern California
Women in Film and Television, San Francisco, California.
1991 California Arts Council Performings Arts Fellow for Contributions to Arts in the State.
1991 Honorary Co-Chairperson for New York Asian Women's Center Tenth Anniversary Celebration.
1991 James Zumberge Fellow
1991 VESTA Award for positive female images in the arts, The Women's Building, Los Angeles.
1991 Critic's Choice, Los Angeles Times, for “Tea”.”
1991 Critic's Choice, DramaLogue, for “Tea.”
1991 Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts Fellow for “Broken English.”
1990
Japanese American Women of Merit 1890-1990, National Japanese American
Historical Society. Recognition of women of Japanese ancestry who have
made significant contributions to the Japanese American feminine
experience over the last century. Only Amerasian selected.
1989 McKnight Foundation Fellow (selected and honored, but declined due to family responsibilities).
1989 “Tea,” Best Ten Plays of 1988, Sylvie Drake, Los Angeles Times.
1989 DramaLogue Outstanding Achievement in Theatre Award for “Tea.”
1988 Sidney Brody Literature Fellow, California Community Foundation.
1988 San Diego Drama Critics Circle Award for “Tea.”
1987
U.S.-Soviet Cultural Exchange, Theater Roundtable Member, The Mark
Taper Forum. Selected by The Mark Taper Forum as playwrights’
representative on the roundtable.
1987 Rockefeller Foundation Playwriting Fellow.
1986 National First Prize, American Multicultural Playwrights' Festival for “Tea.”
1986 “Tea,” Top Ten List, Best Plays by Women Worldwide, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, London.
1985 Los Angeles Weekly Drama Critics' Award for “Asa Ga Kimashita.”
1985 DramaLogue Outstanding Achievement in Theatre Award for “Asa Ga Kimashita” (Five Awards).
1985 Who's Who in American Women.
1984 Rockefeller Foundation Playwriting Fellow.
1984 Author of the Year, Friends of Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.
1982 National First Prize, Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award (American College Theatre Festival).
1982 National First Prize, The David Library Playwriting Award for American Freedom (American College Theatre Festival).
1982 Best New Plays of 1982 for “Petals and Thorns,” by Los Angeles' Company of Angels.
1979 Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
1979 Phi Beta Kappa National Honorary.
1979 Blue Key National Honor Society.
1978 Kansas City Star Scholar.
1976-1979 Mademoiselle Magazine Honorary College Board.
1976
Commendation for Regional Excellence in Playwriting, American College
Theatre Festival Regional, St. Louis, for “Switchboard.”
1975 Outstanding Young Women of America.
1973-1975 National Honor Society.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED
Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship 1984
Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship 1987
Sidney F. Brody Fellowship 1988
Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 1989
McKnight Foundation Fellowship 1989
California Arts Council Performings Arts Fellowship 1991
James Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Grant 1991-1992
All-University Pre-doctoral Merit Fellowship 1994-1996
James Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Grant 1999-2000
Japan Foundation Fellowship 1999-2000
James Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Grant 2002-2003
USC Visions and Voices Grant 2007-2008 with Carol Muske Dukes
USC Undergraduate Research Grant 2007-2008
USC First Contact Initiative Breaking Bread Grant 2007-2008 |
