| E V E N T S (2005-Present)
2009
Houston's book, co-edited with Marianne McDonald, The Myth Strikes Back: Medea Plays by Women, will be published by Smith and Kraus Publishers, Inc. The book contains contemporary adaptations of Euripides' Medea mythology by women playwrights including Suzan-Lori Parks, Cherrie Moraga, Kirsten Brandt, and others.
2008
Recipient of Made in America award, East West Players 42nd anniversary gala, April 28. Playwright's remarks: "I am very honored to be the 2008 recipient of the Made in America award that recognizes artists who have raised the visibility of the Asian Pacific American community through theatre, film and television. Thank you to East West Players and its illustrious leader, artistic director Tim Dang, for granting me this honor. I thank all the theatre artists – the actors, directors, designers, stage managers and crews – that have illuminated my work over the years. What would I do without you? You have been and are brilliant for what you give to theatre, the Asian American community, and society-at-large. I also thank the audiences that come to the theatre with open minds and beautiful curiosity. I thank my second family, the University of Southern California School of Theatre and its illustrious leader, Madeline Puzo. Most of all, I thank my family that has been there with me for every heartbeat; especially my mother, Setsuko Takechi of Matsuyama, Japan; my children, Kiyoshi and Kuniko-Leilani; and my husband Peter as well as my father, Lemo Houston, who passed away many years ago. The respected actor, director, and writer Levar Burton presented me with the award at East West Players 42nd anniversary gala on April 28, 2008. I thank Mr. Burton for what he has given to the arts, the community, and society. I especially thank him for his belief in me as an artist, particularly as a bridge between diverse cultures. Interestingly, several dimensions of society came together to launch the career of this transnational, multiracial artist. Steve Tatsukawa, a producer at PBS-KCET, hired me – an unknown and multiracial Asian – from among all the prominent Asian American playwrights to pen an adaptation of Yoshiko Uchida’s Journey Home for PBS’ WonderWorks. Mako, then artistic director of East West Players, the nation’s oldest ethnic theatre company and its premiere Asian American theatre company, produced my play, Asa Ga Kimashita; while, Off-Broadway at the Negro Ensemble Company, the nation’s premiere African American theatre company, Douglas Turner Ward and Leon Denmark produced the sequel to that play, American Dreams. In due course, Lynne Meadow premiered my play Tea at Manhattan Theatre Club Off-Broadway. I will continue to strive to write about who we are and what we are within ourselves and in connection with those who we perceive as being different from us, to investigate the shifting borders of identity in the transformative times in which we live. I also will continue to dedicate myself to the development of new voices for the American theatre and for theatre globally, voices that recognize the power of language and theatre to influence and change society for the better. Thank you for a life in the theatre. It is a wonderful journey and a privilege, and I am having a great ride. Because of a current, commissioned artistic project (The DNA Trail at Silk Road Theatre Project), I recently have taken a DNA test. Despite my clarity and seeming knowledge about who I am ethnically, I now have learned that I share DNA with people who have lived or live now in Austria, Germany, France, Armenia, India, Tibet, China, the Philippines, Micronesia, Russia, North America, Cuba, Colombia, and Brazil. Indeed, I may be related to you all."
Houston's book, "Writers' Block" Busters: 101 Exercises to Clear Out the Dead Wood and Make Room for Flights of Fancy, will be published by Smith and Kraus Publishers, Inc.
Tea was produced by E Phoenix Idealis, New York, New York.
Houston initiates a new commissioned project, The DNA Trail,
along with David Henry Hwang, Elizabeth Wong, Philip Kan Gotanda,
Shishir Kurup, Lina Patel, Yussef El Guindi, and Jamil Khoury at Silk
Road Theatre Project, Chicago. The playwrights will meet in July to
discuss results of DNA tests taken in March 2008.
A Spot of Bother had its first reading at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, directed by Ann-Giselle Spiegler, April.
Calling Aphrodite will be presented at Tokyo Engeki Ensemble, Tokyo, August.
Houston will be a Guest Speaker at The Japanese Association for Migration Studies
(Nihon Imin Gakkai) and Nihon Women's University's conference in Tokyo,
August, on "2008 Migration Studies Workshop: Digging up the Migration
History of Japanese Women -- The Road of Japanese Picture Brides and Japanese War Brides."
2007
Houston's
play, The House of Chaos, had its world premiere in April 2007
at Asian American Repertory Theatre, San Diego, directed by Peter
Cirino.
Houston's
play, Bloody Hell (or) I Wouldn't Change A Thing About You, opened as
a part of Messy Utopia, a commisioned project at Mixed Blood Theatre
Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, directed by Jack Reuler; dramaturge,
Liz Engelman. The production received the Twin Cities Ivey Award.
Houston's
play, Tea, had its twentieth anniversary production in New York at
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in April 2007, directed by Tina Chen.
Houston's
play, Calling Aphrodite, had its world premiere in August 2007 at
International City Theatre, Long Beach, California, directed by Shashin
Desai; dramaturge, Pamela Berlin. The play was a finalist for the
American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg New Play Award.
Houston
appeared with actor Esther K. Chae in Theatre/Language/Vision, as
part of Visions and Voices, University of Southern California's Arts
& Humanities Initiative, Doheny Library, Intellectual Commons, University of Southern California.
2006
Houston
had a staged reading and facilitated a critical discussion of the themes in her new play, The
Nature of the Beast, at the Hawai'i International Conference on the
Arts and Humanities, January.
Kumu Kahua Theatre presented a staged reading of Houston's play, The Nature of the Beast, Honolulu, Hawai'i, January.
Houston's
play, Shedding the Tiger, was presented by The Los Angeles Theatre
Project at CASA 0101 as part of FEMININE EXPERIENCE on April 21, directed by Lynn Ann Bernatowicz.
Kumu Kahua Theatre presented is a revival production of Tea, Summer 2006, initiating in Honolulu and then touring the islands.
Houston's
play, Calling Aphrodite, was presented as part of The John Anson Ford
Theatre's Summer Reading Series, July 15, directed by Rena
Heinrich.
Houston's
play, The Peculiar and Sudden Nearness of the Moon, had its
world premiere at Sacramento Theatre Company in November 2006, directed
by Peggy Shannon.
A
documentary, Desert Dreamers, narrated by Peter Fonda, for which
Houston is Co-Producer, premiered on PBS (KQED San Francisco) in
September 2006. The film is produced by PBS and Tivoli Entertainment.
Director: Frank Suffert. Producer: Lillemor Mallau.
American Theatre
magazine published Houston's "Out of the Margins: A National Theatre
Conference in Los Angeles Galvanizes Asian American Forces" article in
its October 2006 issue.
2005
Houston was a guest of New York University's Asia Pacific Institute. She served on a panel of women artists from different disciplines as part of a three-day symposium regarding an Asian American Renaissance. April.
Tea opened on April 26 at International City Theatre, Long Beach, California, directed by Peggy Shannon, Artistic Director of Sacramento Theatre Company. 2005.
Tea opened in Taipei, Taiwan. April.
Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago presented a staged reading of Calling Aphrodite, on May 6, directed by Patrizia Acerro, Artistic Director of Chicago's International Theatre. Dramaturge: Pamela Berlin.
Houston was honored at the Women Warrior Festival, Columbia College, Chicago, May.
Pittsburgh Public Theatre presented a staged reading of Calling Aphrodite, directed by Pamela Berlin, who is also the Dramaturge for the play. May.
Houston traveled to Kyoto and Osaka in late May-early June 2005 for research related to Calling Aphrodite.
Tea opened at Kumu Kahua Theatre in Honolulu, Hawai'i, directed by Kati Kuroda. August.
Houston was a guest speaker at the University of California at San Diego courtesy of the Department of Theatre. She spoke about adaptation of Greek mythology into contemporary drama with regard to her adaptation of the Medea mythology in her play, The House of Chaos. November.
2004
Houston, along with founding partners Paula Cizmar, Marianne McDonald, and Laura Shamas, establishes Left Coast Women to preserve and uphold the artistry of women playwrights living on the Left Coast of the United States of America. http://www.leftcoastwomen.com.
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