Ken Narasaki

Ken Narasaki is an actor and writer whose first professional production was at Seattle’s Asian Exclusion Act in 1976. His plays include GHOSTS AND BAGGAGE (produced at LATC), THE MIKADO PROJECT (written 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, was named Pick of the Week in the LA Weekly, and Critic’s Choice in the LA Times, and later, was presented at the Smithsonian Institute as part of its 2007 Day of Remembrance. The Mikado Project won the 2008–09 Pacific Rim Playwriting Award and has been made into a film by Chil Kong.

Updated April 2010

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A Response to Frank Abe's Opinion

  • Por Ken Narasaki
  • 22 Jul 2015

*Editor’s Note: Frank Abe shared his opinions about Ken Narasaki’s stage adaptation of No-No Boy by John Okada. Ken gave us permission to share his response to Frank’s article below.

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I've responded once to Abe's fervent denouncement of my adaptation of John Okada's book and really, just to keep it simple, I repeat: I believe an adaptation is a living thing, that it's impossible to bring the exact same qualities of one medium to another, and it does take some artistry to breathe life into a story that's making that transition. Abe ...

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A Response to Frank Abe's article

  • Por Ken Narasaki
  • 29 Abr 2015

*Editor’s Note: Frank Abe shared his opinions about Ken Narasaki’s stage adaptation of No-No Boy by John Okada. Ken gave us permission to share his response to Frank’s article below.

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I think it’s important to note that neither Frank Chin nor Frank Abe ever saw a performance or reading of the stage adaptation of No-No Boy, and since the play hasn’t been published, I don’t see how they could have read it, so one should take their criticism with that in mind: They are criticizing something they’ve only heard about second-hand.

I understand ...

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Dare to Be Naive

  • Por Ken Narasaki
  • 1 Abr 2010

R. Buckminster Fuller once wrote, “Dare to be naive.”

In these days of non-stop irony, cynicism, and the constant overwhelming evidence that the fix is in, that we’re all screwed, screwed in ways we can’t even imagine, it’s hard to be willfully naive, especially since it’s so uncool.

When we first started talking about the idea of doing a staged adaptation of NO-NO BOY (playing at the Miles Memorial Playhouse Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until April 18, 2010—please visit nonoboy2010.com for more details), there were some who warned us that we’d have a ...

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Tackling No No Boy

  • Por Ken Narasaki
  • 31 Ago 2009

I’ve had the theatrical rights to NO NO BOY for a year and a half, and only now am I really willing to admit publicly (now that I believe I have a workable draft and now that we’re committed to producing it) that I’m tackling the adaptation of this seminal novel to the stage.  It feels a little like saying, “We’re working on a stage adaptation of MOBY DICK; I think it’s going well!”

NO NO BOY by John Okada, first published in 1957, is something more than a book; it’s one of those ...

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