Did Yoko Ono really break up The Beatles? Was Gloria Abe Chapman somehow responsible for John Lennon’s murder? Why do all these egotistical white guys marry Asian women? That’s weird, right? These are the questions that keep Ruby Okamoto up at night. She needs answers, and she’s gonna find them—even if it means summoning Yoko, Gloria, and the rest of Asian America into her insomniatic fever dream.

In Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife, Gloria, five Asian American women are pulled into Ruby’s fantastical dreamscape, where subconscious thoughts manifest as real-life rockstars and movie monsters. They journey, dream, and address the hard-to-define-but-definitely-there connection between Asians in America.

Forthcoming Development

• Fall 2024 — TBA

Development History

• October 2023 — industry presentation at the NAMT Festival of New Musicals in New York, NY
• September 2023 — workshop at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, WA
• July 2023 — workshop at the O'Neill National Music Theater Conference in Waterford, CT
• July 2023 — artist residency at the Orchard Project Performance Lab in Saratoga Springs, NY
• June 2023 — 29-hour reading at the National Opera Center in New York, NY, sponsored by the 5th Avenue Theatre, the Civilians' R&D Group, and NAMT via the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals Project Development Grant
• November 2022 — 29-hour reading at Playwright's Horizons in New York, NY, sponsored by the 5th Avenue Theatre
• October 2022 — joined the Civilians' R&D Group
• June 2022 — table reading at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, WA
• May 2021 — commissioned by the 5th Avenue Theatre
  

Script & demos available on request.

A few memories from our November 2022 reading below. Images by Eric Fernandez.

Cast: Ashley Chiu, Brooke Ishibashi, Emy Coligado, Lydia Gaston,
Minji Kim, Rheanna Atendido, U.J. Mangune.

Director: Sara Porkalob, Music Director: Steven Tran, Guitarist: Tonie Nguyen,
Stage Manager: Malie Fujii, Production Assistant: Non Kuramoto,
Associate Director of New Works: Neen Williams-Teramachi.

More photos and info here and here.