News
APRIL 20-MAY 22nd
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
KENTUCKY
by Leah Nanako Winkler
Directed by Morgan Gould
Read about it on TheatreMania, Playbill , BroadwayWorld and The Wall Street Journal.
Read the casting announcement on TheatreMania
Get your early bird $20 tickets available now through April 20th here!
Hurry Hurry! After that, tickets go up to $30!!!!
Kentucky‘s cast will include Ako as Masako, Satomi Blair as Hiro, Mikumari Caiyhe as Ernest, Curran Connor as Larry, Merissa Czyz as a bridesmaid, Lucy DeVito as Nicole, Sasha Diamond as Sophie, Lynnette R. Freeman as Amy, Alex Grubbs as Adam, Marcia Haufrecht as Grandma, Emily Kunkel as Laura, Jay Patterson as James, Ronald Alexander Peet as Da’Ran, Samantha Sembler as a bridesmaid, Shannon Tyo as a bridesmaid, and Amir Wachterman as Sylvie.
The play follows Hiro, who has to stop her little sister from marrying a man she hardly knows, but that means returning to Kentucky and the home she’s put behind her. Hiro’s quest involves confronting forgotten friends, former flames, and the family she fled.
Kentucky will feature scenic design by Nick Francone, costume design by Suzanne Chesney, lighting design by Ryan Seelig, sound design by Shane Rettig, choreography by Katie Spelman, and musical direction by Sariva Goetz.
In other news:
Feb 2016- I received a Sloan Commission to write a short play about Science at Ensemble Studio Theatre. The play goes up on 2/7. Tickets Available here.
- I taught a playwrighting workshop at the Milbrook School and had a lot of fun!
FALL 2015
I received a space grant and a commission from 2G-New York’s premiere Asian American Theatre Company! I was also nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and received the Truman Capote Fellowship in Playwrighting!
I had a lot of fun being a guest Artist with the immersive peice HouseWorld by Andrew Hoepfner too!
SUMMER 2015
July 13-19 I’ll be in residence at SPACE on Ryder Farm with EST/Youngblood.
July 20-26 I’ve been invited to participate in Page 73’s summer residency at Yale University to work on my play KENTUCKY with director Morgan Gould.
August, 2015- My play Death For Sydney Black was a part of Cohesion Theater Company’s Parity Fest in Baltimore.
My play KENTUCKY is in the top ten on the 2015 Kilroy’s List! You can learn more about the Kilroys and this year’s List as well as all of the nominations on Indie Wire, Fortune, American Theatre Magazine, Backstage and New York Times. My play Death For Sydney Black which was a nominee in 2014 also received an honorable mention! Hooray! #thekilroys #parityraid
Running through June 27th: My play DOUBLE SUICIDE AT UENO PARK!!! is a part of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 35th Marathon of One-Act Plays. Tickets available here.
Double Suicide at Ueno Park! by Leah Nanako Winkler; directed by John Giampietro*
Two courtesans in 18th century Japan are set free from the red-light district once a year to see the cherry blossoms at Ueno Park. As the seasons pass, the best friends make a dangerous pact.
“This satirical comedy had the audience roaring with laugher that became nervous as it revealed the shocking (and infuriating) truths about Japanese Concubines. A sharp and entertaining cultural lesson that delivered a perspective that we need to hear.” -Times Square Chronicles
“Ms. Winkler’s writing is so simple but exquisite in its execution. In twenty minutes the sad lives of the girls are deftly dramatized with a compelling range of emotion. Visually Stunning…a vivid masterpiece”.-Theatrescene.net
“Wonderfully, violently, crudely and delightfully subversive. The play snipes at old, but abiding notions of femininity, the fetishization of geishas, ritual suicide and other destructive tropes that linger around the Western idea of Japan, with deadly precision.” -Stage Buddy
“Double Suicide At Ueno Park by Leah Nanako Winkler, directed by John Giampietro intriguingly roasts the Japanese feudal aesthetic of renunciation of the world…tragedy is not often this funny. Ditto for clever subversion…. and this all leads to the inevitable brilliance of this piece. “-Ny Theater Now
“Certainly the most imaginative entry in the series is Double Suicide at Ueno Park…Leah Nanako Winkler, takes a crowbar to the traditional image of the Japanese geisha. (Anyone who thinks Arthur Golden’s popular novelMemoirs of a Geisha is the last word on the subject is in for a stabbing shock.) Winkler has a gift for savage satire that makes me eager to see what she does next, and, in John Giampietro, she has a director who is totally on her wavelength.”- Lighting And Sound America
“This offbeat story of two Japanese courtesans takes a few chances that pay off” -New York Times
Photo Credit: Gerry Goodstein
MAY 2015
I’ll be at the The Drama Bookshop in New York for the OOB 39th Edition book launch. There will be readings of the plays included in the series and a signing afterward.
APRIL 2015
My play Taisetsu Na Hito is now available for purchase at Samuel French!
An excerpt of the play was featured on Episode #1616 WNYC’s Studio 360 Podcast called “EX MACHINA,” SEXY ROBOTS, & FOUR-LEGGED STARS. It aired on Thursday, April 16, 2015 and was hosted by PeaBody award winning Kurt Anderson. There I can also be heard briefly talking to Eric Molinsky about Robots and sexuality. Check it out at the link below.
http://www.studio360.org/story/ex-machina-sexy-robots-and-four-legged-stars/
My short play Tomorrow was a part of EST/Youngblood’s April brunch series. The theme was optimism and it starred Cathy Curtin (Orange is the New Black), Shawn Randall (Symphonics Live!) and Sasha Diamond (The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra GO). It was directed by John Giampietro.
MARCH 2015
My new book of short plays, The Lowest Form Of Writing is finally out!
You can purchase it on Amazon for $10 at http://www.amazon.com/Lowest-Form-Writing-Nanako-Winkler/dp/1508846111 or come see me at any of my gigs or plays. Speaking of plays!!!!
TICKETS NOW ON SALE FOR MY NEW PLAY KENTUCKY, DIRECTED BY MORGAN GOULD AT EST/YOUNGBLOOD RUNNING MARCH 18-28. For tickets call 866-811-4111 or click here! I’m super excited about this play and I hope you can join me!!!
KENTUCKY
by Leah Nanako Winikler
Directed by Morgan Gould
Starring: Satomi Blair, Sasha Diamond, Ronald Peet, Lucy DeVito, Amir Wachterman, Allyson Morgan, Christine Lee, Alex Grubbs, Curran Connor, Merissa Czyz, Jay Patterson, Samantha Sembler, Lynette Freeman, Virginia Wing, Marcia Haufrecht and Emily Kunkel.
Hiro is a self-made woman making it in New York. But she is also single, almost thirty and estranged from her dysfunctional family who lives in Kentucky. When her little sister, a born-again Christian, decides to marry at twenty-two, Hiro takes it up on herself to do whatever she can to stop the wedding and salvage any shred of hope she had about her sister’s future. The themes of identity, religion and love collide in this unique coming-of-age story.
DATES/TIMES:
March 18 at 7pm
March 19 at 7pm
March 21 at 2pm
March 26 at 7pm
March 28 at 7pm
FALL/Winter 2014-
-Will be part of New Georges 1 Minute Play Festival
-Awarded space grant with 2G (Second Generation)
-12/17 Remounting my short play “Alone On Christmas-W4Mw-28 ( Brooklyn)” w/ Darcy Fowler, Jared McGuire and special guests. Directed by Matt Dickson. Tickets here
-My full length KENTUCKY will be a part of EST/YOUNGBLOOD’s Unfiltered festival in Spring 2015. Details forthcoming.
-Date set for China publication! My short plays I Don’t Want to Read Your Blog, LOVE, BELIEBER and Arch-Nemisis will be published in the December Edition of Nanjing University’s Stage and Screen Reviews
-My short play YOU’RE AMAZING Was part of EST/Youngblood’s Legal Brunching Age
-I was a part of F*It Club’s F*ing Up Halloween where I “acted” in a play. It was scary!
-Jennifer Gordon Thomas performed my monologue LIONS as part of CAPS LOCK THEATRE’s PUSSY FEST at Judson Church.
-My short play WRINKLE was part of Asking For Trouble 2014 at Ensemble Studio Theatre. It was directed by Danya Taymor and starred Curren Conner, Artem Kreimer, Jesse Geguzis and Hand To God’s Steven Boyer.
August 2014-
-My short play Taisetsu Na Hito won the Sam French OOB Festival! It will be published in an anthology in 2015. Read about it on Backstage!
-The cast of Taisetsu Na Hito and I were interviewed for a new podcast on WNYC radio! The episode will be released in the fall of 2014!
July 2014-
-I went to SPACE on Ryder Farm with EST/Youngblood
June 2014-
- My plays Diversity Awareness Picnic and Death For Sydney Black were nominated for The Kilroys List. Read about The List in the NYTimes.
-Cover Art for my upcoming book of short plays by Lilli Stein!
May 2014-
-My short plays, “I Don’t Want To Read Your Blog” and “Arch-Nemisis” were performed at Nanjing University in China! They will both be published and translated into Chinese the fall of 2014.
Here are some production photos they sent me!
-I was chosen as a finalist for theThe Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Fellowship at The Juilliard School for the 2nd time.
