Ren Kobayashi-Smith and the Magic Pillow that May or May Not Fix Her Life
“They don't care who I really am. They just like the idea of me.”
Written by Emily Yuko Walborn
Directed by Eric Parness
Staged Reading Presentation:
Saturday, June 21, 2025 – 3:00 PM
Tickets
General admission, one reading - $10
Cimientos full season membership (8 readings) - $40
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Location
IATI Theater - Mainstage
64 E 4th Street
NYC, NY 10003
ADA/Wheelchair Accessible
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Tickets
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About
Ren' Kobayashi-Smith's life is a complete mess. She's been passed up for a promotion, her boyfriend is a weeb who fetishizes her, and she feels too white for her Asian friends and too Asian for her white friends. She floats between two worlds, unable to find where she belongs. She resolves to fix her identity crisis with a family heirloom - a generations-old magic pillow that shows you the best version of your life. Surely, this has to be the solution she's been looking for.
Fusing the music, dance, and visual elements of Noh theatre with contemporary themes, Kantan is a surreal exploration of racial identity.
Language: English
Genre: Cross-Genre
Playwright
Emily Yuko Walborn | 🇨🇦 Canada
Emily Yuko Walborn is a Japanese American playwright and screenwriter from Montana. She received her MA in Playwriting from the University of Manchester (UK) and her BA in Writing for Film & Television from Emerson College. Her obsession with comedy and satire dictates her work and collaborations. Her plays have been developed and produced at The Road Theater Company, Stomping Grounds Art House, The Experimental Theatre Coop, Box of Tricks Theatre, The Old Library Theatre, Manchester Drama Society, The Fled Collective and universities across the US. Her play Logical Conspiracies won Old Library Theatre’s One Act Play Festival. Her play Clown Memo won the “Audience Favorite” award at the Last Chance New Play Festival.
Staged Reading Team
Eric Parness
Director
Proud to return for his eleventh Cimientos reading, with previous IATI credits including the full productions of Three on a Match and The Treatment. He is currently an Associate Professor of Theatre at Westfield State University and Artistic Director of Resonance Ensemble, where he has directed plays inspired by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Maxim Gorky, Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, Karel Čapek, and Samuel Beckett. Other favorite New York City directing credits include Going Once! Laughing Twice!! (St. Luke’s Theater), Crazy for the Dog (Jean Cocteau), Embraceable Me (Rachel Reiner Productions), Measure for Measure (Oberon Theatre), North to Maine (ATA), Proud (Rising Sun), Kryptonite City (Hypothetical Theatre), and Blood Wedding (Boomerang Theatre Company). He holds a BA from Brandeis University, an MFA from Brooklyn College, and is a member of Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors Lab.
Carmen Alvarez, Ren
Matthew Liu, Alex & Male Ensemble
Elaine Baez, Sandra & Female Ensemble
Amy Pan, Stage Directions