About Brenda
Writer/Performer
“Aoki encompasses the comic and tragic…making relevant and magical even in the most faraway tales”
-Los Angeles Times, Critics Choice
Brenda Wong Aoki
Brenda Wong Aoki creates monodramas. Her work synthesizes Japanese Noh and Kyogen theater, Commedia Dell’arte, modern dance and everyday experience. She is acclaimed as one of America’s foremost soloists, performing in such venues as the Kennedy Center, New Victory Theater on Broadway, Hong Kong Performing Arts Center, the Adelaide Festival in Australia, the Esplanade in Singapore, the Graz Festival Austria and the Apollo.
Twice a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, she has received four Dramalogue Awards for her original work, a Critics’ Circle Award, and continues to receive ASCAP support for innovation in new libretto. Brenda’s book/CD, Mermaid Meat and Other Japanese Ghost Stories will be released in Tokyo 2007 where she is currently a Japan-US Creative Arts Fellow doing research on the prequel to her play “Uncle Gunjiro’s Girlfriend.” Her two CDs, “The Queen’s Garden” (1999) and “Tales of the Pacific Rim” (1990), won INDIE awards for Best Spoken Word Album of the Year.
Of Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Scottish descent, Aoki’s bloodlines inspire her work, which include “Obake: Tales of Spirits Past and Present,” “The Queen’s Garden,” “Random Acts,” “Mermaid Meat,” “Tales of the Pacific Rim,” “Skin Privilege,” “Kuan Yin: Our Lady of Compassion,” and “Uncle Gunjiro’s Girlfriend.” Brenda has deep roots in San Francisco. Her paternal grandfather was a founder of Japantown in the 1890’s, and her maternal grandmother was vice president of the first Chinatown garment union in the 1920’s. Brenda recently returned from living in Tokyo as a Japan-US Creative Artist Fellow 2007 which culminated in her latest work, “Legend of the Morning Glory” with Maze Daiko and Mark Izu.
- Download Brenda Wong Aoki’s List of Awards, Commissions
- Visit the First Voice Web site to view a list of works by Brenda Wong Aoki
- Visit the First Voice Web site to view reviews of Brenda Wong Aoki’s work
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