FORA.tv Speaker - 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.