Velina Hasu Houston
Awards/Honors
I L L U M I N A T I O N S
Crossing Borders III, Commission, The Crossing Borders Project, Producer: Dr. Peggy Shannon, 2019-Present.
Production, Tea, Hero Theatre, Directed by Rebecca Wear, 2022.
Moment Theatre Festival, Oh, I Remember the Black Birch, Directed by Marya Mazor, Dramaturge & Producer, Keren M. Goldberg
Kokoro, film based on screenplay adaptation of Velina Hasu Houston's play, Kokoro (True Heart), Directed by Tamara Ruppart; Produced by Eleven Arts Inc., CEO Ko Mori. In pre-production.
Hase-Hime, anime film in development with Eleven Arts Inc. Producer, Co-writer Will Nunziata. Lyricist, Co-writer Laura Schein. Composer Noriko Sunamoto.
Madame Butterfly, film based on Velina Hasu Houston's play, Madame Butterfly. Directed by Tamara Ruppart; Produced by Eleven Arts Inc., CEO Ko Mori, and Koji Steven Sakai. In development.
Aloha 'Oe, a musical, book and lyrics by Velina Hasu Houston, music by T.J. Keanu Tario. In development. Project in association with East West Players, Producing Artistic Director Snehal Desai; USC School of Dramatic Arts, USC East Asian Studies; and USC Dornsife Creativity, Theory, and Politics Research Cluster.
Sally, a musical, book and lyrics by Velina Hasu Houston, music by Jack Perla. In development.
Hum the Bee, a play in development with New Circle writer's group.
Setting the Table, a play developed in The Road Theatre Company's Under Construction 1 writers' group.
Oh, I Remember the Black Birch. Directed by Marya Mazor, Dramaturge & Producer, Keren M. Goldberg
Oh, I Remember the Black Birch is a play in development that explores a Jewish community that existed in Kobe, Japan, during World War II. How they came to be there has been explored in several stories, but the intersection of Japanese and Jewish cultures in a nation that was pro-Hitler has never been examined.
In autumn 1941, Brina Berman, an 18-year-old Polish Jewish woman from Warsaw, gains a transit visa from a Lithuania-posted Japanese diplomat that allows her to escape the Nazis after they murder her family. In her powerful dream world, safeguarded by a maternal water spirit, Brina strives to come to terms with a world torn apart by Fascism and war when she finds herself in Kobe, Japan, for three months where she is astonished to find an established Jewish community. Will she survive in a country that is pro-Third Reich and how will she find "home" when all the people she loved are gone?
Oh, I Remember the Black Birch has had one reading at VS Theatre. June 30, 2020; Vs. Theatre, Artistic Director Johnny Clark; Directed by Marya Mazor; Producer and Dramaturg, Keren Goldberg; Assistant Director, Morgan Pimentel; Stage/Production Manager Tyler Hargrove; Cast: Katie Peabody as Brina Berman, Caroline Clay as Water Mother, Elmira Rahim as Batya Belmont, Greg Watanabe as Hideo Hirano, Jully Lee as Kayoko Takechi, Alex Portenko as Man as Artist/ Man as Russian Soldier/ Man as Paulie at many ages from 12-25/ Man as German Soldier.
The play is being presented by the Moment Theatre Festival on November 9, 2021, online, directed by Marya Mazor; dramaturge and producer, Keren Goldberg.
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2916346508854/WN_Jb5qHBOrRMenIBDaKFw8kQ.
Photo Credit: Forest of trees. "Autumn" by Stylva is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/. Web. www.creativecommons.org. Downloaded on October 27, 2021 @ https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/d8b2fb7b-77ea-4fe2-be98-ab7c47f9285b.
For inquiries about Dr. Houston's work, please contact her agent:
Mr. Jack Tantleff, Ms. Rachel Ellicott
Paradigm Talent Agency
140 Broadway, 26th Floor
To contact Velina Hasu Houston:
Velina Hasu Houston, M.F.A., Ph.D.
greentea@usc.edu
Ethnicity: Poly-ethnic