NEXT Festival of New Musicals: Okuni

Theater Latté Da’s NEXT Festival showcases new works that stretch the boundaries of musical storytelling, providing audience members the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the creative process. Following each stage reading presentation is an in-depth conversation with the project's writers. Written by Naomi Iizuka and Paul Hodge, Okuni tells the story of the enigmatic woman from 16th century Japan who created Kabuki and has since been forgotten by history. The pop culture sensation of her day, Okuni went from performing for outcasts in the dry riverbeds of Kyoto to performing for the shogun himself. Challenging conventions of polite society and shining a light on the hypocrisies of the ruling class, her shows were as politically dangerous as they were erotic. Okuni asks what it means to be a woman in a man's world, and what it means to make art when the world is burning.