Keiko Green

Keiko Green

KEIKO GREEN is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and performer, currently based in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Her plays have been produced/developed by the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Atlantic Theatre Co, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Playwrights Realm, Seattle Rep, the Old Globe, ACT, Cygnet Theatre, among others.
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KEIKO GREEN is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and performer, currently based in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Her plays have been produced/developed by the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Atlantic Theatre Co, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Playwrights Realm, Seattle Rep, the Old Globe, ACT, Cygnet Theatre, among others.

She is Chance Theatre’s 2023 Playwright in Residence and holds commissions from the Old Globe, ACT Theatre, and Seattle Shakespeare Co. She was previously Part of Theatre Mu's inaugural new play incubation group the Mu Tang Clan, as well as Seattle Rep's Resident Writers Group.

Upcoming productions:
WORLD PREMIERE - "Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play" @ the Old Globe (April 2023)

2ND PRODUCTION - "Hometown Boy" @ Seattle Public Theatre (May 2023)

WORLD PREMIERE - "Sharon" @ Cygnet Theatre (June 2023)

WORLD PREMIERE - "You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World" (Spring 2024)

Keiko was also a writer on the upcoming Hulu series "Interior Chinatown," currently in production, and is working on several feature films.

Keiko is represented by the Gersh Agency and Anonymous Content.

www.keikogreen.com

Plays

  • Exotic Deadly: or the MSG Play by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 6
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, farce, young audiences
    It’s 1999, and Ami is an awkward, Japanese American high school girl, just trying to stay as invisible as possible. But her world comes crashing down with a terrible discovery: her family is responsible for manufacturing MSG, the poison spice getting all the kids hooked. Meanwhile, a mysterious new girl arrives from Japan. Her name? Exotic Deadly. She’s loud, she smokes, and she’s not playing by the rules. Who...
    It’s 1999, and Ami is an awkward, Japanese American high school girl, just trying to stay as invisible as possible. But her world comes crashing down with a terrible discovery: her family is responsible for manufacturing MSG, the poison spice getting all the kids hooked. Meanwhile, a mysterious new girl arrives from Japan. Her name? Exotic Deadly. She’s loud, she smokes, and she’s not playing by the rules. Who… or what is she? In this time traveling adventure, Ami vows to save the world from MSG and realizes what she’s capable of, if she would just stop being invisible.

    World Premiere Production - Old Globe ('23)
    Selection/Workshop - O'Neill National Playwrights Conference
    Nominated - Susan Blackburn Award
  • Sharon by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Sharon and Jakey are a loving mother and son, running the crumbling apartment building in Everett, WA that's been in the family for generations, repainting the walls as the tenants move in and out. Or are they...? Soon we start to realize that perhaps this family is not what they seem. As the story unfolds and power switches hands, we finally get to the bottom of this comedic thriller, asking the questions...
    Sharon and Jakey are a loving mother and son, running the crumbling apartment building in Everett, WA that's been in the family for generations, repainting the walls as the tenants move in and out. Or are they...? Soon we start to realize that perhaps this family is not what they seem. As the story unfolds and power switches hands, we finally get to the bottom of this comedic thriller, asking the questions: What does survival look like? And where the f*ck is Sharon!?
  • Hells Canyon by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: horror, mystery/thriller
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    Keyword: inherited trauma, pregnancy + 3 more
    Genre: horror, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: inherited trauma, pregnancy, surrogacy, asian, Asian American
    A seven-month pregnant Ariel Lim arrives at a cabin, nestled deep in the Eastern Oregon mountain range for a weekend away with a group of friends. As hidden resentments surface and tensions rise, the gang turns their attention to an unseen force outside, attempting to break through the front door. In this horror-thriller, Ariel must come to terms with a long history of conflicts, big and small, before they...
    A seven-month pregnant Ariel Lim arrives at a cabin, nestled deep in the Eastern Oregon mountain range for a weekend away with a group of friends. As hidden resentments surface and tensions rise, the gang turns their attention to an unseen force outside, attempting to break through the front door. In this horror-thriller, Ariel must come to terms with a long history of conflicts, big and small, before they manifest into an unstoppable darkness.

    Finalist - O'Neill National Playwrights Conference
    Finalist - Blue Ink Award
    Semi-finalist - Bay Area Playwrights Festival

    Workshop/Reading - Kennedy Center/Kenan Fellows ('23)
    University Production -- UC San Diego Wagner Festival ('22)
  • The Bed Trick by Keiko Green
    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: consent, Shakespeare + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: consent, Shakespeare, coming-of-age, college, Sex, asexual
    College freshmen Lulu and Marianne test their limits as they party through the school year, in search of their place in the world. Marianne, newly eighteen, just learned that her parents’ origin story may not have been quite as romantic as she thought. Meanwhile, Lulu tries to reignite a spark with her boyfriend of ten years, who she just found out has a secret online dating profile. When the two girls’ drama-...
    College freshmen Lulu and Marianne test their limits as they party through the school year, in search of their place in the world. Marianne, newly eighteen, just learned that her parents’ origin story may not have been quite as romantic as she thought. Meanwhile, Lulu tries to reignite a spark with her boyfriend of ten years, who she just found out has a secret online dating profile. When the two girls’ drama-nerd-roommate Harriet brings in baggage from a student production of All’s Well That Ends Well, the thematic ideas of consent and manipulation start to seep into their lives.
  • Stupid Little Bugs (A Musical) by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, musical
    In the cutthroat world of high school theatre, Annie has spent years “paying her dues,” and it's finally time to make her way into the spotlight. But when a 23-year-old sub takes over the Drama department, all rules and tradition fly out the window. In this loose, darkly comedic adaptation of the "Ant and the Grasshopper" fable, Insignificant Bugs explores the dangerous consequences of the live-...
    In the cutthroat world of high school theatre, Annie has spent years “paying her dues,” and it's finally time to make her way into the spotlight. But when a 23-year-old sub takes over the Drama department, all rules and tradition fly out the window. In this loose, darkly comedic adaptation of the "Ant and the Grasshopper" fable, Insignificant Bugs explores the dangerous consequences of the live-to-work mentality, and how society fails young women.
  • Wad by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 6
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: Death Penalty, pen pals + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Death Penalty, pen pals, letters, true crime, murder, unexpected consequences, creating fantasies
    Jim is on death row. Nyce is his pen pal, and a senior in high school. In any case, she's just a high school kid with a true crime obsession and a crappy home life. As Jim’s execution date nears, he and Nyce live out alternate realities, fantasize about death and dying, tell a bunch of lies, and eventually get to something close to the truth.
  • Hometown Boy by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Race, Japanese American + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, melodrama
    Keyword: Race, Japanese American, child predator, dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, Asian American, Deep South, Georgia, class, sexual assault
    After a decade away, James returns to his hometown in rural Georgia with his girlfriend to check in on Walter, his father, whose erratic behavior has been the talk of the town. Something stinks, and it’s not just this pig-stye of a house. Hometown Boy is a story of outsiders, power dynamics due to race and class, and a rotten core at the center of this story that is at last making its way to the surface.
  • Ballad of the White Tiger by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, fable/folktale
    After a horrific car accident, two bi-racial sisters are left estranged. Hana disappears to Japan in an effort to connect with her Japanese heritage and start over. Yuki, now in a wheelchair, picks up the pieces and moves on in her new life. In Japan, Hana slowly learns of the complicated history of the Aizu people and the story of The White Tiger, a clan of young samurai boys who met a tragic demise in a...
    After a horrific car accident, two bi-racial sisters are left estranged. Hana disappears to Japan in an effort to connect with her Japanese heritage and start over. Yuki, now in a wheelchair, picks up the pieces and moves on in her new life. In Japan, Hana slowly learns of the complicated history of the Aizu people and the story of The White Tiger, a clan of young samurai boys who met a tragic demise in a feudal war in the 1800’s — a war that left a mark on this territory of Japan as eternal “outsiders.” As these old stories come to life, Yuki and Hana’s paths seem to head into the same tragic ends as their ancestors, in this story of familial connection, multi-racial identity, and the impossible desire to take back one terrible action that will haunt you forever.
  • Gorgeous by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: change, forgiveness + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: change, forgiveness, dogs, women, grief
    Summary:
    Set in an open garage in suburban Georgia, a young Asian-American woman named Jenny goes head-to-head with Bernie, who seems more like a tornado than a woman, in an all-out brawl after the death of Bill, an old, miserable, asshole-turned-Saint. The item in question? Bill's English bulldog Gorgeous. This dramedy set in the not-so-romanticized South asks: who gets to change their story?...
    Summary:
    Set in an open garage in suburban Georgia, a young Asian-American woman named Jenny goes head-to-head with Bernie, who seems more like a tornado than a woman, in an all-out brawl after the death of Bill, an old, miserable, asshole-turned-Saint. The item in question? Bill's English bulldog Gorgeous. This dramedy set in the not-so-romanticized South asks: who gets to change their story?

    History of the piece:
    2016: Workshop/Reading at the Seattle Repertory Theatre (Seattle, WA)
    2018: Workshop/Reading with Theatre Battery (Kent, WA)
  • NADESHIKO by Keiko Green
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic + 2 more
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    Keyword: fetishization, Asian American + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, tragedy
    Keyword: fetishization, Asian American, objectification, Japan, World War II, sex work
    Summary:
    NADESHIKO is a full-length play that explores the historical context of the fetishization of the Asian woman, told through dual story-telling. The main story follows that of Risa, a young Asian American woman, who takes on a mysterious task via Craigslist to make ends meet. She develops an unusual friendship with her client, a well-to-do older white man. We also meet a recently deceased woman,...
    Summary:
    NADESHIKO is a full-length play that explores the historical context of the fetishization of the Asian woman, told through dual story-telling. The main story follows that of Risa, a young Asian American woman, who takes on a mysterious task via Craigslist to make ends meet. She develops an unusual friendship with her client, a well-to-do older white man. We also meet a recently deceased woman, who was part of the Nadeshiko unit in World War II in Japan. The Nadeshiko Unit was comprised of teenage girls who cared for Japanese Kamikaze pilots before they flew to their deaths. The play explores the feminine expectations of Asian women, as well as how those expectations influenced racially specific sexual fetishes that still exist today.

    History of the piece:
    NADESHIKO was originally developed as part of the Seattle Repertory Theatre Writers Group Residency (2015-2017). After a public reading there, the script was produced by Sound Theatre Company in April 2017. It received Outstanding New Play at the 2017 Gregory Awards in Seattle and was listed as an Honorable Mention on the 2017 Kilroys List.