Welcome (Back) Theatre Lovers!

We are thrilled to welcome you to the first production in our respective 2023 seasons, and are delighted that this production marks the first time our two companies – longtime friends Playwrights’ Arena and Boston Court Pasadena – have partnered on a production.

For those of you new to Playwrights’ Arena, this venerable theatre company has been discovering, nurturing, and producing new works for the stage – written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights – for the past 31 years.

For those of you new to Boston Court Pasadena, this year marks 20 years of creating and nurturing innovative, boundary-pushing theatre, music, and visual art with a focus on bringing the voices of adventurous new plays and playwrights to the stage.

Both Playwrights’ Arena and Boston Court have been blessed to be part of the development process of Rosie Narasaki’s Unrivaled. Playwrights’ Arena first met and engaged with the script in 2020 after witnessing the first public reading at EST/LA, and Boston Court subsequently developed the play when Rosie participated in the 2021 BCP Playwrights’ Group. Both companies are honored to bring this fresh, funny, heartbreaking play we love to its world premiere production. 

Later this year, Playwrights’ Arena will be presenting our first Native American play. And we hope you’ll return to Boston Court for the 19th Annual New Play Reading Festival on April 29 & 30, and in September for the world premiere of Measure STILL for Measure, an immersive play taking place all over the Boston Court building.

Most importantly, THANK YOU for supporting the vital new voice of Rosie Narasaki, and all the wonderful artists making this production, by joining us for live theatre. We’re so glad you’re here. 

With gratitude,
Jon Lawrence Rivera, Artistic Director, Playwrights’ Arena
Jessica Kubzansky, Artistic Director, Boston Court Pasadena

Boston Court Pasadena is located on the unceded lands of the Tongva, Gabrielino, and Kizh peoples, specifically the lands of the Hahamog’na band of the Tongva tribe. We honor and uplift these still-enduring communities and we are grateful for their stewardship of these lands. We see this land acknowledgment as a starting point for our commitment to deeper engagement with our local indigenous communities. We invite you all to join us by acknowledging the unceded lands you live and work on: https://native-land.ca/

THE HISTORY BEHIND ROSIE NARASAKI’S UNRIVALED

Unrivaled is set in a fictionalized version of the court of Empress Teishi at the turn of the 11th Century in Heian Japan. The play imagines what the friendship and rivalry of legendary writers Sei Shōnagon and Murasaki Shikibu might have looked like had they met at court.

WHAT IS TRUE: 

During the Heian period (794-1185), Japan enjoyed four hundred years of peace and prosperity that set the standard for Japanese cultural mores, art, and literary production until the 1600s. This period is considered the golden age of Japanese literature, and literary skill was the currency of the Heian court.

Poetry production and exchange was a way of life and was central in the proper dispensing of social duties and engaging in social interactions. Poetic knowledge, and the ability to turn an appropriate verse at the appropriate moment were as necessary to a Heian courtier as a present-day politician’s negotiation and oratory/public speaking skills.

The late Heian period established the insei or cloistered emperor system in which a Fujiwara family regent ruled in place of a child emperor. The male members of the northern branch of the Fujiwara family married their female relatives into the imperial family, thereby becoming the uncles and grandfathers (and therefore the regents) of emperors. Both Teishi (the Empress in Unrivaled) and then Shōshi (Michinaga’s daughter whom he eventually connives to have named Empress) are married to Emperor Ichijo by their fathers, and they raced to see who would produce the next imperial heir.

Indeed, women were frequently used as marriage pawns to gain political power. The Women’s Quarters at court housed the consorts to the Emperor. The caliber of ladies-in-waiting that each consort could attract was a major asset in their rivalry to gain ascendency at court. Scintillating poetic and artistic exchange drew the Emperor to the consort’s salon/bed and created opportunities to become impregnated with an heir. Furthermore, prospective marriage partners would often know of each other through their reputations in the arts, especially poetry.

Thus, the talented Sei Shōnagon’s presence in Empress Teishi’s entourage was essential to Teishi retaining her status at court. And once Shōshi’s father Michinaga heard of the buzz surrounding Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji, he sought to gain political leverage by enlisting Murasaki Shikibu to his daughter’s salon, which then enabled Michinaga to elevate Shōshi to Empress status.

In reality, unlike in Rosie’s play, it is unlikely Sei and Murasaki ever met in person because they never served as ladies in waiting at the same time. Sei entered service to Empress Teishi around 991 and left court around 1000 when Teishi passed away. Murasaki came to court in 1005, five years after Sei’s departure, to serve Empress Shōshi and left with Shōshi after Emperor Ichijō passed away.

However, we do know that the two women were aware of each other because they shared what they thought of each other in their diaries. In her diary, Murasaki said of Sei: “Sei Shōnagon, for instance, was dreadfully conceited. She thought herself so clever, and littered her writings with Chinese characters [the language of government reserved for men at the time], but if you examined them closely, they left a great deal to be desired.”

Teishi  Fujiwara, who was not herself a writer,  was a consort and empress to Emperor Ichijō and Shōshi’s rival. She was the daughter of Fujiwara no Michitaka (one of Michinaga’s older brothers), and sister to Korechika. She became an Imperial consort at age 14 and later became Empress in 990 while Emperor Ichijō was age 10. She received the official title of Kōgō and served as Empress until Michinaga managed to install his daughter Shōshi as a rival Empress by giving her the newly made up title Chūgū. The exile of Teishi’s brother Korechika weakened Teishi’s position at court considerably and enabled Michinaga ascent to the regency.

Teishi’s legacy lives on in that she recognized the importance of ladies in waiting in political rivalries, and allowed Heian women to be trained in arts and letters, to establishing a literary legacy for Japanese women writers early in their history. The court salons provided a safe haven of sorts for gifted women who were encouraged to hone their poetic and writing skills and also served as a network of emotional, cultural capital, and intellectual support for the women of the period, enabling Heian women writers like Sei Shōnagon and Murasaki Shikibu to become some of the first female practitioners of literary discourse in the world.

THE ACTUAL AUTHORS AND TEXTS:

Sei Shōnagon is celebrated for composing The Pillow Book, a zuihitsu or miscellany, a combination of lists, poems, and diary-like anecdotes that provide us with a penetrating look at Heian Period society. Stylizing herself an arbiter of good taste, Shōnagon lovingly detailed the glamor and the elegance of Teishi’s court, while sharply critiquing people and customs that she found uncouth or annoying, especially inept male courtiers. Sei’s personality shines through her writing, for example she includes five pages of “Hateful Things” in The Pillow Book compared to only two pages of “Adorable Things.” The Pillow Book is said to have been completed around 994 or 997 and covered events from 986-1000 before Teishi’s death. The book showcases the ease with which Teishi interacted with her ladies, teasing them, reprimanding them, but also praising them. Sei highlights Teishi’s compassion and kindness toward the poor and suffering, and often remarks on Teishi’s inner and outer beauty.

Murasaki Shikibu is best known for writing The Tale of Genji, widely considered to be the first novel ever written, and for her diary which detailed her time serving as a lady in waiting and tutor to the young Empress Shōshi (Michinaga’s daughter). Relatively little is known about Murasaki’s life despite the fame of her work. She came from a family of poets and had two brothers, one of whom is mentioned in her diary as being less adept than she in learning Classical Chinese. Murasaki likely began writing The Tale of Genji around 1002. From what we are able to discern, the tale came to the attention of Michinaga who invited Shikibu to court based on the buzz it was creating.

This dramaturgical note was compiled based off research by Lynne Miyake.

MISSION

Playwrights’ Arena, under the leadership of artistic director Jon Lawrence Rivera, is dedicated to discovering, nurturing and producing bold new works for the stage written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights.

Playwrights’ Arena develops new materials through several series of readings, workshops and round table discussions.

Local playwrights are encouraged to create original, adventurous, daring materials with the intent of challenging the mind, touching the heart and provoking the spirit.

Playwrights Arena was founded in 1992 by Jon Lawrence Rivera and Steve Tyler.

STAFF

Jon Lawrence Rivera is the Founding Artistic Director of Playwrights’ Arena and the recipient of the first Career Achievement Award from Stage Raw. He directed the following world premieres for Playwrights’ Arena: Apartment Living by Boni B. Alvarez, A Hit Dog  Will Holler by Inda Craig-Galván (both part of collaborative season with Skylight Theatre), March (a co-production with the LA LGBT Center), Southernmost by Mary Lyon Kamitaki, Baby Eyes by Donald Jolly, @thespeedofJake by Jennifer Maisel, Cinnamon Girl by Velina Hasu Houston and Nathan Wang, The Anatomy Of Gazellas by Janine Salinas Schoenberg, Girl Most Likely To by Michael Premrirat, and Euripides’ Helen by Nick Salamone (at the Getty Villa). Other recent work includes: Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi at Laguna Playhouse, Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz at Open Fist Theater; The Sonnetteer and Sea Change both by Nick Salamone at the LA LGBT Center; The Joy Luck Club by Susan Kim, The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown, and Criers For Hire by Giovanni Ortega at East West Players; Honeymoon in Vegas by Jason Robert Brown and A Class Act by Ed Kleban for Musical Theatre Guild; Bingo Hall by Dillon Chitto, Fairly Traceable by Mary Kathryn Nagle, and Stand-Off At HWY #37 by Vickie Ramirez for Native Voices at the Autry; The landmark Los Angeles Premiere of Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn at SIPA and Krik Douglas Theatre. Rivera is also the recipient of a NY Fringe Festival Award (for directing Hillary Agonisgtes), an LA Weekly Award (for directing Sea Change), and five Ovation Award nominations.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Deborah Secakuku Baker
Brett Battles
Scott Freeman
Nardina Owens
Jon Lawrence Rivera
Raynald Samoa
Raul Clayton Staggs

MISSION

Boston Court creates and nurtures innovative, boundary-pushing art that invokes the power of collective imagination to illuminate our common humanity.

STAFF

Jessica Kubzansky, Artistic Director, is a champion of innovation and artistic excellence, and as such she was invited to be one of two founding artistic directors of Boston Court Pasadena, creating a mission and vision for the company that produces risky adventurous new work coupled with intimate artistic excellence. Now Kubzansky shepherds all the art created at Boston Court, including visual art and richly eclectic music concerts as well as theatre. She is a passionate music lover and also an award-winning director working both locally and in regional theatres nationally. She is committed to illumination of texts and scores to create works that crack open minds and hearts so that people who experience the work walk out changed. Kubzansky creates inventive work across many genres. She is known as a play-whisperer for her ability to dramaturg new plays, breathe powerful life into classic adaptations, and create exciting new takes on old classics; and she nurtures innovative approaches to classic music, as well as urging musicians and composers to innovate their own practices. Her recent work at Boston Court includes staged excerpts of Philip Glass’s Madrigal Opera, public development workshops of May Treuhaft-Ali’s Escapegoat, Julia Adolphe and Stephanie Fleishman’s new children’s opera, as well as world premieres of Kit Steinkellner’s Ladies, Sarah B. Mantell’s Everything That Never Happened, plus for Boston Court elsewhere, Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, A Medea in Los Angeles (The Getty Villa), Sheila Callaghan’s Everything You Touch (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre at The Cherry Lane). Recently at other venues: The Father with Alfred Molina (The Pasadena Playhouse), Othello (A Noise Within), Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths (San Diego Rep, Arena Stage), Aditi Kapil’s Orange (South Coast Rep), Stupid Fucking Bird (ACT, Seattle). She has received many awards and honors, among them the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre.

Will Block, Rentals Coordinator & COVID Safety Officer
Adrian Centeno, Literary Manager
Nicki Heskin, General Manager
Tarlisha Johnson-Lee, Development Manager
Stephanie Sherwood, ArtUpfront Coordinator
Jesse Soto, Technical Director & Facilities Manager
EmmaJo Spencer, General Management Fellow
Margaret Shigeko Starbuck, Associate Artistic Director
Hannah Trujillo, Patron Services & Administrative Associate
Paloma Arielle W., Marketing & Communications Manager

Ethan Haslam, Vivian Juarez, Reginald McKamie Jr., Aylah Robinson, Maria Vasileva, Adrian Zamora – Box Office & Front of House Staff

Kyle Clausen, Interim Leadership Consultant
Dana Bean/Amplify for Good, Fundraising Consultant
Fanshen Cox, Social Impact Consultant
Michael Michetti, Artistic Director Emeritus

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Edward Rada, Chair
Robert Leventer, Vice Chair
Kris Fujita, Secretary
Chris Werner, Treasurer

Liza Beres
Z. Clark Branson
Rodney Bolton
Walt Cochran-Bond
Jered Gold
Robin Green
Sandy Greenstein
Robbin Kelley
Damaris Montalvo
Michael Ruff
Tony Segall
Eileen T’Kaye
Nick Vasels
Joy Veluz