Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Houston’s genre is the play. The format can be unforgiving when one strays too far beyond the lines. But she is a master at finding subtlety and power in her brush strokes. She blends humor and social commentary with intense emotional desperation. Her work balances her poetic style with crisp one-liners. Calligraphy packs so much into a play format. Yet the fluidity is never compromised.

The presentation I describe was a reading at the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Playwright’s Festival. Hopefully the full production in November will continue to be helmed by Jon Rivera. He enhanced the nuances of Houston’s play and lifted indelible unspoken moments in the script. He was ably supported by a strong group of actors, most notably Emily Kuroda and Natsuko Ohama.

There were a few times in the play where Houston chose language instead of plot. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing. She certainly is at one with her characters. Their journey hit close to home -- Tokyo or Los Angeles, it's not far to relate. Life is like calligraphy. Once you’ve brushed the stroke, you can never go back. But Houston shows us in her depth of writing that we are able to find subtle variants no matter what path we are on.