The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to collaborate with Ma-Yi Theater Company in presenting the world premiere of Suicide Forest by award-winning playwright and performer Kristine Haruna Lee (Memory Retrograde at The Public Theater with Under the Radar and Ars Nova, War Lesbian at Dixon Place), directed by Aya Ogawa (Ludic Proxy produced by The Play Company at Walker Space, The Nosebleed at The Public Theater with Under the Radar).

Suicide Forest is a bilingual nightmare play excavating the Japanese-American consciousness and its looming relationship with sex, suicide, and identity. In 1990's Japan, a teenage girl grapples with her sexuality in a nightmarish, male-defined society as a salaryman desperately tries to escape his masochistic psyche. Both are clawing for their self-worth. When their two journeys collide, they expose their darkest desires fueled by shame as they now confront life and death with the notorious Suicide Forest looming over their imagination. Performed by a Japanese heritage cast, Suicide Forest examines the role of community and the inner struggles of emotional, psychic and social suicide through the playwright's lived stories and inner landscape. Suicide Forest centers the womxn and Asian-diasporic perspective on stage and in process. The play branches themes of intergenerational trauma, the psychic journey of the immigrant, the coming-of-age and ownership of one's sexual identity in a hyper-sexualized and male-centered world. We ask writers interested in responding to this work to bring a commitment to examining their biases of cultures they both directly and indirectly relate to or experience.

Suicide Forest features Akiko Aizawa, Yuki Kawahisa, Keizo Kaji, Aoi Lee, Kristine Haruna Lee, Toru Ohno, and Dawn Akemi Saito. The creative team include Jian Jung (Scenic Design), Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (Lighting & Video Design), Fan Zhang (Sound Design), Jen Goma (Music Composition), Alice Tavener (Costume Design), Mariko Takizawa (Production Stage Manager), Kiyo Kamisawa (Assistant Director), Patrick Murphy (Production Manager), and Denise Shu-Mei & John Del Gaudio (Co-Producers). Suicide Forest is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. It is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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