Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores.
~Henry David Thoreau, Walden

A dream of radical change, thinks Toshiki Okada, reading Walden from his home in Tokyo. A beautiful book, but only a dream. But then 3/11 happens—those numbers will, for a generation of Japanese people, stand in for the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear disaster at Fukushima. In Tokyo, “unconfirmed” urban radiation levels are reported and milk is removed from supermarket shelves. In this atmosphere of deadly weirdness an architect who studies the homes of the homeless declares himself Prime Minister of Japan from his artist’s refuge in Kumamoto, far outside the city in Western Japan. For Toshiki, the Walden fantasy is becoming a growing necessity.

Director: Dan Rothenberg
Text: Toshikin Okada
Translator: Aya Ogawa
Co-Director and Creative Producer: –

Set Design: Mimi Lien
Lighting Design: Peter West
Costume Design: Maiko Matsushima
Sound Design: Katie Down
Associate Sound Designer: Mikaal Sulaiman

Ensemble: Mary McCool, Shavon Norris, James Sugg, Alex Torra, and Dito van Reigersberg

Production Manager: Belina Mizrahi
Stage Manager: E Sara Barnes
Technical Director: Joseph R. Glodek
Props Master: Kimitha Casin
Contributing writer/Dramaturg: Jackie Sibblies Drury
Lighting and Sound Coordinator: Seth Reiser
Crew: Jason Aufdem-Brinke, Reuven Goren, Kyle Grant, and Aaron Waxman