Keiko Green

A reading of “Nuclear” by Keiko Green will be presented on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. by Chance Theater at Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim.

“Nuclear” is a brand-new full-length play, commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club and the Sloan Foundation, following the story of Ray, a rocks tar of the nuclear power industry, and Hana, a newcomer questioning the viability of this dying field.

This comedy about office politics explodes with the Fukushima nuclear disaster, caused by the 2011 tsunami, causing a chain reaction with everyone asking: How can anyone find order in this chaos? And how can we harness this energy?

The cast: MJ Sieber as Ray, Jenapher Zheng as Hana, Tracey A. Leigh as Belinda, Christian Haines as Steve, Greg Watanabe as Masayuki, Emily Stout as Lydia. Directed by Jessica Kubzansky.

“One of the commissioning entities for ‘Nuclear’ is the Sloan Foundation, which supports the writing of new plays that focus on science,” said Green. “I’ve written a lot of plays about my mom’s side of the family, but this seemed like a great opportunity to write something inspired by my dad, who is a retired nuclear engineer.

“The international offices he worked in always fascinated me, and the more I asked him about his work, the more it got me thinking about legacy. Nuclear power was supposed to be the future! So why does it feel so taboo?

“I’m so excited to be back at Chance, where I was resident playwright in 2023. I’ve gotten the opportunity to try out two plays (‘Exotic Deadly’ and ‘The Bed Trick’) at Chance, before they got their world premieres elsewhere, and those development weeks helped immensely in getting those scripts across the finish line.”

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

Free admission. Info/tickets: https://chancetheater.com/production/green-otr6/

Articles for you