Ken Narasaki

Ken Narasaki, Author, Innocent When We Dream, Photo Courtesy of the Artist.jpg

Ken Narasaki is an actor/writer who’s been professionally involved in theater since 1976. Born in Seattle, he studied theatre at the Cornish School (then Institute) of the Arts then moved to San Francisco for the Summer Training Congress at the American Conservatory Theatre. In 1980, he began working at the Asian American Theater Company for 14 years, going on to perform in over 65 plays in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and more. His most recent performance was Greater Clements at the Lincoln Center in 2019/2020 (nominated Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actor).

As a playwright, his plays include Ghosts and Baggage, produced at LATC in 1998 (third place in the C.Y. Lee Playwriting Competition), The Mikado Project (co-written with Doris Baizley), produced by Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, 2007 (winner, Kuma Kahua Pacific Rim Playwriting Award), Innocent When You Dream (produced at Electric Lodge 2008, presented at the Smithsonian Institute 2009, winner, Kumu Kahua Pacific Rim Playwriting Award), and No-No Boy (premiered at the Santa Monica Playhouse, 2010, performed in New York, Queens, and Washington D.C. by Pan Asian Rep in 2014, 2016, and 2018). 

He is grateful to L.A. Theatre Works for their beautiful production of his adaptation of John Okada's No No Boy, which was nominated for an Audie Award for Best Audio Drama in 2022, and for this production of Innocent When You Dream, dedicated to that generation of Japanese Americans who proved their America citizenship both through bravery and with their own individual acts of conscience.