buddhaheadz.com
(in development)

written by Stann Nakazono

SYNOPSIS

MELANIE WAKAYAMA, 20s, or Mel, as everyone calls her, is a Yonsei (a fourth-generation American of Japanese ancestry) trying to put back her life together in L.A. after dropping out of school in the East Coast.  She moves back into the house of her mom, HARU, a former community activist and now recluse. Also living in the house is her older sister KIMI, a once promising ballet dancer who is now a bitter, single mother with two kids.

In the process of reconnecting with her family and friends – which include BRANDON KIM, a 1.5 Korean American bum; FUMIKO COOPER, a half-Black, half-Japanese stock broker; KELLY TANAKA a Korean-Japanese basketball coach, and a Filipino-American computer whiz named REDFORD GARCIA -- she also reconnects with an ever-changing community she has always taken for granted.


WRITER’S NOTES

Based as a sequel to a 1980 film produced by Visual Communcations, buddhaheadz.com was written as a commentary about the rapid homogenizing and disappearance of the Japanese-American community in Los Angeles.


Winner, 2004 Ruby Yoshino-Schaar Playwriting Award