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WHO WE ARE
Ai Aida is a Japanese-born playwright, illustrator and multidisciplinary theater-maker who is a winner of the Austin International Poetry Festival, the Leonard Isaacson Award Browning Monologue Contest and the Pick of the Vine Short Play Competition; a finalist of the Eugene O'Neil National Playwright Conference, B3 Theater Festival of Shorts and B-Street Theater’s New Comedy Play Festival; a semifinalist of the 44th/45th/46th Bay Area Playwrights Festivals, Beverly Hills Theatre Guild's Julie Harris Playwright Award Competition and Austin Film Festival, and a quarter-finalist of the ScreenCraft Short Film Writing Competition. Ai’s plays have been produced or staged-read at the Aurora Theater, Brava Theater, Shelton Theater, Exit Theater, San Francisco Olympians Festivals, Z-Space, Potrero Stage, PianoFight, Theatre of Yugen, Breach Once More 9x9 Festival, GreenHouse Festival, Little Fish Theater, Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center and Mile High Theater. She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from San Francisco State University where she taught Creative Writing.
Keiko Shimosato Carreiro is a Collective and Board Member with the Tony award winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. Since 1987, she has been an Actor, Designer, Co-Writer and Director with the Company and has been in almost every summer show since joining. Carreiro has performed at theaters throughout the Bay Area, including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, A.C.T., The Magic Theater, The Aurora Theater, Word for Word, and Center Rep. She was nominated for The Shellie Award for Outstanding Actress in the role of Grace in “The Sisters Matsumoto” at Center Rep. She is an award winning Costume Designer ,nominated for TBA Best Costumes, Bay Area Critics Circle award, and recipient of the 2018 Meritorious Achievement Award,(American College Theater Festival). Carreiro teaches with The San Francisco Opera Guilds’ “Book to Bravo”and “Voices for Social Justice” programs and enjoys raising up the next generation of artist/activists.
Nick Ishimaru is a San Francisco-based director, actor, and singer. He recently served as the Artistic Director of Theatre of Yugen from 2016 to 2020. His work combines Western and Asian performance techniques to create original productions. He has trained in noh and kyōgen for over 10 years with Theatre of Yugen, Theatre Nohgaku, and Kita school noh master Oshima Teruhisa in Tokyo. Ishimaru has also studied kabuki, jingju (Beijing Opera), and nihon buyō (traditional Japanese dance). Directing work at Theatre of Yugen includes The Red Demon (2016), A Noh Christmas Carol (2017, 2018, 2019), and Seen/By Everyone (2018). Performances with Theatre of Yugen including Minor Cycle (San Francisco and Philadelphia 2012), This Lingering Life (2014), Mystical Abyss (Denver 2015), Yugen in Action (Iquique, Chile, 2019) and a plethora of kyōgen performances at festivals across the country. He was most recently on stage at Theatre of Yugen in Puppets & Poe (2019) and A Noh Christmas Carol (2019). BA Colorado State University, MA San Francisco State University.