12 2



I

Iizuka, Naomi (1965– )
Naomi Iizuka did not come from a theater back-
ground and considers herself a latecomer to the
art. Born in Tokyo to a Japanese banker and an
American of Hispanic descent, she had a privileged
and cosmopolitan upbringing in Indonesia, Hol-
land, and Washington, D.C. She received her B.A.
in classical literature from Yale University, where
she also studied law for a year. Iizuka worked as a
summer associate on Wall Street but soon began
writing for the theater after finding inspiration and
guidance from friends and mentors. She returned
to school, obtaining an M.F.A. from the University
of California, San Diego, in 1992. Iizuka married
Bruce McKenzie, actor and cofounder of Sledge-
hammer Theater.
Currently, Iizuka is one of the most commis-
sioned playwrights in contemporary American
theater. Drawing from her background in classical
literature, she delves into the challenges of fusing
classic styles and forms to modern and contem-
porary voices. For example, Polaroid Stories (1997)
sets the Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus
among street teens in Minneapolis. A more recent
work, Anon(ymous) (2006), is a modernization of
Homer’s Odyssey, following a young South Asian
refugee’s journey to his new home in the United
States after surviving a shipwreck. In addition
to her fascination with the classics, Iizuka is at-
tracted to more experimental adaptations. In Tat-

too Girl (1994), Iizuka adapted “Perpetua,” a short

story by Donald Barthelme, into a serio-comedy

in which the heroine, loosely based on ancient

Christian martyr Perpetua, abandons her fam-

ily and the comforts of her middle-class lifestyle

to brave a chaotic world. In Skin (1995), Iizuka

updates Woyzeck, German dramatist Georg Büch-

ner’s unfinished 19th-century play about a soldier

who murders his wife, resetting this investigation

of alienation and isolation on the borderland be-

tween California and Mexico. She later dramatizes

the life of Orson Welles in her War of the Worlds

(2000), which harnesses the spirit of Welles’s own

film F for Fake, as she examines the conflation of

entertainment and news as well as their conflicting

views of truth.

Iizuka’s best-known play to date, 36 Views

(2003), draws greatly from classical Eastern influ-

ences rather than Western ones. Her acclaimed play

resists the conventions of theatrical tradition and

unity. By drawing inspiration from 19th-century

Japanese artist Hokusai’s woodblock series “36

Views of Mt. Fuji,” this story of fraud and desire in

the academic and art worlds is staged in 36 scenes

instead of acts. The play folds together elements

of traditional Japanese kabuki theater and imag-

istic tableaux vivants, which all serve to heighten

the artifice of the theatrical space in which Iizuka

questions issues of cultural authenticity, Oriental-

ism, and value.