Since far too often we only publicly say nice things about people when they are dead I’ve decided to randomly pick a Facebook friend every day and say something nice about them.
April 30, 2019
Today’s person: Ken Narasaki!
When Ken Narasaki was in San Francisco I somehow thought we were going to be in a bunch of plays together. We auditioned together for Berkeley Rep’s “Journey to the West,” we did a bunch of staged readings of a play about the Vietnam Memorial, our wives worked together a few times, he even cane to my weird paintball bachelor party... I just always figured I’d get to work with this supersmart, super talented guy a bunch of times in our careers, and I was really looking forward to that.
Nope.
When he and Sharon Omi moved to LA for the next phase of their careers on some deep level I felt betrayed by the universe, cheated - because I wanted Ken as my friend here, not hundreds of miles away. I wanted to get together and talk politics and acting, and when we both started writing plays I missed him even more. He’s just a warm, funny, but cuttingly insightful leader and artist. He is one of those actor/writers who is relentlessly vocal about the fight for justice, and uses his art to demand the best humanity from the audience. In many ways Ken is who I want to be when- or if - I grow up.