Multisoup Productions are announcing the workshop production of the latest work by the Japanese-born, New York-based playwright Masayo Nishimura.
The Connection is a new play featuring two new Asian American actresses, Faith Wu and Michelle Amosco. It premiers at the West End Theatre, Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew at 263 West 86th St., 2nd. Floor on September 30 at 2pm and 7pm and October 1 at 2pm and 6pm. Tickets are $5 and the show runs approximately two hours with intermission.
The Connection is a play about the missed connection between two Japanese women who arrived in the Big Apple two decades ago. In 1986, Japanese women, Rumi and Mika, were roommates at a Women's' Residence in NYC. Twenty years later, the two women meet by happy coincidence—on the subway. They share laughs, cry, and meanwhile piece together the exact circumstances behind their hasty separation. As their conversation progresses, it becomes clear that their short room share two decades ago changed their lives forever...
For more information, E-mail: info@multisoup.com, or go to, http://multisoup.com/connection.html.

Theater:
West End Theatre
Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, 263 West 86th St., 2nd. Fl New York, NY 10024
Between West End Avenue and Broadway. Take the 1, 9 trains to 86th Street.

* Due to construction, the entrance is now located on West End Avenue.

Synopsis of The Connection

In 1986, two Japanese women, Rumi and Mika, were roommates at a Womens' Residence in New York City. Twenty years later, the two women now in their 40s meet by happy coincidence—on the subway.

Now Rumi is married with three children, a designer who owns her own store. Mika remains single, perpetually youthful, studying dance at the same school, wearing the same cheap clothes, living in the same room in the same residence, and working off the books at the same restaurant she did when she came to the Big Apple. Mika seems satisfied with her sparse lifestyle, though, not very envious of Rumi's success, wealth, and full family life.

When a subway delay forces the two women to catch up more frankly on old wounds than an ordinary commuter trip would have enabled, their friendship—once abandoned—is once again tested. The women become more intimate in a few moments on a desolate subway car than they did in weeks of living together. While playing at "House," Mika reveals her inner pain about her childhood, her bulimia, and her unhappy relationship with her parents. She recounts a lost love with an American male student. Mika hasn't recovered from the pain and is still longing to reunite with the man.

As the play progresses, it becomes clear how their short room share two decades ago has changed their lives forever, and the two women piece together the exact circumstances behind their hasty separation. It is discovered that Rumi's husband was indeed Mika's object of affection. Relations are strained as Rumi explains that she had no intention to hurt Mika. Rumi then confesses the other hardships in her life, including why the man they both wanted wasn't perfect. The women come closer together as they compare their dreams with their disheveled lived realities. They begin to sympathize for one another and have a glimpse of what life is all about.

Biographical sketch of a playwright Masayo Nishimura:

Masayo Nishimura is a Japanese-born playwright who lives in New York City since 1986. In 1995, she graduated from CUNY Hunter College as a theatre art major, where she studied playwriting with a playwright Tina Howe. In fall 1995, she studied in Dramatic Writing program at NYU with a playwright David Greenspan. At Hunter, she was awarded playwriting awards includes the Walter Prichard Eaton Award from the Theater Department of Hunter College. She also received an Honorable Mention at the Wichita State University National Student Playwriting Contest in 1996. Masayo is an associate member of Dramatist Guild, Inc.

From 1994, some of her plays are produced in off-off theaters through out New York City. In 1994, her one act play, I love New York was produced by the Theater department of Hunter College at the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse. Her other one-act play, A Surprise Visit was produced by the American Theatre of Actors. In 1997, her first full-length play, Under the Moon was produced at the Synchronicity Space in SoHo, directed by Karin Bowersock. In 2005, her new play Itadakimasu - A HAPPY MEAL had a staged reading/workshop at the West End Theatre, New York City.

Besides writing plays, she is also active as a visual artist/photographer who often creates and exhibits subway themed art works. Her computer animated subway love story Dream has been screened worldwide and won various awards. In 2000, Dream was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, as an official selection of the "New Directors/New Films festival" sponsored by the Cinema Society of Lincoln Center and MOMA. The Connection makes her first theater work with her favorite New York subway setting.

About Multisoup Productions:

Playwright/ Company Director Masayo Nishimura is a Japanese woman who moved to New York City from Tokyo in 1986. Since she is an Asian, a foreigner as well as a woman, her plays often reflect the life of contemporary Asian women who live in the US, away from their families, native culture and traditional value. Through her plays, she hopes to help the American audiences to gain understanding about people from varied cultural background.

In 2005, she established her independent company Multisoup Productions to conduct reading/workshops of her plays for visualization and development of scripts. In December 2005, she finished her first venue of such a workshop production of her comedy Itadakimasu - A HAPPY MEAL at the West End Theatre.