Playwright - SAM HAMASHIMA

"we were imperial translators. we met the jesuits! you know, anyone with the name 'Hamashima' is related to you. Our name: there is only one family of us."

I would call my Auntie Reiko after school and an invisible wire would connect us from my landline in North Carolina to her landline in Seabrook, New Jersey. She would tell me these stories about the family. On her visits, when her health was good, the stories were even more vibrant. She was like a Herald preaching the histories of some royal family.

This is when storytelling came into my life.

Since then, I have found out Hamashima is not so rare. I mean, it's not as common as the English name "Smith", but there are absolutely more Hamashimas than just the ones related to me. I wonder if Reiko knew that and was just trying to get me to feel like I was part of something special.

Why we tell stories, why we fabricate, proselytize: the intention behind a story--that excites me. It is what set me on investigating my family history. The intention of a story is what keeps me writing.

There are many reasons to write, what's yours?

HAMASHIMA is a New York based Japanese American Writer. His works have been produced and/or developed by Seattle Public Theater, John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, National Queer Theater, the Hub Theatre, and the University of Michigan among others.

Awards include Hopwood Drama, Emerald Prize, Roy Cowden Fellowship, Kennedy Center Undergraduate Playwright Award.