Velina Hasu Houston is an internationally celebrated writer with 22 commissions in theatre and opera. In New York, US nationwide, and globally, her work has been produced to critical acclaim. Honored by the Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, Japan Foundation, Wallace Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and others, she is the only U.S. playwright to amass a body of work that explores the U.S.-Japan relationship through a bilateral, global view of identity.