Page 48 - SOUTHERN OREGON MAGAZINE SPRING 2022

neck of the woods | prof ile

WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A
DIRECTOR?

NATAKI: I was a director in high school. I went to Berkeley
High School, which was a very good training program for people
who wanted to work in the theater. I knew from the first time I
directed that is what I wanted to do. I directed, A Search for Signs of
Intelligent Life in the Universe, which is a one-person play by Lily Tomlin.
I don’t remember having a kind of consciousness of a director, I just
remember watching this artist, helping the actor unpack ideas, and then
asking her to do more, and then more, and then more. It’s not me say-
ing, “You stand here,” it’s me engaging with you, giving an invitation
to develop yourself a little bit more in this work that we’re doing. I
love directing because I love that exchange. I love sharing an idea with
somebody else to get to the nucleus of how we exist in the world. That
is why I do theater.

WHAT DOES THEATER DO FOR THE HUMANS?

NATAKI: I feel like theater is the one medium that intersects the ways
in which humans express themselves. You can exchange ideas around
how we live, how we survive, and how we love in a living, breathing
space with other people. It’s immersive, it’s an old practice to sit and
listen to somebody reflect humanity back to us. It’s an old practice that

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46 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | spring 2022