Actor ~ Playwright ~ Director ~ Producer ~ Teaching Artist ~ Costume Designer
Anne Yumi Kobori is a Japanese-American multi-disciplinary theatre artist with a passion for immersive storytelling and reimagined mythology. She believes in live theatre as a unique and powerful form of human connection. Anne has performed with Berkeley REP Ground Floor, SF Shakespeare Festival, Silicon Valley Shakespeare (formerly Shady Shakespeare), Arabian Shakespeare Festival, PlayGround, Moxie Arts NY, Amios ShotzSF, Contra Costa Civic Theatre, Woman's Will, Bay Area Children's Theatre, Palo Alto Players, Stagebridge Theatre Co., Cardboard Box Theatre Project, and with college companies in New York and the Bay Area. In 2014 Anne founded Utopia Theatre Project in order to support emerging artists and produce theatre which inspires social change and actor-audience connection. She graduated summa cum laude from Santa Clara University with a BA in Theatre Arts.
Upcoming Projects:
"Two Detectives are Better than One" PlayGround SF. Writer. Nov 15, Freight & Salvage "The Hollow" City Lights Theater Company. Actor. Jan 20 - Feb 20 "Neo Symposium" A.C.T. MFA program. Writer/Collaborator March 2022 "Braided" Theatre of Yugen, NEA Ongoing development, 2021-2022 Co-writer. |
Playwriting
Anne was selected as a member of PlayGroundSF's Writers Pool again this year! Her piece Two Detectives are Better Than One premiered at Freight & Salvage in November 2021. She has written multiple short plays for virtual production: The Art of Suffrage (Best of PlayGround), Coward's Flame, and Give Me the Sky (MondayNightPlayGround, Simulation (Pear Theatre), Roses in the Desert (Dragon Theatre) and The Disappearance of Betty La Rose (Neighborhood Stories). Her full-length plays Seeds and Every Day Alice, and adaptation of The Seagull, have premiered with Utopia Theatre Project. The Scourge of Verona, her comedic short, won the 2021 Audience Favorite Award in Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s 48Hr Playfest. Currently, she is a co-writer for Braided, a new play exploring Native American liberation and Japanese American resilience. Braided is in development with Theatre of Yugen, NEA -funded, and received a workshop showcase with TheatreWorks' Writer Retreat in January. Anne is also the Writer/Collaborator for the A.C.T MFA production of Neo-Symposium, directed by Shannon R. Davis and premiering in March 2022.
Anne was selected as a member of PlayGroundSF's Writers Pool again this year! Her piece Two Detectives are Better Than One premiered at Freight & Salvage in November 2021. She has written multiple short plays for virtual production: The Art of Suffrage (Best of PlayGround), Coward's Flame, and Give Me the Sky (MondayNightPlayGround, Simulation (Pear Theatre), Roses in the Desert (Dragon Theatre) and The Disappearance of Betty La Rose (Neighborhood Stories). Her full-length plays Seeds and Every Day Alice, and adaptation of The Seagull, have premiered with Utopia Theatre Project. The Scourge of Verona, her comedic short, won the 2021 Audience Favorite Award in Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s 48Hr Playfest. Currently, she is a co-writer for Braided, a new play exploring Native American liberation and Japanese American resilience. Braided is in development with Theatre of Yugen, NEA -funded, and received a workshop showcase with TheatreWorks' Writer Retreat in January. Anne is also the Writer/Collaborator for the A.C.T MFA production of Neo-Symposium, directed by Shannon R. Davis and premiering in March 2022.
Acting
In January 2022, Anne will make her debut with City Lights Theater Company as Henrietta Angkatell in Agatha Christie's The Hollow. She was most recently seen as Masha in Utopia's immersive production of The Three Sisters. Additional performance credits include Nina in The Seagull, Alice in Every Day Alice (Utopia), the title role in Hamlet, Desdemona in Othello (Silicon Valley Shakespeare), Celia in As You Like It the musical (SF Shakespeare Festival), Peggy Maruyama in Allegiance (CCCT), and numerous ShotzSF comedy shorts.
In January 2022, Anne will make her debut with City Lights Theater Company as Henrietta Angkatell in Agatha Christie's The Hollow. She was most recently seen as Masha in Utopia's immersive production of The Three Sisters. Additional performance credits include Nina in The Seagull, Alice in Every Day Alice (Utopia), the title role in Hamlet, Desdemona in Othello (Silicon Valley Shakespeare), Celia in As You Like It the musical (SF Shakespeare Festival), Peggy Maruyama in Allegiance (CCCT), and numerous ShotzSF comedy shorts.
*Hamlet Photography above by Evelyn Huynh.