Breadcrumbs to Find Your Way

How to find what you're looking for

Look to the Resources page to find a glossary, a short video with inspiration images for the production, pictures of the cast and crew, and bios
Look to the Hans Christian Andersen page for information about his life, a timeline of his achievements and works, and some information on his real-life love interests that inspired characters in the play
Look to the Areas of Research page to find a synopsis of research the dramaturg has done on fairy tales and culture, the process of adaptation, different types of love, a story of water, and how industry has shaped storytelling.

About the Playwright

Meet Julia Izumi, a wearer of many hats, including a playwright, performer, and educator. She received her MFA in Writing for Performance from Brown University and has gone on to receive nominations for awards including becoming a finalist in the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and an honorable mention on the Kilroys List. She also won the Dorry Award for Outstanding New Play for Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea. She is now a residing playwright at New Dramatists and continues to work on farcical, magical plays that welcome the audience into new experiences with kindness, joy, and humor. For more about Julia, you can check out her personal website.

Why This Play Now?

Adaptations are deeply rooted in theatre history and practice. The earliest plays of Greece were adaptations of myths, theatre adapted to become liturgical in the Middle Ages when it was taboo to perform secular works, themes of theatre have adapted to meet and change rules throughout history, plays were adapted to screenplays for movies, on and on, theatre has adapted to survive. Recently, with the flood of “live-action adaptations” that Disney has poured out, people have gotten tired of adaptations. Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea is the perfect answer to that exhaustion as it does not “adapt” the story of The Little Mermaid merely by presenting it in a new format, it allows the characters to speak for themselves in new ways and looks at the story through a new angle. It allows the author to speak as well, giving light to a part of Hans Christian Andersen that has been buried and hidden; a part that deeply loved women and men around him in ways that couldn’t be expressed. We should perform this play now because it opens up conversations on different kinds of love, the power of storytelling, and because it is an example of what adaptations have the power to be: groundbreaking and new, not just a new package, but a new perspective.

Note from the Dramaturg

Perhaps, in your mind, fairy tales have gone to a land and a time far, far away.

They were for you, but a different you. A you that didn't have to worry about taxes or relationships or a sink that is drip, drip, dripping.

But fairy tales are just as much for this you as they were for the other you. They can be a great reminder of those happier, warmer, fuzzier, less worrisome times. They can put on a new hat and surprise you with new ideas. They can be a place to connect with friends you haven't met yet over favorite stories and characters and tropes (oh my). Or they can simply be stories that you like. Stories that give you a little spoonful of sugar (while you're trying to ignore that constant drip, drip, dripping).

That is why we storytellers invite you to our production. We want to remind you of the power and joy found in storytelling. We want to introduce you to the world of what adaptations of old stories can say and do in our modern world. We want to welcome you into the magic world of make believe as we tell you the story of Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea.

So, welcome one and all to the world of "once upon a time"

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