“The Crease Question” is a collection of pieces written and performed by Kira Onodera as she explores issues ranging from racial identity and restaurant culture to love and infidelity. The show begins with a spoken word/ slam poetry style piece called “Unresolved” it is a meditation on letting go of a relationship that has hit a dead end. “The Crease Question” progresses through issues of culture and race as experienced by the writer/performer as her first job in New York in a Malaysian restaurant, the piece is called “A Night in the Life”. It is fast paced, funny and provocative.

“As a person of mixed race (my mother is Caucasian and my father is Japanese American) questions of racial identity do not often arise from within but more from others. Every day as I navigate through peoples’ curiosity about my heritage; it’s their anxiety and tension that I confront and their unrelenting need to categorize me and to understand into which box I fit that finds its way into most of my conversations with strangers. Confronting this need, discussing my thoughts and dissecting these interactions emotionally creates exciting theater.”

Folded into this journey to personal freedom is the story of the darker side of dysfunctional family relationships with a piece called “The Runaway”. As the piece unfolds in the immediacy of the moment we are introduced to a deluded stepfather and a haunted closet door. Kira is 18 again, delving into this frightening re-enactment of the night she exposed a family secret. The piece reveals that true freedom is gained through opening a door from the inside.

“To covet, to take what it not yours” is how the next piece begins. Kira explores her role as “the other woman”, dancing to the Pussycat Dolls, question her self-worth and trying not to confuse girl power with sexual exploitation. A love story at its core, Kira explores her own demons as this tragic piece reminds us how simple it never is.

The Crease Question ends with its title piece. The crease in question is a reference to the “double” crease of the eyelid most people of Asian descent do not possess. Kira reflects on the “missing” crease after participating as a model for a classroom of make-up artists. Doing battle with humiliation, Kira discovers humor, then self realization.

With a dynamic story telling technique (using dance, stylized movement, live voices from other actors and an incredible soundtrack) the monologues flow from one to the other with an energetic rhythm. "The Crease Question" is a raw, engaging and passionately personal piece that walks the tightrope between bitter experience and raucous fun.