The Gift of Sadako and Her Cranes
In this original show with music, I use magic, story, and song to explore Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr.
I first encountered the book as a child in the library, and in the show I share how Sadako and the gift of her courage changed the little half-Japanese-American boy I was. In the process, the audience learns how 12-year-old Sadako, stricken with leukemia from the bombing of Hiroshima, follows a tradition of folding a thousand paper cranes to be granted a wish. The show draws upon and honors as well the September 2018 publication of The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki by Sadako’s brother Masahiro Sasaki and was developed with support from 4Culture.