The Nippon Kan, a theatre hall built by Seattle's Japanese immigrants, went dark when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942, removing Americans of Japanese descent from the West Coast. Au Yong's auto-ethnographic essay addresses how nostalgia and identity affect performances in the present, incorporating voiceovers, program notes, and the ruminations of a pianist to complicate his memories of Woman, Monkey, and Kabuki Joe, which premiered at the Nippon Kan. Winner of TDR's Student Essay Contest for 2003.