Look Inside Cuckoo Edible Magic with Playwright Reed Flores
Check out this exclusive interview with Reed Flores, the playwright for Cuckoo Edible Magic where we delve into the inspiration behind the play, the challenges of bringing it to life, and what audiences can expect from this theatrical experience.
Q: So, what is Cuckoo Edible Magic about?
Cuckoo Edible Magic is a buddy-adventure-sci-fi-family-trauma play. Two best friends, Ren and Mai, go on a seemingly mundane trip to the corner store to get a rice cooker. When an unexpected villain pops up, Ren and Mai are forced to save the entire Bay Area – and need to get their community on board to help them. It’s silly, it’s frenetic, it’s frantic, it’s fun.
Q: Wow, what inspired you to write that?
I love this story – I was watching a TikTok in front of a coffee shop. It was a “stitch”, in which one content creator goes, “you wanna know why Asians don’t raisin? ‘Cause we steam our faces with our rice cookers! ~youth~ ~youth~”. Another creator stitched that video, where they, in a martial arts stance, lift a rice cooker above their head, and with a guttural yell, exclaim “YOOUUUUUTH! YOUUUUUUTH! LONGEVITY!!!!!”
That sent me on a laugh attack for five minutes. And once the laugh attack ended, I thought about a story where a man goes on an epic battle to win the “golden rice cooker.” In my brainstorm, he would have to fight different bosses at each level, attaining a prize with every win. I wrote ten pages that night – those are the same ten pages you’ll see onstage.
Honestly, the more I wrote Cuckoo, the more I saw an opportunity for my colleagues to shine onstage in roles that embrace their humanity. I wanted a script where we healed and hurt, laughed and cried, were villains, lovers, heroes, and more. Long (mushy) story short, my colleagues inspired me.
Q: This story feels like it's right out of an anime! How is that going to come to life on stage?
Well that’s up to our dope-ass director, Michelle Talgarow, and our incredible actors and designers. It’s taken on so many different iterations, but I think Michelle has such a wonderful handle on how to make magic in a lo-fi way. So, there’ll be flashlights and foley, funny costumes, action figures, toy cars, and more.
Q: What else should audiences expect from the show?
First and foremost, I think the audience should expect to laugh. If we’ve done our job right, they should be rolling on the floor, slapping the knee, hee-haw’ing. And, then, after we’ve laughed, I hope we cry a little.
Ultimately, although I think this play is super specific to a certain experience, I do think there’s a universality in the difficulties of family dynamics (blood and chosen) that we highlight in this play. For blood family, Cuckoo explores the “duties” we’ve been socialized to expect of each other, as children, as parents, as siblings. For chosen family, we interrogate the purpose of these family members – are we close because you make me feel safe? Are we close because you challenge me? Because we grow together? I think those questions, that exploration, transcends identity.
Also, an anecdote – Alex Trono, who played Pop/Unk in the New Roots Theatre Festival, set an intention for one of our performances: “I hope a dad calls his son today.” An intention that feels universal – an intention that feels especially apt for this play.
With this script, there's like a ton of joy that comes along with it, but there's also a lot of like unpacking trauma and unpacking our experiences that comes with a lot of pain as well.