What You Are Now Audiobook

Are we stuck with our memories, or can we fix them?

Pia is a neuroscientist whose research focuses on changing the way we process traumatic experiences. Will Pia’s emotionally distant mother—who survived the Khmer Rouge in 1970s Cambodia—benefit from her daughter’s work? Or are some things just too terrible to remember?

Includes a conversation with Dr. Daniela Schiller, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

What You Are Now is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series of science-themed plays. Lead funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, bridging science and the arts in the modern world.

Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in November 2022. Directed by Anna Lyse. Erikson Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording starring: Carie Kawa as Pia. Tess Lina as Chantrea. Joe Ngo as Darany. Samantha Quan as Siobhan. Mark Jude Sullivan as Evan. Greg Watanabe as the narrato.

Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson. Prepared for Audio by Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Recording Engineer, Editor and Mixer: Charles Carroll. Sound Design by Charles Carroll and David Wilson. Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin. Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner.

The original song “What You Are Now” is by Him Sophy, founder of the Him Sophy School of Music in Pnomh Penh. Special thanks to Professor Craig Woodson and Dr. Terry Miller for their recording of “The Sorrowful King” from “Roots of Rhythm.net.”

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“Japanese American actor Carie Kawa and Khmer/Chinese/American actor-musician Joe Ngo bring authenticity and a smart conversational style to this heartrending story…This L.A. Theatre Works live production offers a heady mix of fine theater, speculative science, and a deep dive into the effects of trauma on an entire culture. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

— AudioFile