The play I am Akiko confronts its audience with the theme of children's loneliness and what it means to grow up in a single-parent family. This serious, complex, and important topic, too often absent from children's literature and theatre, is explored through the perspective of Akiko who has a very different experience of growing up and maturing than her peers. Akiko's self-worth is not based on the number of friends she has, who they are, whether she belongs to a popular social group, the approval of others, nor whether her family conforms to the stereotypes she reads in fairy tales. Akiko's story teaches us how to be our own best friend and the performance explores whether loneliness is inherently a bad thing or whether it can also be a beautiful, exciting, inspiring, and creative opportunity.

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