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 1970’s 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 Narrator

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.”