East West Players announces 39th Anniversary Season: New Perspectives
East West Players, the nation's premier Asian American theatre organization, continues its tradition of giving voice to the Asian Pacific Islander community with its 39th Anniversary season of plays. Under the theme New Perspectives and a season of four world premieres, East West Players will present stories that broaden and explore the perspectives of the Asian and Asian American experience.
"The ongoing growth and diversification of Asian America provides us with a unique opportunity to consider the long-held ideas and labels of the Asian American community. Through the plays of our 39th Anniversary season we hope to examine the world around us and see what truths‚ really exist and discover the facts‚ in our histories," said East West Players Producing Artistic Director Tim Dang.
The season opener is the world premiere of Mixed Messages by Cherylene Lee. Merging science, art and politics, Lee's play is inspired by the Census 2000 report of growing populations of people of mixed heritage in California. It was developed during Lee's NEA/TCG Playwright Residency with East West Players through interviews with high school students of mixed heritage and research informed by the writer's own degree in paleontology from UC Berkeley, master's degree in geology from UCLA and her volunteer work at the La Brea Tar Pits. Lee is also the author of Carry the Tiger to the Mountain.
Mixed Messages explores the journey of a "mixed" woman (Japanese, Chinese and British) who discovers that her cranial features are extremely similar to that of the 9,000 year-old women fossil found in the La Brea Tar Pits in 1914. The realization sparks emotional duels pitting science against culture, ethnicity against heritage, and the individual against institutions in defining those of "mixed" backgrounds.
Mixed Messages previews September 9-12, 2004. The play opens September 15, 2004 and runs through October 10, 2004. Support is provided in part by The James Irvine Foundation.
The second show of East West Players 39th Anniversary Season is the world premiere of As Vishnu Dreams by Shishir Kurup and a co-production with Cornerstone Theater Company. Created in collaboration with the Los Angeles Hindu community, As Vishnu Dreams is a contemporary adaptation of the epic Hindu poem The Ramayana. The play explores the association of the lightness and darkness of skin with good and evil in the Hindu cosmology by examining the complicated relationship of the "fair" Queen Sita, the "wicked" Ravana and the "hero" Rama. Drawing on materials from Indian classical literature transformed to reflect the contemporary experience of South Asians in Los Angeles, As Vishnu Dreams is an intriguing exploration of the nature of morality, spirituality and the power of myth upon modern culture.
As Vishnu Dreams previews will be November 4-7, 2004. The play opens November 10, 2004 and runs through December 5, 2004. Support is provided in part by The James Irvine Foundation.
East West Players third production of the 39th Anniversary Season is to be announced.
The fourth and final play of the season is the world premiere of the musical Imelda, book by Sachi Oyama, lyrics by Aaron Coleman and music by Nathan Wang, created in collaboration with the Academy for New Musical Theatre.
This new musical details the rise, fall and exile of the infamous Imelda Marcos using song and dance. Does the story of the First Lady of the Philippines go beyond the shoes? In this musical biography, an Imelda emerges aggressive, naïve and ultimately discovers that her husband‚s newfound power is a means to obtain everything she was once denied. Thief or political ploy? Greed or need?
Imedla previews will be May 5-8, 2005. The play opens May 11, 2005 and runs through June 5, 2005. Support is provided in part by The James Irvine Foundation.
East West Players will also offer a special holiday bonus show The Nisei Widows Club On Thin Ice. Inspired by the success and outstanding support from the Japanese American community of East West Players 2003 production of The Nisei Widows Club, Producing Artistic Director Tim Dang, Arts Education Director Marilyn Tokuda and actor/writer Denise Iketani will once again collaborate to create this holiday initiative.
Join us as the women of The Nisei Widows Club return to sing, dance and act in a variety show for the Little Tokyo Community.
The Nisei Widows Club On Thin Ice opens December 10, 2004 and closes December 19, 2004. Support is provided in part by The James Irvine Foundation.
All performances for East West Players‚ 38th Anniversary Season are held Thursday-Sunday (with Opening Nights on Wednesdays) at the David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 in the Little Tokyo District of Downtown Los Angeles. All plays and dates subject to change.
