East West Players presents the 2005 tour of Theatre for Youth Manzanar: Story of an American Family
East West Players, the nation's premier Asian Pacific American theatre, will present its Theater for Youth program Manzanar: Story of an American Family to middle and high school youth from May 2-27, 2005. The 40-minute touring show will perform at schools and community venues throughout Los Angeles County.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, ordering more than 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans to be incarcerated without due process and relocated to internment camps in desolate areas around the United States.
"According to a survey commissioned by the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation in 2000, 32 percent of all adults polled are unsure or deny that Japanese Americans were interned during World War II. Many people are ignorant to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II despite it being a defining moment in American history. Our touring production of Manzanar will not only entertain but also educate the public and ensure that youth learn that interning an entire community is not the answer in a time of war," said East West Players Producing Artistic Director Tim Dang.
Manzanar: Story of an American Family personalizes the experiences of upheaval and discrimination that the Japanese American community had to endure in the United States during wartime hysteria. Parents Toyo and Mieko Shimada struggle to hold their family together as their hopes and dreams are shattered by their relocation from their San Pedro home to the Manzanar internment camp near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Owens Valley, CA. The young daughter, Margaret, dreams of becoming a singer and the older son, Yoshi, deals with his conflicted feelings about interment by eventually enlisting for service in the U.S. Army, changing the family forever.
"A project such as Manzanar that can educate as well as elicit emotion and compassion is a powerful and important piece to add to the body of work that tells the story of the camp experience. Music is a great way to express emotions that are too limited by words," Dang added. "And I think that the Internment is a perfect example of an event in which mere words cannot fully convey the depth of the human experience."
Directed by longtime East West Players artist Mike Hagiwara, the cast includes Jalin Hsu, Kurt Kuniyoshi, Michael Sun Lee, John Miyasaki, Michael Ng, Helen Ota, Kristina Reyes and Julia May Wong.
Based on the full-length epic musical written by Rus McCoy and Dan Taguchi, Manzanar: Story of an American Family was previously presented as staged readings by East West Players. The cost to book the 40-minute touring version is $750 for one show, $1,400 for two and $2,000 for three. The show is accompanied with written curricula and suggested follow-up activities for classroom use. To schedule a performance contact Education Tour Coordinator Antoine Diel at (213) 625-7000 x21 or adiel@eastwestplayers.org.
For more information on East West Players Theatre for Youth programs contact Marilyn Tokuda at mtokuda@eastwestplayers.org or (213) 625-7000 x15.
Manzanar: Story of an American Family is supported in part by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, Target Corporation and Amgen Foundation.
