Kurt Kwan, Sara Ochs, Eric Sharp and More Set for Mu Performing Arts production of R.A. Shiomi’s Yellow Fever in Guthrie’s Dowling Studio, March 8-24, 2013

Mu Performing Arts production of Yellow Fever, written by R.A. Shiomi, will be performed in Guthrie’s Dowling Studio from March 8-24, 2013 and directed by Rick Shiomi. The play is a groundbreaking noir comedy in the Asian American theatrical canon told through the eyes of Sam Shikaze, a nisei (second generation Japanese) Canadian detective that explores themes of political deception and cultural assimilation.

Sara Ochs and Kurt Kwan in R.A. Shiomi’s Yellow Fever

Yellow Fever premiered in San Francisco in 1982 and was produced Off-Broadway to critical acclaim by Pan Asian Repertory Theater later that same year. The New York Times‘ Mel Gussow called the show, “…so captivating that it makes one eager for further adventures of the inimitable Sam Shikaze,” and named it a “New York Times Critic’s Pick.” Edith Oliver of The New Yorker observed, “Yellow Fever is a funny mystery-a real mystery that is, that parodies private eye movies and also tucks in quite a lot of social comment without ever breaking its own comic mood.”

Yellow Fever features Mu favorites including Kurt Kwan (Sam Shikaze), Sara Ochs (Nancy Wing), and Eric Sharp (Captain Kadota). Guthrie audiences may remember Kwan from his starring roles in Mu’s Dowling Studio productions of Cowboy Vs. Samurai and Yellow Face as well as recent appearances with Ten Thousand Things Theater. Ochs and Sharp were both featured in Mu’s recent smash hit Into the Woods. Ochs was seen in Company at Theater Latté Da this fall and Sharp performed in Frank Theatre’s The Way of Water.

The cast also features Wade Vaughn (Jameson), Jeannie Lander (Rosie), Alex Galick (Chuck Chan) and Brandon Ewald (Mackenzie). Vaughn and Walking Shadow Theatre Company were recognized with a 2012 Ivey Award for their production of Compleat Female Stage Beauty.

Set in Vancouver’s Little Tokyo, Yellow Fever follows 1970s detective Sam Shikaze as he attempts to solve the disappearance of the mysterious Cherry Blossom Queen. Shikaze becomes entangled in a web of political deception and racism that rouses memories of the Japanese-Canadian internment camps and leads to an unexpected romance.

The artistic team includes Joseph Stanley (Set Designer), Kathy Kohl (Costume Designer), Karin Olson (Lighting Designer), Forest Godfrey (Sound Designer), and Lisa Smith (Stage Manager).

Yellow Fever previews March 8, opens March 9, and continues through March 24, 2013 in the Dowling Studio. Single tickets start at $18 and are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org.

MU PERFORMING ARTS is one of the largest Asian American theater companies in the nation. Mu produces great performances born of arts, equality, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience. The company recently celebrated its 20th anniversary season with record-setting productions of Into the Woods and Mu Daiko’s 15th Anniversary Concert. Artistic Director Rick Shiomi was recently honored with an Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement. www.muperformingarts.org

The GUTHRIE THEATER (Joe Dowling, Director) was founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in 1963 and is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Tony Award-winning Guthrie Theater is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. With annual attendance of nearly 500,000 people, the Guthrie Theater presents a mix of classic plays and contemporary work on its three stages. Under the artistic leadership of Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie continues to set a national standard for excellence in theatrical production and performance. In 2006, the Guthrie opened its new home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, the Guthrie Theater houses three state-of-the-art stages, production facilities, classrooms and dramatic public lobbies. www.guthrietheater.org

Other articles on Mu Performing Arts:
Mu Performing Arts Presents World Premiere of Lauren Yee’s The Tiger Among Us at Mixed Blood Theatre, January 24 – February 10, 2013
Mu Daiko Performs at The Cowles Center in Minneapolis, November 8-11, 2012
Mu Performing Arts’ Artistic Director Rick Shiomi takes home Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement
Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts
Photos: Yellow Fever Playwright Rick Shiomi Explores New Territory with An All-Female Cast
Mu’s landmark 21st Season features a brand new Taiko Concert, Lauren Yee’s The Tiger Among Us, and Rick Shiomi’s Award-Winning comedy Yellow Fever
Rick Shiomi helms Mu Performing Arts’ Asian American Cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, July 17-August 5, 2012
Randy Reyes Embraces his Passion for Storytelling as an Actor, Director and Theater Educator
Randy Reyes directs Mu Performing Arts’ production of EDITH CAN SHOOT THINGS AND HIT THEM by A. Rey Pamatmat at Mixed Blood Theatre, March 13-April 1, 2012
Mu Performing Arts’ Little Shop of Horrors on 2 ‘Best of’ Lists; Women in Arts Panel on 1/29, in Conjunction with Mu Daiko’s 15th Anniversary Concert and Tour
Mu Daiko 15th Anniversary Concert and Minnesota Tour, February 9-19, 2012
Photos: Opening Night of Mu Performing Arts’ Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies
Photos: Backstage at Mu Performing Arts’ Four Destinies by Katie Hae Leo
Photos: On the town with Rick Shiomi, Co-Editor of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, in D.C. & NY
Temple Press: Rick Shiomi recounts his tour for “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”
Mu Blog: Rick Shiomi’s Book Tour Logbook
knightarts.org: Reading on the road inside the book tour
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2
“Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, A New Anthology of Asian American Plays Is Subject of Book Talk

Other articles by Lia Chang:
Two Trains Running at Two River Theater Company through March 3, 2013
Photos: David Henry Hwang’s The Dance and The Railroad Opening Night
Hold These Truths Opening Night at Honolulu Theatre for Youth’s Tenney Theatre with Daniel Dae Kim, Joel de la Fuente and Jeanne Sakata
Signature Theatre extends David Henry Hwang’s The Dance and The Railroad starring Ruy Iskandar and Yuekun Wu through March 24, 2013
Ron Domingo, Francis Jue and Jon Norman Schneider Join the Cast of the World Premiere of Paper Dolls at the Tricycle Theatre, February 28 – April 13, 2013
Harlem Nights with Lorey Hayes, Actress, Director and Award-Winning Playwright of Power Play and Massinissa
Photos: All-Access Pass to Disney’s Aladdin at The Muny with Thom Sesma, Francis Jue, Robin De Jesus, John Tartaglia, Jason Graae, Curtis Holbrook, Eddie Korbich, Samantha Massell and Ken Page
Performing Arts Images from the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection on Display at the Library of Congress to Celebrate APA Heritage Month
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2012 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto and Brian Mitsuhuro Wong perform in Hidden Legacy at Old First Concerts

On Sunday, November 9, at Old First Concerts in San Francisco, koto players Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto and her son, Brian Mitsuhiro Wong, along with traditional Japanese dancer Bando Misayasu will present Hidden Legacy: A Tribute to Teachers of Japanese Traditional Arts in the Internment Camps.

Sixty-three years have passed since the end of World War II and the incarceration of approximately 112,000 Japanese national and Japanese Americans in “relocation camps.” Though much has been researched and written about what happened in these camps, the story of the brave artists who practiced and taught Japanese traditional arts remains a “hidden legacy.”

On Sunday, November 9, at Old First Concerts in San Francisco, koto players Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto and her son, Brian Mitsuhiro Wong, along with traditional Japanese dancer Bando Misayasu will present Hidden Legacy: A Tribute to Teachers of Japanese Traditional Arts in the Internment Camps, a concert featuring Japanese traditional music and dance as a tribute to those teachers of Japanese traditional arts who taught in the camps.

Muramoto and Wong are granddaughter and great-grandson respectively of internees who encouraged the study of the koto at the Topaz and Tule Lake internment camps. Bando Misayasu is continuing a legacy of Japanese dance taught by Bando Mitsusa, who taught traditional Japanese odori to over 140 students at Tule Lake. Although she will not perform, Bando Mitsusa will make a special appearance as part of this tribute. Throughout the program, which will also feature historical photographs, information about the artists who taught in camps and how they were able to sustain their arts in such depressed circumstances will be highlighted, as well as the impact these teachers have had on present day artists and future students.

“The reason for organizing this concert,” stated Muramoto, “is that the subject of Japanese traditional music and dance in the camps has been largely overlooked. There appears to be a lingering stigma about this chapter of camp life, possibly due to the fact that practicing Japanese traditional arts in the camps was considered ‘un-American’or disloyal, so former internees continue their silence on the subject.”

Also appearing in this program will be Reiko Iwanaga, who is the daughter-in-law of Rev. Yoshio Iwanaga who brought Obon odori to the United States, Kazuhiro Watanabe (koto instructor, Miyagi School), Kanow Yofu Matsueda (shakuhachi), and dancers Bando Misamie and Bando Misashizu.

 

Hidden Legacy:  A Tribute to Teachers of Japanese Traditional Arts in the Internment Camps

Sunday, November 9, 2008 @ 4pm

Old First Concerts

1751 Sacramento St., at Van Ness

San Francisco

http://www.oldfirstconcerts.org

415-474-1608

Tickets: $15/general, $12/seniors and students w/ID

 

 

 

Lia Chang: Fred Korematsu, American Hero and Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 86

Fred Korematsu © Lia Chang

Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu, the civil rights activist and American Hero who challenged Executive Order 9066, a mandate issued by President Roosevelt that imprisoned Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II all the way to the Supreme Court, lost, but was vindicated forty years later, died Wednesday, March 30, 2005. He was 86.

Korematsu, who President Bill Clinton described as “helping to widen the circle of democracy by fighting for human rights, by righting social wrongs, and by empowering others to achieve,” died of respiratory failure at his daughter’s home in Larkspur, CA, said his attorney Dale Minami.

His path to legal vindication was the basis for the Emmy-winning 2002 PBS documentary Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story, co-produced by Eric Paul Fournier and Korematsu’s son, Ken Korematsu. Taking a look back at Korematsu’s challenge of the wartime incarceration of Japanese American citizens, the film follows his long ordeal to achieve personal justice and portrays his courage during and after the war while exploring the constitutional significance of his controversial landmark Supreme Court case.

An American citizen by birth, the 23-year old welder was among 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In the ensuing months, the Army issued orders rounding up these Americans into 10 Internment camps, each surrounded by barbed wire and machine gun towers and located in desolate regions from California to Arkansas.

Korematsu’s family was taken to Tanforan, a former racetrack south of San Francisco for processing, but he refused to go. Waiting until after the exclusion order deadline passed, he had plastic surgery to disguise his Asian features and lived his life with his Italian financee as a free man under the name Clyde Sarah until May 30, 1942, when he was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro, just south of Oakland.

Tried and convicted for failing to report for evacuation, he was relocated with his family to an internment camp in Topaz, UT, where he was ostracized by the Japanese American community for dodging the relocation order. Appealing his conviction to the Supreme Court, the court ruled against him, citing the simple reason that “we’re at war with Japan,” on December 18, 1944. For nearly forty years, Korematsu lived in silence with his criminal record, his own daughter Karen only became aware of the case when the Korematsu vs. United States case was taught in one of her high school classes.

Fred Korematsu’s fate seemed lost to the history books until 1981, when Peter Irons, a law professor writing a book about the internment, and Aiko Yoshinaga-Herzig, a Japanese American researching government archives, happened upon wartime memos written in 1943 and 1944 by Edward Ennis, the Justice Department attorney responsible for supervising the drafting of the government’s brief. As Ennis began searching for evidence to support the Army’s claim that the Internment was necessary and justified, he found precisely the opposite — that J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI, the FCC, the Office of Naval Intelligence and other authoritative intelligence agencies categorically denied that Japanese Americans had committed any wrong. Other memoranda characterized the government’s claims that Japanese Americans were spying as “intentional falsehoods.” These official reports were never presented to the Supreme Court, having been intentionally suppressed and, in one case, destroyed by setting the report afire.

Peter Irons knew he found a “smoking gun,” and tracked down Korematsu and the other two resisters- Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui– to ask about reopening their cases. Irons contacted noted civil rights attorney Dale Minami, who assembled a team of lawyers–mostly Asian American led by Karen Kai, Don Tamaki and Minami, who worked countless hours pro bono.

Recalls Minami, “Peter Irons called me in May of 1982 and told me about the evidence he had found. I had read these cases in law school, but for me they were taught as intellectual exercises about the balance of rights and due process. At that time Korematsu vs United States was not linked to human tragedy, loss of homes, broken dreams, or financial losses of income that people suffered. I called my colleague Don Tamaki at the Asian Law Caucus, a community interest law firm that I helped start, and disclosed the nature of the evidence. A number of attorneys I was working with had already been lobbying for redress for Japanese Americans. We worked in secrecy because we didn’t want any documents to ‘accidentally’ disappear from the archives.”

During the litigation, Justice Department lawyers offered a pardon to Korematsu if he would agree to drop his lawsuit. In rejecting the offer, Kathryn Korematsu, his wife of 58 years remarked “Fred was not interested in a pardon from the government; instead, he always felt that it was the government who should seek a pardon from him and from Japanese Americans for the wrong that was committed.”

On Jan. 19, 1983, the attorneys filed a writ of Coram Nobis–the legal term for a fundamental injustice committed before the court and discovered only after a sentence has been serviced. Korematsu’s legal team argued that government prosecutors suppressed, altered, and destroyed evidence presented to justify the convictions of the internment resisters. They also argued that the government committed fraud in prosecuting Korematsu because there was no reason to imprison Japanese Americans in internment camps. Personal justice came for Korematsu on November 10, 1983, when his war time criminal conviction was voided.

Minami recalled, “The decision was beautifully crafted. Immediately after our argument, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the US District Court of the Northern District of California made her ruling. She overturned Fred’s conviction and held that there was no military necessity for the military orders, that the military commander who issued the orders maintained views tainted by racism and that the United States Government had illegally suppressed, altered and destroyed evidence critical to the United States Supreme Court’s decision in 1944. The decision resounded in the ceremonial courtroom filled with about 800 people, mostly Japanese Americans. This was the trial they never had and after the decision the crowd erupted with applause, tears, and sniffling. I walked over to Fred after she announced her decision. Fred looked shell-shocked. And he asked, ‘What happened?’ I told him, ‘We won. You won your case.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘ That’s good.’ It took a while for it to sink in.”

In 1998, in the East Room of the White House, Korematsu received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. President Clinton praised his act of defiance as an “extraordinary stand” and his introduction of Korematsu reflects the significance of his achievements: “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls…Plessy, Brown, Parks…To that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”

According to attorney Dale Minami, “The Korematsu case is considered one of the most important legal cases in civil and minority rights. In 1942 when Japanese Americans were taken away, nobody stood for them. Some of the most liberal groups in the country-the ACLU in New York failed to take a stand for them; the National Lawyer’s Guild refused. In 1987 when redress was passed, and 1988 when the bill was signed by President Reagan, Japanese Americans had a lot of allies, they did not stand alone. In addition to revealing the injustice of the internment, the decision was also significant in its relation to the redress movement which led to the passage of a bill awarding $20,000 in reparations and a formal apology from the government to each of the surviving internees.”

Korematsu was the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of San Francisco, California State University Hayward, McGeorge School of Law, and the City University of New York Law School, in addition to official recognition from the California State Senate.

Fred T. Korematsu, a longtime resident of San Leandro, CA is survived by his wife, Kathryn, his daughter, Karen Korematsu-Haigh, and his son, Ken Korematsu. Supporting her father’s interest in civil rights, his daughter helped to found the Korematsu Civil Rights Fund sponsored by the Asian Law Caucus, the oldest Asian American public interest law firm in the nation. Karen remarked, “I know he was the country’s hero, but he was my personal hero.”

The memorial service is on Sat., Apr. 16th at 1:30pm at First Presbyterian Church, 2619 Broadway in Oakland, followed by a reception at the church in Fellowship Hall. The attorneys for Fred have established the Fred Korematsu Memorial Fund in a trust account for additional small donations or Koden (Japanese custom of offering small donations to the deceased’s family) to help with costs of the memorial service. Any amount remaining in this account after expenses will be donated to the organizations listed below. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the organizations listed.

Donations for the Fred Korematsu Memorial Fund can be sent to Minami, Lew & Tamaki Law Offices, 360 Post St., 8th Fl., SF, CA 94108

Fred Korematsu Civil Rights Fund
Asian Law Caucus, 939 Market Street #201, SF, CA 94103
http://www.asianlawcaucus.org
American Civil Liberties Union, Northern California Chapter
1663 Mission Street, SF, CA 94103
http://www.aclunc.org/donate.html

Fred Korematsu Memorial Fund

First Presbyterian Church, 2619 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer and an award-winning multimedia journalist. Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog. As a photographer and videographer, Lia is frequently tapped to collaborate with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden.