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Rediscovering Japan: Keio University

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In early June 2017, I visited my family and friends in Tokyo, Japan. An additional purpose of this trip was to present a paper on theatre education in the United States at the Japanese Society for Theatre Research Conference.

This event is held on the campus of Keio University located in Hiyoshi, Yokohama, about 12 miles west of the central Tokyo, my alma mater. During my stay, I also visited the Tsukiji Fish Market, one of the most famous fish markets in the world. This essay is about Keio University.   [Read more…]

Courage and Camaraderie During the Reign of Terror: Moxie Theatre Produces ‘The Revolutionists’

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When historical women gather on stage—like Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls—their creativity, wittiness, and diversity transform into dynamic energy. The Moxie Theatre production of Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists, directed by Jennifer Eve Thorn, exemplifies that transformation.

Set in Paris in 1793 at the beginning of the Reign of Terror (1793-1794), The Revolutionists portrays four women who played different roles in the French Revolution. The central figure is writer Olympe de Gouges, who championed equal rights for women in the French Republic and wrote plays and pamphlets as well as giving speeches including the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.   [Read more…]

Collidescope 3.0: Adventures in Pre-and Post-Racial America

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In collaboration with Ping Chong and Talvin Wilks, the Department of Theatre and Dance at Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, North Carolina, staged Collidescope 3.0: Adventures in Pre-and Post-Racial America in February 2017 at the Tedford Stage. Written by Chong and Wilks and directed by Chong, Collidescope 3.0 uses movement, video projections, and a collaged and collided soundscape to explore black and white relations in American history. Set in a space ship, Collidescope 3.0’s characters are aliens who take an anthropological look at the human race in the United State from 1775 to the present.

In the prologue, a group of the aliens are examining the murder scene of Trayvon Martin. In contrast to this prologue, the epilogue presents a ritual of commemoration for all African Americans who have fallen victim to racially motivated violence.
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Race, Gender and Nostalgia: Lydia R. Diamond’s Play ‘Smart People’

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Arena Stage is presenting the Washington DC premiere of Lydia R. Diamond’s Smart People at its Kreeger Theater. Directed by Seema Sueko, the show is filled with ricocheting words on race and gender stereotypes and their effects on different aspects of society in the United States. Set in the period from September 2007 to January 20, 2009, four “smart people” in Cambridge, Massachusetts unpack race and gender related issues in their professional and personal lives, politics, and economy in the times of optimism and hope.

The four characters are, in one way or the other, affiliated with Harvard University, an elite institution peopled by “smart people.” They are: Valerie Johnston, an aspiring and struggling African American actor (with an MFA degree in theatre); Brian White, a white professor of cognitive neuroscience; Ginny Yang, an Asian American (Chinese-Japanese American) professor of psychology, specializing in anxiety and depression among Asian American women, and counsellor; and Jackson Moore, an African American emergency room doctor who is in the process of getting a residency. During the course of the play, these characters encounter, begin relationships, and in some cases, experience their fallouts.   [Read more…]

Working with ‘New Americans’: Catherine Holmes’ Speech at the Women’s Leadership Symposium at Kent State University

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On January 27, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that banned immigration from seven Muslim majority countries. That weekend, San Diego International Airport was packed with people who raised their voices against the order. When Trump’s revised travel ban was issued on March 6, 2017, again, hundreds of protesters gathered at San Diego International Airport to show their support for refugee and immigrant populations. I recently attended an event that increased my understanding of the refugee problem and the falsehoods that the ban is based upon.

On March 1, 2017, I attended the 4th Annual Women’s Leadership Symposium: Framing Art and Protest at Kent State University, Kent Ohio. The keynote speaker was Catherine Holmes, manager of the Office for New Americans (a New York State funded program) within the Catholic Charities of Onondaga County.   [Read more…]

Family Reconciliation in Twilight: World Premier of ‘Firepower’

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The Detroit Repertory Theatre’s world premiere of Firepower, written by Kermit Frazier and directed by Lynch Travis, explores the challenge of trust, honesty, respect, and love through the reunion of two generations of African American men.

Using the familiar structure of a family reunion and reconciliation, Firepower is packed with a number of issues and subjects from the history of the civil rights movement, racism and exploitation in American sports, search for and expression of identity, and the need for change toward further inclusion and diversity.   [Read more…]

The MOXIE Theatre production of Blue Door

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Exploring Self-Identity through Conversations with Ancestors 

By Yuko Kurahashi

The MOXIE Theatre production of Blue Door by Tanya Barfield, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, portrays a middle-aged African-American mathematics professor Lewis’s search for his identity and history by bearing witness to the paths of his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father.

Set in the bedroom of his apartment in 1995, Lewis opens the play with a monolog about his wife of 25 years (she never appears on stage) who has just left him, asking for a divorce. According to Lewis, his wife, who is white, is divorcing him because he would not participate in the Million Man March. This historical march held on October 16, 1995, was led by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan who called for black men to gather in Washington, D.C. to reflect and change their roles both in the private and public spheres. Lewis explains his unwillingness to participate in this historical event disappointed his wife.     [Read more…]

Love and Compassion through a Spoof: The Coronado Playhouse Production of ‘Altar Boyz’

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By Yuko Kurahashi

Coronado Playhouse is staging Altar Boyz, directed and choreographed by Michael Mizerany, as the first show of its 71st Season. In the intimate 120-seat theatre space adjacent to the Coronado Community Center, audiences are seated at tables to enjoy beverages and snacks before and during the show.

Set in Coronado at the present time, the Christian band members from a small town in Ohio are performing the last night of their national “Raise the Praise Tour.” The Boys—Mathew (Cody Ingram), Mark (SeeJay Lewis), Luke (Peter Armado), Juan (Patrick Mayuyu), and Abraham (Dennis Peters)—parody such contemporary issues as religious and racial tolerance and identity. Using music and dance from rap, hip-hop, funk, jazz, to modern, the Boys make fun of established religion, including the Catholic Church’s rules and customs in “Church Rules.” The show also criticizes, with humor, the impracticality of sexual abstinence for boys.   [Read more…]

Music as Self-Expression: Hershey Felder in ‘Our Great Tchaikovsky’

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By Yuko Kurahashi

The world-premiere of Hershey Felder’s Our Great Tchaikovsky (directed by Trevor Hay and dramaturged by Meghan Maiya) at the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Stage portrays Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s life (1840-1893) and music.

During the show’s run (January 12-February 12), the Repertory Theatre is also exhibiting the work of Boris Malkin (1908-1973) in its newly renovated gallery. A Belarusian (formerly Soviet Union) artist, Malkin created hundreds of works ranging from oil paintings, watercolors, drawings to wood sculpture and scenic design. The exhibition serves as a wonderful preshow.   [Read more…]

A Performance for Social Justice: The Life and Times of Patricia Prewitt

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COUNT TIME! — A Theater Production

Yuko Kurahashi

Since 1986 Patty has been incarcerated with no hope of parole until 2036. She is currently locked away in the Women’s Eastern Reception Diagnostic Correctional Center (WERDCC) in Vandalia, Missouri. Drawing upon her interviews with Patty, her daughter, lawyers, friends, a sister inmate, as well as portraying the prosecutor in his own words from his book: Practice To Deceive, Townsend crafted and has performed the piece to raise public awareness of the injustice Patty and her family continue to endure. The piece also addresses how other incarcerated individuals suffer injustice under our punitive criminal justice system.

Townsend met Patty Prewitt through the late Daniel H. Kohl, who served for many years on the board of directors of St. Louis’s Prison Performing Arts organization. In 2013, Kohl approached Townsend at a fundraiser for the Actor’s Theatre of St. Louis.   [Read more…]

‘IN THE VA VA VOOM ROOM’ Captures Diversity, Complexity and Transformation

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By Yuko Kurahashi

Michael Mizerany presents the second installment of his cabaret series IN THE VA VA VOOM ROOM, “a contemporary burlesque,” at Diversionary Theatre through this weekend only. For the first installment presented in January 2016 was described by critics “fun” and “titillating.” Both words are easily applied to this year’s installment.

Award-winning dancer and choreographer, Mizerany performed with San Diego’s Malashock Dance and served as associate artistic director until 2013. Currently Mizerany is the artistic director for Compulsion Dance & Theater. He has presented a number of works at Diversionary Theatre, including [manhandled], Man Clan, Hot Guys Dancing, and A New Brain.

This second installment of IN THE VA VA VOOM ROOM proves Mizerany and his collaborators’ excellence in choreography, dramatization, theatricalization and dancing. Different types of dance—many of them using Horton Technique—include contemporary, modern, heel, pole, erotic, and stripping, choreographed by Andrew Holmes, Caryn Ipapo-Glass, Zaquia Mahler Salinas, Cara Steen, and Michael Mizerany.   [Read more…]

National Report: The Clinton-Kaine Campaign Checks In From Kent, Ohio

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By Yuko Kurahashi

This month the 2016 Clinton-Kaine Campaign hosted the grand opening of its office headquarters out of Portage County in Kent, Ohio.

In freshly painted rooms and the lawn in front of the office campaign, volunteers and supporters engaged in conversation, reflecting the campaign slogan “Stronger Together.”

Present at the opening were Mike Kerrigan, candidate for Portage County Commissioner and Brad Cromes, candidate for Portage County Treasurer. Cromes brought his toddler son to the opening and said he would like his children to grow up in the world of positivism and hope, not of fear and hatred.

The guest speaker was Richard Schiff, known for his Emmy Award winning role as Toby Ziegler on The West Wing.   [Read more…]

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