THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Early play took an unflinching look at the trauma of the wartime incarceration

The form of this week’s column is new for me. Rather than focusing on individual Japanese Americans, it covers (or recovers) the unknown story of a pioneering theatrical drama, by the name of “Tondemonai — Never Happen!” It premiered in Los Angeles in May of 1970, and was the first commercially-produced play to dramatize the […]

East West Players premieres ‘Wrinkles’

LOS ANGELES — The East West Players (EWP), the nation’s premier Asian American theatre company premieres “Wrinkles” by Paul Kikuchi, a sticky comedy about sex, lies and Tiger Balm. Grandpa Harry has a big secret. Unbeknownst to his daughter and grandson, 73-year-old Nisei Harry Fukutani is an Internet sensation. But his works are only accessible when […]