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Photos: On the Town with Rick Shiomi, Co-Editor of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, in Washington D.C. and New York
On Wednesday, July 27, I reconnected with Rick Shiomi, the author of one of my favorite plays, “Yellow Fever,” when we were both in Washington D.C. at the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson Building. The groundbreaking Asian-North American playwright, taiko troupe leader, and artistic director of Mu Performing Arts, was on a week long book tour to promote “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” (Temple University Press, June 2011), which he co-edited with Josephine Lee and Don Eitel.
Rick Shiomi with my display of photos “In Rehearsal”, drawn from the Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection. Photo by Lia Chang
Reme Grefalda, the curator of the Asian Pacific Islander Collection, had put together a marvelous program which included his talk about the Anthology, and a week-long display in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress.
Rick Shiomi looks at a glass case of the published works of his fellow Asian American Theater Pioneering peers including Frank Chin, Philip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Velina Hasu Houston and Genny Lim. Photo by Lia Chang
The
display
featured
37
photographs
drawn
from
the
Lia
Chang
Theater
Portfolio
including
Thom
Sesma’s
Makeup
Transformation
as
Scar
in
Disney’s
“The
Lion
King
Las
Vegas”;
rehearsals
of
a
staged
concert
of
Robert
Lee
and
Leon
Ko’s
musical
“
Version 3.0, a major new collection of contemporary Asian American plays edited by Chay Yew
Version
3.0,
a
major
new
collection
of
contemporary
Asian
American
plays
edited
by
Chay
Yew,
is
hot
off
the
presses
courtesy
of
Theatre
Communications
Group
(TCG).
This
vital
anthology
includes
a
foreword
by
David
Henry
Hwang,
introduction
by
Chay
Yew
and
eight
full-length
plays,
each
paired
with
a
statement
by
the
author.
Version 3.0, the first major anthology of contemporary Asian American drama in almost two decades, includes Julia Cho’s Durango, Sunil Kuruvilla’s Rice Boy, Han Ong’s Swoony Planet, Sung Rno’s wAve, Diana Son’s Satellites, Alice Tuan’s Last of the Suns and Chay Yew’s Question 27, Question 28. Also included is The Square, a choral piece meditating on 120 years of relationships between non-Asian Americans and the Asian American community, written by sixteen of today’s leading playwrights: Bridget Carpenter, Ping Chong, Constance Congdon, Kia Corthron, Maria Irene Fornes, Philip Kan Gotanda, Jessica Hagedorn, David Henry Hwang, Robert O’Hara, Craig Lucas, Han Ong, José Rivera, Diana Son, Alice Tuan, Mac Wellman and Chay Yew.
“I
am
inspired
by
the
writers
in
this
volume,
who
have
questioned
assumptions
and
expanded
the
palate
of
our
nation’s
dramatic
literature…
“Version
3.0″
playwrights
have
kept
Asian
American
theatre
vital.
On
a
personal
level,
seeing
and
reading
their
plays
has
kept
me
young,”
writes
David
Henry
Hwang.
Foremost American Taiko Artist, Kenny Endo, to perform in Tokyo on April 24 and April 30
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