American Conservatory In World Premiere After The War

American Conservatory Theater proudly presents the world premiere of acclaimed Bay Area playwright Philip Kan Gotanda's After the War, featuring original score and music by Anthony Brown, and directed by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff, March 22 through April 22.

Radiantly hopeful, humorous, and deeply affecting, After the War is a powerful valentine to San Francisco and to the everyday people who built the city with their lives, loves, and sacrifices. Tickets-starting at $13.50-are now available in person through A.C.T. Ticket Services, 405 Geary Street, by phone at 415.749.2228, and online via www.act-sf.org.

"Philip Kan Gotanda is a writer whose intimate explorations of Japanese American life have-for the most part up until this point--been created for small theatrical houses," says Perloff. "He is a writer of uncommon talent, able to see and explore at once all sides of the cultural equation with great humor, honesty, and poetry. We wanted to give him the chance to explore his passionate stories on a much larger canvas. After the War is a true reflection of the people of this great city, and for audiences of all ages and nationalities it's a story with much to savor. We are deeply proud to have initiated this great new work for the theater."

A San Francisco event originally commissioned by A.C.T., After the War sheds light on the ghost town that was World War II-era Japantown, when more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned by the U.S. government. But what happened when the Japanese Americans came back? Set in the Fillmore District in 1948, After the War tells the story of Chet Monkawa, a second-generation Japanese American and gifted musician, just returned from an internment camp. There, Chet was branded a "No-No Boy" for refusing to sign a loyalty oath to America and be drafted into battle. Now "home" in San Francisco, Chet finds himself having to reconcile his guilty feelings for his brother--a fallen veteran-while fighting against the Japanese American community's shame at the "No-No Boys'" actions, as well as the racist and antipatriotic sentiments that have taken hold within his community. Vowing to make the most of circumstances beyond his control, Chet forms unlikely bonds and deep connections with his boarders--an unexpected array of characters who struggle to breath new life into their neighborhood while redefining themselves for a postwar world. Deeply infused with the jazz rhythms of the old Fillmore District, After the War features original compositions and a score by composer, ethnomusicologist, and Guggenheim Fellow Anthony Brown (best known for penning and recording the theme to KQED's "Pacific
Time").

"Though it's set in a San Francisco that some may think is long forgotten, After the War deals with questions that I face every day as a citizen living in this city in 2007," says Gotanda. "I am interested in exploring how relationships between people of different races, nationalities, and classes overcome societal pressures. The tensions created by these encounters and the ways in which life is enriched in the intermingling are the stuff of everyday life in the mix of races and cultures that we call America. What does being an American really mean? Who is to say who is American and who isn't? And what are the consequences of questioning one's government at a time of international conflict? If anything, these questions have only become more resonant the more our country has diversified. After the War details the history and the stories of people who are considered to be at the margins. And in a way--at this point in our country's evolution--we all hail from the margins."

The cast of After the War is a multicultural mix of actors-many of whom are making their A.C.T. debuts. A Vancouver-based actor with many Canadian theatrical credits and roles in films such as Best in Show and Elektra, Hiro Kanagawa portrays the hip and conflicted Chester (Chet) Monkawa. A veteran of the Broadway productions of Miss Saigon and Rent, Sala Iwamatsu portrays Lillian Okamura, Chet's recently deceased brother's fiancée, who works in the boarding house. A.C.T. core acting company member Steven Anthony Jones (A.C.T.'s A Christmas Carol, Happy End, and Gem of the Ocean, among others) portrays Earl T. Worthing, a dock worker and former musician cohort of Chet. Recently seen in Small Tragedy and Betrayal at Aurora Theatre Company, veteran Bay Area actor Carrie Paff plays Mary-Louise Tucker, a world-weary taxi-hall dancer and occupant of the boarding house, intimately involved with Earl. Recently seen in the FX series "Rescue Me" and at Yale Repertory Theatre in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, Harriett D. Foy portrays Leona Hitchings, Earl's proud southern sister-in-law and new occupant of the boarding house. A veteran of Campo Santo and founding member of Word for Word, Delia MacDougall portrays Olga Mikhoels, an ambitious Russian Jew and Chet's employee. Broadway veteran Francis Jue (Pacific Overtures, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and M. Butterfly) portrays Mr. Oji, the oddest dweller of the boarding house, who strikes up a relationship with Olga. Last seen in A.C.T.'s Happy End, veteran character actor Sab Shimono portrays Mr. Goto, a business associate of Chet and an intimidating force in his affairs. The cast is rounded out by A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program Class of 2007 member Ted Welch as Mary-Louise's brother, Benji.

The design team for After the War includes set designer Donald Eastman (A.C.T.'s The Rivals, Hilda, and Creditors), costume designer Lydia Tanji (The Public Theater's Ballad of Yachiyo and Sound and Beauty), lighting designer James F. Ingalls (Broadway productions of Sixteen Wounded, A Year with Frog and Toad, and The Elephant Man), and sound designer Jake Rodriguez (A.C.T.'s A Christmas Carol and Shotgun Players' The Death of Meyerhold).

Anthony Brown is a composer, percussionist, and ethnomusicologist. He has become a seminal figure in contemporary California creative music directing the Asian American Orchestra. Since 1998, his orchestra has received international critical acclaim for blending Asian musical instruments and sensibilities with the sonorities of the jazz orchestra. Their recording of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's Far East Suite received a 2000 Grammy Award nomination for best large jazz ensemble performance. The orchestra's recording Monk's Moods was rated a "five-star masterpiece" and one of the four "Best CDs of 2003" by Downbeat magazine. Anthony Brown's Orchestra released Rhapsodies in fall 2005, a new CD featuring his recomposition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue completed while Brown was a 2003 Guggenheim Fellow. Brown's composition Rhymes (For Children) is the theme music for "Pacific Time," KQED's international public radio weekly newsmagazine. He also can be heard on more than 20 recordings on Asian Improv, Soul Note, Blue Note, Gramavision, and Hat Art Records. Brown is the recipient of grants, awards, fellowships, and commissions from the Ford Foundation, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, Meet the Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts International, the California Arts Council, the Asian Heritage Council, the MacDowell Colony, the San Francisco Chamber Music Society, TheatreWorks, the Ministry of Culture in Berlin, and the British Council. A Smithsonian associate scholar and a trustee of the Recording Academy, Brown has served as a visiting professor of music at UC Berkeley (1998, 2002) and as curator of American music at the Smithsonian Institution 1992-96. He has published with Simon & Schuster Macmillan, and the University of California Press will publish his book, Give the Drummer Some! The Development of Modern Jazz Drumming in 2007.

Philip Kan Gotanda is a Sansei (third-generation Japanese American), Bay Area resident, and native of Stockton, California. A playwright and filmmaker whose plays include A Fist of Roses, Yohen, The Wind Cries Mary, Floating Weeds, Sisters Matsumoto, Fish Head Soup, Ballad of Yachiyo, and Yankee Dawg You Die, Gotanda has seen his works produced locally (A.C.T., Asian American Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Campo Santo+Intersection for the Arts, Eureka Theatre, Magic Theatre, and San Jose Repertory Theatre), as well as at theater companies across the country, in Great Britain, and Japan. Gotanda is also an independent filmmaker whose works have been seen in film festivals around the world. Throughout his career Gotanda has embodied the heart and spirit of an artist dedicated to telling his own particular world's stories, in the process creating one of the largest and most varied bodies of Asian-American-themed work. -- www.act-sf.org