American Conservatory Theatre Presents Photo Exhibit

Featuring select camp newspapers, photographs, and text from both the If They Came For Me Today: The Japanese American Internment Project exhibit curated by the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), and photos from the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum (SFPALM) exhibit Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era, A.C.T.'s exhibit will hang in Fred's Columbia Room in the lower level of American Conservatory Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco) for the duration of the production run of After the War, through April 22.

"Both the Japanese American Internment Project and the Harlem of the West exhibits were incredible tributes to the people whose sacrifices and passions are the subject of Philip Gotanda's new play," says Carey Perloff, director of After the War and artistic director of A.C.T. "These images are extremely powerful, and our exhibit in Fred's is meant to further contextualize the world of After the War and add a deeper dimension to the experience of seeing the play at A.C.T. We are very grateful to Community Works, the San Francisco Public Library, and the Performing Arts Library and Museum for allowing us to showcase this must-see artwork."

If They Came for Me Today: The Japanese American Internment Project was a multimedia living history exhibition documenting the experiences of Japanese American internees organized by San Francisco's Community Works with students from George Washington, Balboa, and Horace Mann schools in San Francisco. Drawing on the oral histories of 15 local Japanese Americans, the students worked to create a unique exhibition that simultaneously chronicles the experiences of one generation and the reactions of another. A.C.T. will showcase four of the exhibit's oral histories created for the exhibit (depicted in large silk screen portraits) in various locations of theater.

Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era was a recent SFPALM exhibit of sumptuous new and archival photographs, oral histories, and memorabilia from the neighborhood residents and musicians who experienced San Francisco's Fillmore District at its height in the 1940s and 1950s. Presented in conjunction with the publication of a new book of the same title from Chronicle Books, the exhibition was curated by the book's authors Elizabeth Pepin and Lewis Watts, who spent years researching and compiling this neglected history when the Fillmore was a swinging, eclectic, and integrated neighborhood, boasting two dozen active nightclubs and music halls within its one square mile. Harlem of the West celebrates a unique and rediscovered chapter in jazz history and the African American experience on the West Coast.

Set in the Fillmore District depicted in the photographs of Harlem of the West, 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"). A.C.T.'s production of After the War is made possible by sponsors Union Bank and American Express. -- www.act-sf.org