Stuff coming up in March.

Let Hands Do What Lips Do

Giving a quick shout-out to director Aaron Sawyer and Red Theater for their hit play R+J: The Vineyard, a reconceptualization of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet incorporating American Sign Language (ASL) along with spoken text. It's been getting a lot of good reviews and good buzz, and hopefully I'll get around to catching it before closing.

Aaron actually attended one of the intro classes at my dojo back in July, seeking something different for the fight choreography in the show. Afterward I did some coaching with the actors in the early stages of rehearsal, showing them the fundamentals of contact and flow used in Aikido.

Unfortunately, per Aaron, a lot of my original work didn't survive the transition as the show workshopped its way through rehearsals to tech/dress and finally opening, as the cast made adjustments to the performance space and their actual prop weapons (Well, that and I wasn't around to do any additional tweaking). However, I'm still getting a "Combat Consultant" credit, and given that this show looks like it's pretty groundbreaking, that's a small issue for me. Congratulations to all involved!

Telling the Tale Again: 

The Story of Chiune Sugihara

Back in August I was in a staged reading of Chiune Sugihara: Unsung Hero of the Holocaust, a short play by Philip Pinkus, portraying the WWII era Vice-Consul for Japan in Lithuania who helped more than six thousand Jews escape the Holocaust. It turned out to be a rewarding experience in a couple of ways.

Held at the  Japanese American Service Committee (JASC)  and produced by  Genesis Theatricals, only a handful of people were anticipated. So, it was quite surprising when some 50 people or so showed up, requiring the organizers to lay out more folding chairs than expected. The reading was even attended by representatives of the Consulate-General of Japan in Chicago and the Japan Information Center. 

Even more heartwarming and moving was the appearnce of Chaya Small, who as a young girl was one of the many Jews whose lives were saved by Sugihara. During the talkback afterward with myself and my director, Elayne LeTraunik, Chaya spoke to the gathered crowd about her experiences and her undying gratitude for the man she described as having "done so much, but always shunned  recognition and honor."

I don't do much acting nowadays, with my son Jack taking up most of my spare time. But in many ways, I consider doing this less acting and more serving my community. In the context of World War II, being Japanese usually means you are the enemy (in the case of the war in the Pacific and Asia) or a victim (in the case of Japanese American internees). So I find it both important and valuable to know there was a tale of genuine heroism on the part of a Japanese national during that time period.

And on Tuesday, November 9, I will get two more opportunities to share this story with others.

First, I will be reading a short five-minute excerpt via Skype to a crowd of 200 to 250 people at Miami Dade College-Homestead Campus. It will be part of their Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration in remembrance of the Holocaust, and in addition to students and survivors, the local consul generals of Japan and Germany will be present.

Later on in the evening, there will be a second public reading of the full play at the Ner Tamid Ezra Habonim Egalitarian Minyan synagogue in Northtown.

I'm looking forward to both opportunities to share Sugihara's story with new audiences. I think it is truly profound, moving and unfortunately, largely unknown story. Strangely, this past September, the Japanese government began taking steps for Sugihara to be recognized in Unesco’s Memory of the World Register. So perhaps the timing just happens to be right.

Genesis Theatrical Productions presents a Dramatic Staged Reading of

Chiune Sugihara: Unsung Hero of the Holocaust by Philip Pinkus

The show features Dwight Sora as Chiune Sugihara.  Directed by Elayne LeTraunik

Tuesday, November 9 at 7:30 pm

Ner Tamid Ezra Habonim Egalitarian Minyan
7311 N Western Ave, Chicago

RSVP to Scott Adams at scottbeeadams59@gmail.com

No admission, though donations to a Holocaust survivor charity are welcome.

Penuel: The Sammy Lee Story

Samuel "Sammy" Lee (born August 1, 1920). The first Asian American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States and the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in Olympic platform diving.

As a (half) Korean American, I'm ashamed to admit that I never heard of Sammy Lee before. It wasn't until fellow Korean American actor David Rhee went off to New York last summer to take a playwriting course and told me he had an idea of a script about Lee that I knew who he was or what he had achieved.

In case you haven't either, the fruit's of David's labors will get a first-ever public viewing this coming weekend. Local Chicago theater company Silk Road Rising will be presenting two readings of his play, Penuel: The Sammy Lee Story, on Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12, both at 4:00 pm. The readings will be held at Silk Road's space in The Historic Chicago Temple Building at 77 West Washington Street. 

There will be some great local Chicago actors making David's words come to life, under the direction of Goodman/Silk Road veteran Steve Scott. I'm involved in the modest capacity of reading stage directions, and being there to support the venture. 

Time to Include Everybody

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Taking a moment to help a worthy cause. Local Chicago actress Emjoy Gavino has launched The Chicago Inclusion Project, an effort to encourage greater diversity in theater, including different people of different ethnicities, physical abilities and gender identities. On the horizon is a staged reading of William Saroyan's play The Time of Your Life at Victory Gardens Theater, which will hopefully be the first of many such performances. 

If you would like to contribute to this effort, The Chicago Inclusion Project currently has an indiegogo campaign to raise funds for its activities. 

Getting Ripped!

In-between weekends kung-fuing my way through The Big, The Trouble and The Little China with New Millennium Theatre Company and balanced against being a husband, dad and keeping up with Chicago Aikido Club, I'll be joining some of the good folks at American Blues Theater onstage or their annual Ripped: the Living Newspaper Festival. 

The one-night event is based on a 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA) era program that brought actor/director Orson Welles, and playwrights Arthur Miller and Clifford Odets into public attention. A series of short 10-minute performances inspired and ripped from today’s headlines will be presented to raise American Blues Theater's arts education program The Lincoln Project in Chicago Public Schools. 

Ripped: the Living Newspaper Festival takes places from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm on Tuesday, May 12 at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue on the downstairs mainstage. Tickets (which also include food and drink) are $5 and available at www.AmericanBluesTheater.com/tickets.

I have something new on the immediate horizon. Wednesday, March 25 I will be taking part in HOME: A Festival of Storytelling III, an annual festival of rotating storytellers at The Side Project Theatre in Rogers Park. That night I will be joining two others in telling stories that each of us wrote with live musical accompaniment. 

This is a bit of a first for me. I had taken a shot at storytelling years ago at open mike nights held at coffee shops like Uncommon Ground, but had let it fall to the wayside. And I have friends and colleagues who regularly participate in 2nd Story, The Paper Machete and other local venues for spoken performance, but have never tried it myself.

I caught the call for story submissions about one week before the deadline, then spent that week hemming and hawing about whether to come up with something before cranking out my piece in 24 hours. The fact that the curators seemed to like it surprised me to no end. 

So, if you happen to be free that night, stop on by. Show starts at 7:30 pm; I'm the last of the three taking the stage. It's nothing huge, just a little piece titled YES/NO that touches on some of my Korean family's history, the Korean War and the legacy of the North/Side divide. 

The Side Project Theatre Company is located at 1439 W Jarvis Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60626. 

Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com. Use the promo code HOME for discounted tickets.

Changing the Game by Staking a Claim

(Apologies to all readers. The following post is neither as well-written or coherent as I would have liked. I'm still adjusting to life with my newborn son, so sorry if my thoughts seem to tangent or get a bit ranty.)

Yellowfacing The Mikado

The issue of Asian representation in arts and entertainment has flared up once again thanks to a recent production of Gilbert & Sullivan's classic but inherently problematic operetta The Mikado. For those concerned, the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society's mounting commits multiple sins: reviving the piece itself (a musical romp set in a made-up and highly inaccurate depiction of feudal Japan), presenting the piece as it was originally conceived in the late 19th century (with exaggerated faux-Japanese hair, make-up and dress), and perhaps most damningly, casting only white actors. The Asian American community has been pretty swift in its condemnation. The critical response has included comments by writer Jeff Yang on CNN, a satirical take by the folks at YouOffendMeYouOffendMyFamily, and an embarrassing radio conversation between a cast member of the show and an Asian American journalist who penned a pointed editorial. The situation is also a very tiresome retread for those in the Asian American community who dealt with the 2012 "Yellowface" casting controversy during the staging of The Nightingale at La Jolla Playhouse and the frustrations of their UK counterparts during the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Orphan of Zhao. Heck, we might as well go all the way back to the Ms. Saigon casting controversy in 1990.

It's at times like this I really wish there was some way for Asian American writers, directors and producers to seize control of all the existing Western-created representations of Asians (and Asian Americans) on stage and screen. That, in addition to creating new and original works genuinely illustrative of themselves, their families and their communities, they could get a shot at reworking some of those outmoded (and offensive) characters and stories with an added layer of cultural authenticity born of their own life experience (Not to mention providing racially appropriate casting). Not just hoary theatrical works like The Mikado. Maybe a new TV series or movie reimagining Chinese detective Charlie Chan, created by white author Earl Derr Biggers in 1919 and popularized in a series of 1930s/40s films played by white actors Warner Oland, Sidney Toler and Roland Winters.

Charlie Chan, as portrayed by by Warner Oland, Sidney Toler and Roland Winters

What if a prestigious Asian American director like Ang Lee or Cary Fukunaga crafted a respectable, well-written noir mystery thriller take on the character, or at least what if Justin Lin was allowed to deliver a solid action-adventure version? (BTW, in my head a kick-ass version of the portly Chan is portrayed by plus-sized Hong Kong action star Sammo Hung.)

Sammo Hung on the CBS series "Martial Law" (1998)

It should also be noted that Charlie Chan was inspired by two real-life Chinese detectives on the Honolulu police force: Chang Apana (鄭阿平) and Lee Fook. If a new Charlie Chan film went back to the source, seems to me that pre-WWII Hawaii with its stew of ethnicities, international trade and colonial politics would make a great setting for mystery and adventure.

I also wouldn't mind a redo of fictional Japanese secret agent Mr. Moto. Like Charlie Chan, Moto's creator was not Asian (John Phillips Marquand), but surprisingly he was a hero and a positive character running counter to much of the Yellow Peril stereotypes of the period in which he was created (the 1930s). Urbane, well-educated and equally well-dressed, Moto is a multi-talented gentlemen whose polite appearance disguises a capacity for ruthlessness and violent action (Sound at all similar to a certain British secret agent?). Despite being a pulp hero largely forgotten by modern audiences, the character had a prolific run in six novels, an eight movie series (1937-39), a radio series and a standalone 1965 film. However, like Charlie Chan, Moto was always portrayed by non-Asians: James Monks on the radio, German expat actor Peter Lorre in the 30s film series, and by Henry Silva in the 1965 film.

Peter Lorre (left) and Henry Silva (right) as Mr. Moto

What I find really fascinating about Mr. Moto (besides the terrible accents employed by the actors who played him), is that his character was written as an agent of the Japanese Empire, which was already at odds with the U.S. at the time. However, despite his official status, Moto personally disagrees with the expansionist aims of his country. Thus, it really wouldn't take much story-wise to revive the character for modern film audiences (and not offend the all-important Chinese and Korean markets to boot). I actually think that in addition to actually casting an Asian in the role (preferably of Japanese descent), maintaining the original 30s setting would be a plus. You could get all the period intrigue and romance of an Indiana Jones movie, with the added dramatic urgency of dealing with the racial prejudices of the time. Who knows, maybe even the internment could figure into the script?

For your consideration, should a Mr. Moto remake ever be made. 

(Me performing in my friend Shreeyash Palshikar's magic show. Duds borrowed from Theatre-Hikes)

It's unlikely anything like the above would happen, given all the issues of rights, ownership and authorship that would be involved, plus the whole problem of Asian American-led projects getting funded in Hollywood's risk-averse atmosphere. But wouldn't it be something? Maybe even an Asian American-helmed reboot of The Last Airbender, properly cast and given back its full original title of Avatar: The Last Airbender (confusion with James Cameron be damned). Or something to replace that awful Seth Rogen version of The Green Hornet. For me, where that film figures in this discussion is that, in addition to its overall mediocrity, despite the fact they did cast an Asian to play Kato (Taiwanese actor Jay Chou), it felt like the filmmakers were unaware that the Green Hornet's lasting place in pop culture is entirely attributable to Bruce Lee's portrayal of Kato in the old 60s series version. In fact, in Hong Kong, the show was retitled The Kato Show, and Lee's portrayal has been so influential Chinese kung-fu stars Jet Li and Donnie Yen both borrowed the image of Kato for their films Black Mask and Fist of Legend: The Return of Chen Zhen respectively. I wasn't expecting the new film to feature a Kato that exactly recreated Bruce Lee. That would have been unreasonable. But it seems like the producers and director thought all Kato needed to be was Chinese and do kung-fu, without realizing they were dealing with an icon. A very specific Chinese icon requiring a certain energy and characterization that were completely absent in their version.

Clockwise from top left: Bruce Lee as Kato (1966-67), Jet Li as Black Mask (1996) 

and Donnie Yen as Chen Zhen (2010).

While we're at it, I'd even love it if an Asian American director took on remaking Breakfast at Tiffany's just to supplant Mickey Rooney's Godawful portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi. Besides the fact, I'm actually quite fond of the novel, to which Blake Edward's movie is not very faithful anyway. There's no reason there couldn't be a Japanese photographer living next to Holly Golightly who isn't a mind-bogglingly hideous buck-toothed stereotyped. Maybe someone based on real-life photographer Toyo Miyatake.

Left: Mickey Rooney as photographer Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Right: Real-life Japanese American photographer Toyo Miyatake

I genuinely believe that undertakings like those imagined above would be good ideas in and of themselves, not just indulgent experiments in a kind of Asian American revisionism. Incorporating cultural authenticity and details to performed works, even those of the most popular and perhaps maligned nature, opens up all sorts of possibilities for new and deeper storytelling. Plus audiences get a chance to be introduced to new cultures, attitudes and perspectives. Back in the 70s, director Francis Ford Coppola fought with Paramount Pictures to make their mafia epic The Godfather just as much a story of the Italian American immigrant experience as a violent crime blockbuster, bringing in details about traditional family relationships, food, music and customs. Though the film has its critics among Italian Americans for perpetuating a stereotypical mobster image, it also has its fans for presenting rich and complex characters informed by their specific history and culture. It could have been a lurid big-budget exploitation film like many earlier gangster films. Instead, it ended up being a critically acclaimed and award-winning cinema classic; a winner with audiences and the launchpad for Al Pacino's career (It should be noted that the studio didn't want the authentically Italian-American Pacino to play the role that brought him recognition. If Coppola hadn't stood up to the brass, WASPS Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford or Ryan O'Neal would have gotten the part.).

Unfortunately, we're still not in the world of my imagination, so  Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society gets to do their all-white Mikado, the Union Theatre in London gets to present Pacific Overtures with nary an Asian in sight, and so on and so forth.

Think I'll sign off now and take in the blockbuster movie in my mind. In this movie, during the 1930s the U.S. government recruits a super squad of Asian operatives made up of Kato, Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto to combat alleged mad scientist Dr. Fu Manchu. However, it turns out that Fu Manchu is actually a Chinese patriot who is being framed by Western interests attempting to maintain their spheres of influence in Asia. The truth of the situation is revealed to them by 100-year-old ex-Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine . . .