The 1980’s
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1980 - 1981
FOB
By David Henry Hwang
Beginning of East West Players’ history with the celebrated playwright
Premiered October 15, 1980
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Moving between myth and reality, F.O.B. explores assimilation, immigration, and the struggle of Asian American identity. Grace and Dale are cousins, living in the Los Angeles area and attending college. Dale, an “ABC” or “American Born Chinese,” just wants to fit in to white American culture. Grace, who was born in Taiwan, feels less ambivalent about her Chinese heritage. The arrival of Steve, an exchange student and “fresh off the boat” newcomer from Hong Kong, forces them to confront conflicting feelings about America, China and themselves.
David Henry Hwang’s first full length play, written while he was still a student, FOB marks the beginning of East West Players’ history with the celebrated playwright. FOB premiered October 15, 1980.
Hokusai Sketchbooks
By Seiichi Yashiro
Translated by Ted T. Takaya
Opened February 19, 1981
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The play is based on the life of a 19th century Japanese artist Hokusai, who is famous for his etching of Mt. Fuji. After his foster father kicks him out, Hokusai leads a prolific creative life in art for fifty-six years while fighting against his weakness towards alcohol and women. This production opened on February 19, 1981.
Godspell
Conceived by John-Michael Tebelak
music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
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Based on the Gospel according to Matthew, Godspell is the first musical theatre offering from composer Stephen Schwartz who went on to write such well-known hits as Wicked, Pippin, and Children of Eden. The show features a comedic troupe of eccentric players who team up with Jesus to teach his lessons in a new age through parables, games, and tomfoolery. Godspell also features the international hit, “Day by Day”, as well as an eclectic blend of songs ranging from pop to vaudeville, as Jesus’ life is played out onstage. Even after the haunting crucifixion, Jesus’ message of kindness, tolerance and love lives vibrantly on.
Not a Through Street
By Wakako Yamauchi
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At the time, Yamauchi’s play was presented as a “play in progress” before being fully produced in the 1991-92 season.
East West Stories
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While material and information from this production is scarce, it is known East West Stories was a Hawaiian touring production presented in conjunction with East West Players.
The Life of the Land
By Edward Sakamoto
Opened on July 16, 1981
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This play is written by Edward Sakamoto, who wins a playwriting grant of National Endowment for the Arts with this project. Taking place in Summer of 1980, the play reveals the different points of view from three generations of the Japanese American Kamiya family in Hawaii. The previous story fo the family was presented in a previous work of Sakamoto’s Monoa Valley. This play won Sakamoto a playwriting grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and premiered on July 16, 1981.
Station J
By Richard France
Opened on October 1, 1981
Marked the first of four plays in the season that comprised “The Internment Camp Series”
1981 - 1982
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The play deals with the evacuation and internment of the Japanese in America during World War II. It begins with a short Noh play. The “quasidocumentary drama [proceeds] with the issuing of the Exclusion Order in 1942, and follows Chiyoji Shigeta, a mildmannered breeder of roses, and his family on their migration to the Jerome, Ark., camp. The playwright details the personal effects of the order… at the same time that he shows us divergent responses, in and outside the camp” (New York Times, 1982). The ending suggests such incident may happen again in the future. Directed by Mako and Alberto Isaac, this production opened on October 1, 1981 and marked the first of four plays this season that would comprise “The Internment Camp Series.’
Christmas In Camp
Conceived by Mako
Written by Dom Magwili
Opened on December 10, 1981.
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This play written by Dom Magwili portrays how Japanese Americans in camp fight against the bleak living conditions to celebrate Christmas. In the first act a wheelchair-bound girl tries her best to put on a talent show, which takes place in the second act. This production opened on December 10, 1981.
Pilgrimage
By Edward Sakamoto
Premiered on June 24, 1982
12-1-A
By Wakako Yamauchi
Written while the Yamauchi was Rockefeller Playwright in Residence at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles
Premiered on March 11, 1982
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This play looks at the lives of three Nisei who were at the camp through the eyes of two Sansei and one Younsei. The practice of karate symbolizes the Japanese spirit that Nisei has to negotiate with American society their identity. This production opened June 24, 1982
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Set in the concentration camp in Poston, Arizona—the same camp the author was incarcerated in—from May 1942 to July 1943, the play follows several Japanese American families at Poston as their characters grapple with the loyalty questionnaire, military service, and possible resettlement. The title of the play refers to the camp address of the Tanaka family, block 12, barracks 1, unit A. Yamauchi wrote the play while the Rockefeller Playwright in Residence at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. It premiered on March 11, 1982.
1982 - 1983
Imperial Valley
By Margaret DePriest
Opened on October 20, 1982
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This play is composed of four acts about a heart-warming tale of Nisei family: a widower who lost his family in the Hiroshima attack, a middle-aged couple with marital problems, and a bachelor whose mundane world becomes amusing when a young hippie girl brings hope and life into it. This production directed by Mako and Shizuko Hoshi opened on October 20, 1982.
Have You Heard
By Soon-Teck Oh
Additional writing by Kwang Lim Kim & Sukman Kim
Music by Yong Mann Kim
Opened on December 1, 1982
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This play follows Korean immigrants to the United States in a folk drama structure, with traditional Korean dances and songs. Oh wanted to demonstrate that Korean culture is “not something you only see in museums.” This production opened on December 1, 1982.
Yamashita
By Roger Pulvers
Opened on January 12, 1983
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The Japanese class of one student named Yamashita, the same name as the executed Japanese general during WWII, transforms into the trial of Yamashita. This production opened on January 12, 1983.
The Dream of Kitamura
By Philip Kan Gotanda
Opened on March 3, 1983
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A great sad old lord intensely dreams of the return of Kitamura, the ghostly agent of death, so he hires two guards to protect him. This production opened on March 3, 1983.
No Smile For Strangers
By Harold Heifetz
Opened on April 20, 1983
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Against the lush backdrop of present-day Hawaii, two young lovers (one Japanese, the other Filipino) fight for a life together. This production opened on April 20, 1983.
Yellow Fever
By R.A. Shiomi
Opened on April 20, 1983
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This award-winning comic mystery follows hard-boiled detective Sam Shikaze through the shady streets of 1970s Vancouver. On a case to solve the disappearance of the mysterious Cherry Blossom Queen, Shikaze becomes entangled in a web of political deception and racism that rouses memories of the Japanese-Canadian internment camps and leads to an unexpected romance. An Off-Broadway hit and New York Times Critic’s Choice, Yellow Fever launched Rick Shiomi’s theatrical career.
1983 - 1984
Live Oak Store
By Hiroshi Kashiwagi
Opened on October 5, 1983
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The story of the Wakayama family who runs the Live Oak Store and treats the neighbors with hospitality during the Great Depression era (1934-1935) before they are forced to move and quit the business. This production opened on October 5, 1983.
You’re On The Tee & Ripples In The Pond
By Jon Shirota
Opened on December 1, 1983
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This production contains two one act plays by Jon Shirota. You’re on the Tee takes place December 1941 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is about the conflict of two Japanese American brothers trying to ‘make it’ in a white society. The older brother is a soldier in the US Army, and the younger is an idealistic law student.
Ripples in the Pond tells the story of a former Japanese Imperial Army officer, who, thirty years later, is doing business in the United States. He finds himself the target of an IRS audit, during which a confrontation arises by the Japanese American IRS agent who had fought against him in the Pacific. This production is opened on December 1, 1983.
The Grunt Childe
By Lawrence O’Sullivan
Opened on March 21, 1984
Paint Your Face On A Drowning In The River
By Craig Kee Strete
Opened on May 16, 1984
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During the last days of the Vietnam war, a young front line soldier is put on trial for murder. A highly celebrated tv news reporter forces the military to vindicate itself by televising the trial from a studio in Saigon. The media event of the war soon becomes a dramatic fantasy which turns the tables on the military, US government and the media, putting them on trial and questions the morality of their actions during the ‘murder and madness’ of the Vietnam nightmare. This production opened on March 21, 1984.
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The main character of this play, Tall Horse, is the only survivor of his family and is determined to leave the preservation to realize his dreams, despite the pleadings from his grandmother and lover. This production opened on May 16, 1984.
Asa Ga Kimashita
By Velina Hasu Houston
Opened on January 25, 1984
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In post World War II Japan, a Black American GI and a girl from a strict traditional Japanese family fall in love and must struggle against the prejudice of her father who hates all Americans and is still bitter over Japan’s defeat. This production opened on January 25, 1984.
Visitors From Nagasaki
By Perry Miyake Jr.
Opened on July 4, 1984
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A satirical comedy, taking a lively look at a Japanese American family whose lives are drastically changed by a visit from an atom bomb survivor. This production directed by Betty Muramoto opened on July 4, 1984.
1984 - 1985
A Song For A Nisei Fisherman
By Philip Kan Gotanda
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This classic play delves into the search of a Japanese American man to understand his life as he recalls his journey from childhood to retirement. At once both deeply personal and truly universal, this play reflects the beauty and pain of growing up Japanese American in the 20th Century.
The Music Lessons
By Wakako Yamauchi
Directed by Mako
Opened on March 13, 1985
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Directed by Mako, this production takes place in September 1935 in the Imperial Valley, California. The dessert is still warm in the last days of summer as farmers prepare the land for planting. A widow and her three children work hard on their farm in order to make a living, and one handsome farm worker brings awakening to this family. This production opened on March 13, 1985.
Three Penny Opera
By Bertolt Brecht
Music by Kurt Weill
English adaptations by Marc Blitzstein
Directed by Mako
Opened on May 22, 1985
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The Threepenny Opera is a biting satire of the post-war rise of capitalism, wrapped up in Weill’s jazzy score, and the tale of Macheath (Mack the Knife), a debonair crime lord on the verge of turning his illegal empire into a legitimate business.
When Macheath marries young Polly Peachum, her father is enraged. Jonathan Peachum controls the beggars of London, and he strives to get Macheath hanged. Unfortunately for him, the chief of police is an old friend of Macheath’s. This production, directed by Mako, opened on May 22, 1985.
1985 - 1986
Christmas In Camp II
Conceived by Mako
Written by Dom Magwili
Additional writing by Mako & Keone Young
Opened on December 11, 1985
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This play is a continuation of Christmas in Camp, presented in 1981. Fighting against the bleak living conditions to celebrate Christmas, a wheelchair-bound girl organizes a talent show, the subject of this sequel. This production opened on December 11, 1985. The music director of this production was Scott Nagatani, and the choreographer was Shizuko Hoshi.
The Memento
By Wakako Yamauchi
Directed by Mako
Opened on February 12, 1986
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The play, directed by Mako, is about a series of strange events generated by an uncanny mask given to a middle-aged woman by the widow of the man they both loved. The Memento opened on February 12, 1986.
Rashomon (second revival)
By Fay and Michael Kanin
Based on short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Opened May 14, 1986
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The Kanin’s script draws heavily from famed Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 adaptation of the Akutagawa stories. Premiering May 14, 1986, this production marked the third instance East West players produced Rashomon, the first time being in our 1965-66 season.
Chikamatsu’s Forest
By Edward Sakamoto
Directed by Shizuko Hoshi
Opened on October 8, 1986
1986 - 1987
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This play is written by Edward Sakamoto, in which the main character is Chikamatsu, famous Japanese playwright who deals with Kabuki and Bunraku. The plot is about how Chikamatsu is trapped in a forest and is confronted by many characters who represent more under their appearance. This production directed by Shizuko Hoshi, opened on 1986 October 8.
The Gambling Den
By Akemi Kikumura
Directed by Mako
Opened on December 11, 1986
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This play follows the struggles of an Issei man and his family just prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The main character, Saburo Tanaka, a fiercely proud patriarch runs a rowdy gambling den in the back of a family cafe, much of the dismay of his wife. This production directed by Mako opened on December 11, 1986.
Wong Bow Rides Again
By Cherylene Lee
Directed by Josie Pepito Kim and Leigh C. Kim
Opened on February 20, 1987
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A Chinese family rents a bus to take an excursion to Las Vegas and runs into Wong Bow, who shares tales of his life. This production directed by Josie Pepito Kim and Leigh C. Kim opened on February 20, 1987.
The Medium (Revival)
By Gian-Carlo Menotti
Opened on March 25, 1987
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This two act opera is written by Gian-Carlo Menotti in 1945. The setting for East West Players’ revival is post World War Two Japan, in which an unscrupulous woman cheats her clients with fraudulent apparitions and contrived phenomena until herself is contacted by a mysterious presence. The production opened March 25, 1987.
The Zoo Story
By Edward Albee
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The Zoo Story is a one-act play by American playwright Edward Albee. His first play, it was written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks. The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, miscommunication as anathematization, social disparity and dehumanization in a materialistic world.
This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry, who meet on a park bench in New York City’s Central Park. Peter is a wealthy publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats, and two parakeets. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man, desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter’s peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories about his life and the reason behind his visit to the zoo.
Hughie
By Eugene O’Neill
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Hughie is a short two-character play by Eugene O’Neill set in the lobby of a small hotel on a West Side street in midtown New York during the summer of 1928. The play is essentially a long monologue delivered by a small-time hustler named Erie Smith to the hotel’s new night clerk Charlie Hughes, lamenting how Smith’s luck has gone bad since the death of Hughie, Hughes’ predecessor.
Lady of Larkspur Lotion
By Tennessee Williams
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Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore is a long-time tenant in a cockroach-infested boarding house – but she lives convinced that she owns a Brazillian rubber plantation. The landlady has always humored her, but when Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore can't make her rent the two women start to argue. Just then, a mysterious writer steps in on the side of fantasy.
1987 - 1988
A Chorus Line
Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics by Edward Kleben
Book by James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante
Directed and Choreographed by Shizuko Hoshi
Opened on October 22, 1987
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Set on the bare stage of a Broadway theater, the musical is centered on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. A Chorus Line provides a glimpse into the personalities of the performers and the choreographer, as they describe the events that have shaped their lives and their decisions to become dancers. This production was directed and choreographed by Shizuko Hoshi, and opened on October 22, 1987.
Stew Rice
By Edward Sakamoto
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For the Los Angeles Times, Sylvie Drake wrote, “The title of Edward Sakamoto’s “Stew Rice” is as homey and nostalgic as his play–a valentine to knockabout youth and growing up in Hawaii. It refers to a familiar dish that his three protagonists remember fondly from their childhood. In Act I we see these guys–lumpy Zippy Ching (Benjamin Lum), quiet Russell Shima (Keone Young) and smart Ben Lee (Marcus Mukai)–who have been buddies since the third grade, giddy with the excitement of high school graduation and the beginning of Real Life. In Act II, we see what’s happened to all three. Simple? At least, in part.
What distinguishes the play most is its locale. These are young Hawaiians for whom moving to the Mainland is as big a deal as it would be for an Italian or an Irishman to immigrate to the United States (and will have as profound an influence). It is also about something the Italian and the Irish won’t necessarily think about: whether to become “haolefied” or assimilated into the “white” culture, and to what extent” (Los Angeles Times, 1988).
Mother Tongue
By Paul Stephen Lim
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David Lee, a Chinese-American writer teaching in the English department at a midwestern university, is at a cross-roads in his life. He has moved out of the house he has been sharing with his partner of nearly twenty years, and he is living temporarily in his office while continuing to teach his classes and working on his new play. The work-in-progress starts out to be about his mother Lilian, a fourteen-year-old child-bride who leaves her parents in China to marry an older man in the Philippines in the late 1930s, but it soon turns out to be about himself as he finds himself undertaking the same sort of journey his mother did forty years ago.
An Afternoon at Willie’s Bar
Written and Directed by Paul Prince
Starred Mako
Opened on July 1st, 1988
Where Nobody Belongs
By Colin McKay
Mishima
By Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro
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Mako portrays the title role of Mishima in Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro’s dramatization of historic Japanese author, poet, actor Yuko Mishima’s life. Yamagiwa Alfaro said “The idea to do this came to me when he died–in such a dramatic fashion (staging a 1970 assault on Tokyo’s military headquarters, then committing seppuku , ritual suicide). It made me curious why someone so full of life and energy would choose to die so young. But as I read the biographies on him, I realized he’d planned his entire life for that moment. He was always drawn to the old Japan; he wanted to bring back that feudal glory, the position of power, samurai worship. That’s why he had an army of 100 young men–and one of them died with him” (Los Angeles Times, 1988).
1988 - 1989
Laughter and False Teeth
By Hiroshi Kashiwagi
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“One-act play by Hiroshi Kashiwagi first produced in 1954 that is likely the first produced play set in the Japanese American concentration camps. The play was revived years later by Asian American theater companies in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The play revolves around a character named Boiler Man, a laborer who shovels the coal that provides hot water to the unspecified camp, and Madame, a woman made reclusive by missing teeth. A calm and wise figure, many others come to seek Boiler Man’s advice, while Madame encounters corruption and black markets in her efforts to get dentures made in camp. Though comedic in tone, the play depicts the decay or moral values in the demoralized and incarcerated population, including corruption, gambling, mental illness, underground distilling of alcohol, and violence” (Densho Encyclopedia).
The Fantasticks
Music by Harvey Schmidt
Book & Lyrics by Tom Jones
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The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play The Romancers (Les Romanesques) by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud.
Webster Street Blues
By Warren Sumio Kubota
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For the Los Angeles Times, Robert Koehler wrote, “Warren Sumio Kubota’s “Webster Street Blues” suggests the budding voice of a genuinely humanistic writer. The sadness that tinges Nobu McCarthy’s production at East West Players is… the fact of the young Kubota’s passing away last August. Kubota was clearly a playwright who had to work his way through the thicket of his own life before mastering the art. It’s a terrible shame that we’ll never witness that fruition.
At the center of his world is Dean (Yuji Okumoto), a street tough who dominates “J-Town”–San Francisco’s Japantown–more in his mind than in reality. Chuck (John Miyasaki), Kubota’s alter-ego, is Dean’s pal and admirer. But Chuck is also a college boy, who has taken a very different path than Dean” (Los Angeles Times, 1989).
Vacancy
By Lillian Hara & Dorie Rush Taylor
Based on “An Apple, An Orange” by Diane Johnson
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Actress Beulah Quo said “Rosie, the Dutch woman, rents a room to the Chinese woman, Anna. Although there’s some humor, it’s pretty serious stuff. The women discover their different value systems and cultural habits trying to live together. In their need for friendship and bonding, they try to cut across those differences. But they fail” (Los Angeles Times, 1989).
Company
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by George Furth
Directed by Paul Hough
Opened on October 1, 1989
1989 - 1990
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A 1970 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The original production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards, and won six. This musical production is directed by Paul Hough. Lead by Robert Almodovar as Bobby and Emily Kuroda as Joanne, Company opened on October 1, 1989.
The Chairman’s Wife
By Wakako Yamauchi
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Some of Yamauchi’s best-known short stories depict the tensions between the aspirations of Issei women and the patriarchal norms of Issei culture. The stories And the Soul Shall Dance and Songs My Mother Taught Me both depict Issei women struggling to fulfill ambitions that contradict traditional gender roles. And the Soul Shall Dance represents one of the most straightforward depictions of an Issei woman’s rebellion. By depicting the complex relationships among the female characters, Yamauchi portrays Issei women’s resistance and containment.
Performance Anxiety
By Vernon Takeshita
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Takeshita said of his play “the piece is… an Asian-American farce dealing with identity and social relationships. Asian-Americans have almost made a staple of kitchen-sink drama–which relies on a confessional form of theater, reducing every play experience to reaffirming that ‘We’re just like you.’”
Come Back, Little Sheba
By William Inge
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William Inge burst upon the theatrical scene with this story of marital frustration which erupts in violence. Doc and Lola had an indiscreet affair, she became pregnant and, compelled to marry her, he gave up his medical studies, forfeited his future and settled down to a life of quiet desperation with the simple, homey Lola, who lost the child but has remained Doc’s steadfast if slatternly wife. Now a chiropractor and recovering alcoholic, Doc’s sobriety is tested when Marie, a young college student becomes their boarder bringing new life and long-dormant hostilities to the surface of Doc and Lola’s troubled marriage.