The Four Immigrants: From Manga to Musical Schedule of Events: 7 p.m.:
Pre-Performance Discussion 7:30 p.m.: Performance of The Four
Immigrants: An American Musical Manga ADMISSION: Admission is free.
Reservations required. RSVP beginning Wednesday, October 23, at 9 a.m.
JOIN WAITLIST DESCRIPTION: The Four Immigrants: An American Musical
Manga is an award-winning musical about the adventures of young
Japanese immigrants in early-twentieth-century San Francisco. Based on
Manga Yonin Shosei, a semi-autobiographical series of comic strips
written and drawn by Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama from 1924 to 1927, the
show follows Charlie, Frank, Fred, and Henry as they pursue the
American Dream in the face of numerous obstacles. Both the musical and
the original manga it’s based on contrast the gag-driven humor of
Western comic strips with the discrimination faced by first-wave
immigrants, and explore what it means to find home in a foreign land.
Visions and Voices is proud to present a concert performance of The
Four Immigrants preceded by a special discussion about the show and
its unique source material. Panelists include the play’s
author/composer, Min Kahng, and director, Leslie Martinson, along with
translator and manga historian Frederik L. Schodt and moderator Julia
Cho, co-founder and co-producing artistic leader of Artists at Play, a
Los Angeles–based theatre company that focuses on Asian American
narratives. Bios: Min Kahng is an award-winning playwright and
composer whose world-premiere works include The Four Immigrants: An
American Musical Manga (recipient of the Bay Area Theatre Critics
Circle Awards for Original Script and Original Music, the Edgerton New
Play Award, and a NAMT Production Grant), GOLD: The Midas Musical,
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon: A Musical Adaptation, and Tales of
Olympus. Kahng is a Jonathan Larson Grant finalist, a Richard Rodgers
Award finalist, a resident playwright at Playwrights Foundation, and a
proud member of the Dramatists Guild. (Instagram, Twitter) Leslie
Martinson worked for many years with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley,
where she was the associate artistic director and the casting
director. Her directing credits there include world-premiere musicals
and West Coast premieres. A graduate of Occidental College and the
University of Sussex, she has been a Watson Fellow and a member of the
Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Martinson has also worked with the San
Francisco service organization Theatre Bay Area since 2002, and was
awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship in Stage Direction by the Arts
Council of Silicon Valley for artistic achievement and community
impact. She teaches master classes and workshops for many universities
and theatre companies. (Facebook) Frederik L. Schodt is an author and
translator who has written extensively on Japanese manga, as well as
on pop culture, technology, and history. Schodt received an award at
the Manga Oscar Awards in 1983 for his groundbreaking book Manga!
Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. The now-classic book includes an
introduction by Osamu Tezuka and has been reprinted several times. His
other books include Dreamland Japan, America and the Four Japans,
Native American in the Land of the Shogun, and The Astro Boy Essays.
In 1998, Schodt translated and annotated Japanese immigrant Henry
Kiyama’s Manga Yonin Shosei, one of the first American original
comic books. (Twitter) Julia Cho (moderator) is a founding member and
producing artistic leader of Artists at Play. With AAP, she has helped
develop and produce numerous works created by and featuring Asian
American artists. As an actor, Cho’s credits include the
Emmy-winning web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and many television
shows including This Is Us, Goliath, and Scandal. She has performed
and toured with Artists at Play, East West Players, Will & Company,
hereandnow, and Word for Word (San Francisco), as well as readings for
Playwrights’ Arena, Pasadena Playhouse, and Center Theatre Group.
(Instagram, Twitter) Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and
Humanities Initiative. Co-sponsored by Artists at Play, the Department
of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Asian Pacific American
Student Services. Photo: Kevin Berne
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21/11/2019 Last update