I headed to New York shortly after becoming a \u201cprofessional actor,\u201d that is a card-carrying member of the Actors\u2019 Equity Association. The Champlain Shakespeare Festival gave me the first opportunity to pursue my efforts in developing as a classical actor. It was the American Place Theatre, under the courageous leadership of Wynn Handman, that my vision of things was greatly expanded by exposing me to the work of playwrights and the making of new plays. Without these experiences my understanding of the theatre would have been badly skewed. Wynn was a visionary who for years led his theater with heroic perseverance and created an \u201coasis\u201d for artists beneath West 46th Street. I shall never forget that beautiful facility where for two intense years between 1972 to 74 I had the privilege to work, to struggle and agonize, to create. It was here that the first Asian-American play was produced and performed in 1972, Frank Chin\u2019s THE CHICKENCOOP CHINAMAN.<\/p>\n[aesop_gallery transition=”crossfade” galleryType=”grid” id=”774″]\n
I was terrified, but a lot of \u201cchutzpah\u201d let me keep it somewhat under control. I had never participated in the making of a new play and felt like the proverbial fish out of water. Everything was intimidating\u2026the facility itself, Wynn Handman, Julia Miles (Associate Director of American Place), Jack Gelber (the director), Willa Kim (the costume designer), Sally Kirkland and Sab Shimono (two of my fellow players), and finally Frank Chin himself. Before long, however, I found myself as a member of a team tasked with bringing this new play on to the stage. (I must confess that I felt awkward and uncomfortable in sharing my opinions and thoughts about a new work; in fact, I still do. It remains a daunting challenge for me to work with a living playwright.) Frank and I got to be friends\u2014we both wore cowboy boots\u2014and I was constantly awed by his unique way of expressing his passionate vehemence of being an Asian living in a white world. I, having grown up in Hawaii, had little experience of the kinds of racism found on the \u201cmainland;\u201d it has taken me many years to fully absorb the cruelties found in our nation\u2019s past, injustices and crimes yet to be acknowledged and rectified. At any rate, THE CHICKENCOOP CHINAMAN would be followed in 1974 by Frank\u2019s THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON.Frank and I would come together again to work on another piece for the American Place Theatre where it was directed by Russell Treyz and performed by a notable cast including Pat Suzuki and Tina Chen.<\/span><\/p>\n[aesop_gallery transition=”crossfade” galleryType=”grid” id=”777″]\n In 1973, there were two other plays of which I was a part. One of them was Rochelle Owens\u2019 THE KARL MARX STORY directed by Mel Shapiro with a wonderful cast including Leonard Jackson, Katherine Helmond, and Norman Matlock. The other was Steve Tesich\u2019s BABA GOYA, later re-titled NOURISH THE BEAST. Under the direction of Edwin Sherin, this gentle comedy was memorable not only for the cast that included Olympia Dukakis, John Randolph, and Lou Gilbert but because I seemed to take few more steps in becoming better at my craft. I recall when we were on break one day, John and Lou remembering the McCarthy blacklisting. John spoke of the joy that some of its victims had when they found themselves together working on a Hollywood movie set; he quoted Will Geer as saying triumphantly, \u201cYou see, all you have to do is outlive the sons-of-bitches!\u201d (I believe the movie referred to was John Frankenheimer\u2019s SECONDS.)<\/p>\n[aesop_gallery transition=”crossfade” galleryType=”grid” id=”780″]\n The American Place Theatre, Wynn Handman\u2019s creative sanctuary, will always have a special place in my heart.<\/strong><\/p>\n All photos seen above were taken by Martha Holmes, photographer for American Place Theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I headed to New York shortly after becoming a \u201cprofessional actor,\u201d that is a card-carrying member of the Actors\u2019 Equity Association. The Champlain Shakespeare Festival gave me the first opportunity to pursue my efforts in developing as a classical actor. It was the American Place Theatre, under the courageous leadership of Wynn Handman, that my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlights"],"metadata":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n