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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Lucy Pollak
[email protected] (818) 887-1499 (for media only)

 

Deeply moving ‘Sisters Matsumoto’
resonates in current anti-immigrant climate

L.A. Theatre Works records four performances for radio,
online streaming; playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, actor/activist
George Takei lead panel discussion after Saturday matinee

 

WHAT:
Sisters Matsumoto — Set in Stockton, California in 1946, Philip Kan Gotanda’s acclaimed play about a Japanese-American family returning home after time in an Arkansas internment camp during World War II takes on renewed resonance as current government policies and rhetoric continue to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment. Starring Keiko Agena (Better Call Saul, 13 Reasons Why), June Angela (Tony and Drama Desk nominee for Shogun on Broadway, The Electric Circus on PBS) and Suzy Nakamura (ABC’s The Goldbergs, Blackish, Dr. Ken) as the sisters, with Greg Watanabe (Allegiance on Broadway, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Watch Over Me) and Ryun Yu (Hold These Truths at East West Players, Pasadena Playhouse), as their husbands. Also in the cast are Ron Bottitta and  Kurt Kanazawa. Directed by Tim Dang, former artistic director of East West Players.

A panel discussion led by playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, whose family counted themselves among the 120,000 Japanese-Americans forced into government internment camps during WWII, and renowned actor/activist George Takei, who lived in an internment camp as a child for the duration of the war, will follow the 3 p.m. performance on Saturday, Nov. 17.

Each of the four performances at UCLA’s state-of-the-art James Bridges Theater will be recorded live in front of an audience for future radio broadcast, distribution on CD, digital download and online streaming. L.A. Theatre Works’ syndicated radio theater series broadcasts weekly on public radio stations across the U.S. (locally, in Southern California, on KPFK 90.7 FM); can be heard daily in China and around the world on the Radio Beijing Network; can be downloaded as a podcast via iTunes and NPR One; and can be streamed on demand at www.latw.org.

WHO:
• Written by Philip Kan Gotanda
• Directed by Tim Dang
• Starring Keiko Agena, June Angela, Ron Bottitta, Kurt Kanazawa, Suzy Nakamura, Greg Watanabe, Ryun Yu
• Produced by Susan Albert Loewenberg
• Presented by L.A. Theatre Works

WHEN:
• Friday, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m.
• Saturday, Nov. 17 at 3 p.m.*
• Saturday, Nov. 17 at 8 p.m.
• Sunday, Nov. 18 at 4 p.m.
* A panel discussion about life in a World War II Japanese interment camp, led by playwright Philip Kan Gotanda and actor/activist George Takei, will follow the 3 p.m. performance on Saturday, Nov. 17.

WHERE:
James Bridges Theater
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
235 Charles E. Young Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90095
(enter UCLA from Hilgard just south of Sunset Blvd.; park in Lot 3 on the lower level)

HOW:
310-827-0889 or www.latw.org
• Join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LATheatreWorks
• Follow us on Twitter @latheatreworks

TICKETS:
$15-$65

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