MediaRites to Welcome Playwright Philip Kan Gotanda for Master Class, 6/3

MediaRites, a nonprofit organization that provides innovative, award-winning documentary and theater programs, announced today that award-winning playwright Philip Kan Gotanda will conduct a playwriting master class on Friday, June 3, 2016.

MediaRites' Theatre Diaspora will also produce Gotanda's play After the War Blues at Portland State University's Lincoln Hall Studio Theatre on June 4 and 5, with the noted playwright attending each performance and the post-show audience "talkback" sessions. Gotanda's Portland visit and master class are made possible through The Dramatists Guild Fund's Traveling Masters Program, the official Presenting Sponpsor, Portland playwright and Dramatists Guild Regional Rep, Francesa Piantadosi, and Karin Magaldi, Head of the Theatre Program and Associate Director of the School of Theatre And Film, Portland State University. Theatre Diaspora also received venue support from Portland Center Stage for the master class as well as funding from Oregon Humanities to support travel and the two post-show talkbacks with Gotanda and community leaders.

The prestigious Dramatists Guild Fund Traveling Masters Program is a national outreach program that brings prominent dramatists into communities across the country to lead master classes, workshops, talkbacks and other public events. Gotanda will conduct his playwriting masters class at Portland Center Stage (128 NW 11th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209) which donated the space for this event on Friday, June 3 at 5:30 p.m., which is free to the public.

Staged reading of Gotanda's After the War Blues Northwest Premiere
Gotanda's After the War Blues takes place in the aftermath of World War II in San Francisco's Western Addition District where some Japanese Americans returned from internment camps. African Americans who came to San Francisco were seeking work, white southern migrants were looking for economic opportunity, and Russian Jews were arriving to start new lives in America. All of the play's characters were struggle to get along with limited resources while trying to find their place in this mix of cultures. Chet Monkawa, the play's central character, is a jazz trumpeter who just returned to his family's rooming house after the internment, but his old neighborhood isn't the same. The rooming house is now filled with new transplants, and Chet and his fellow boarders must find a new harmony during these uncertain times.

MediaRites Theatre Diaspora will perform two staged readings of After the War Blues directed by Bobby Bermea and Jamie Rea at Lincoln Hall, Portland State University (1620 SW Park Avenue, Portland, OR 97201) on Saturday and Sunday, June 4-5 at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general seating and $5 for Oregon Trail cardholders and students. Ticket will be available for purchase on May 1 at www.theatrediaspora.org and www.Brownpapertickets.com.

"I've wanted to produce Philip's After the War Blues, and we discussed this for more than a year, so we are thrilled to finally showcase his play about African-American and Asian-American relationships, as well as the issues of displacement and gentrification facing so many Americans today," stated Dmae Roberts, executive producer of MediaRites and Theatre Diaspora. "With support from Oregon Humanities for the post-show discussions, and his master class sponsored by The Dramatists Guild Fund, this is Theatre Diaspora's largest and most challenging project to date."

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