Ryun Yu News

Portland Center Stage at The Armory debuts its new Northwest Stories series with Jeanne Sakata's Hold These Truths, a play inspired by the life of civil rights hero Gordon Hirabayashi, a Seattle native who was posthumously awarded the 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hold These Truths opens in the Ellyn Bye Studio on October 7, with previews beginning October 1 and performances running throughNovember 13. Hold These Truths will be directed by Jessica Kubzansky, who directed the world premiere at East West Players in Los Angeles. Actor Ryun Yu, who originated the role of Hirabayashi at East West Players, will once again play the role in Portland.

Portland Center Stage at The Armory debuts its new Northwest Stories series with Jeanne Sakata's Hold These Truths, a play inspired by the life of civil rights hero Gordon Hirabayashi, a Seattle native who was posthumously awarded the 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hold These Truths opens in the Ellyn Bye Studio on October 7, with previews beginning October 1 and performances running throughNovember 13. Hold These Truths will be directed by Jessica Kubzansky, who directed the world premiere at East West Players in Los Angeles. Actor Ryun Yu, who originated the role of Hirabayashi at East West Players, will once again play the role in Portland.

What starts out as a simple toothache evolves into a dizzying chain of events as a group of disparate people, played by a cast of five who assume many roles indiscriminate of age, gender, and race, struggle to make connections in an increasingly isolated world. At the center of the story is a Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant, The Golden Dragon, where a young Chinese man suffering from an oversensitive incisor sparks a whacked and weird series of interconnected stories. A delicious mixture of epic theatre, bizarre comedy, poetry, and fable combine to create this fabulous pho.

The Theatre @ Boston Court presents The Golden Dragon, by Roland Schimmelpfennig, translated by David Tushingham, directed by Boston Court Co-Artistic Director Michael Michetti. This world premiere production opens Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 5pm on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena.

Playwrights' Arena's world premiere of @thespeedofJake by Jennifer Maisel extends its run through Sunday, December 20, 2015.

Los Angeles, CA - 11/12/15 - A father unable to let go, a mother with nine months to move on - these characters are at the heart of a provocative new play by award-winning playwright Jennifer Maisel. A meditation on love, connection and disconnection in this increasingly distant time, @thespeedofJake uses the backdrop of our rapidly evolving technological world to contemplate the universal desire to cheat death and the human need to find hope in life.

The trouble with one man shows is that it's difficult to make them engaging no matter the subject. Such is the pitfall that Jeanne Sakata's "Hold These Truths", currently playing at ACT Theatre, falls into. This may be an incredibly horrifying thing that happened to this man but unless you have an engaging way to tell it you might as well be trapped with someone at a party as they recount (in detail) their life story. And while that conversation might be ok for a little while, after 90 minutes it becomes wearing.

Inspired by the true story of University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi, Hold These Truths follows Gordon during the U.S. Government's decision to forcibly remove and incarcerate people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

In playwright Kimber Lee's hushed yet absorbing sushi-making drama TOKYO FISH STORY---now having its World Premiere production at Costa Mesa's Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory through March 29---centuries of painstaking tradition are... well, rapidly showing its age against the progress of modern times. Can both harmoniously co-exist? Directed with poetic beauty by Bart DeLorenzo, the play is a subtle yet engagingly universal drama that is also a 90-minute love letter to the intricate art of making sushi.

Executive Producer, Quan Phung, John Carrozza, Velvet Candy Entertainment, LLC, Wait What Productions in Association with Cricket Feet today announced the release of the feature film, THE MIKADO PROJECT, on DVD. The title is available now exclusively on Amazon.

Executive Producer, Quan Phung, Velvet Candy Entertainment, and Wait, What! Productions are have announced the release of the feature film, The Mikado Project, on DVD, available for purchase on Amazon.com on January 12, 2012.

East West Players (EWP), the nation's largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work and the longest-running professional theatre of color in the country, continues its 46th Anniversary Season, themed Languages of Love, with the Los Angeles premiere of THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE by Julia Cho, directed by Jessica Kubzansky.

Opening April 22: The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) A World Premiere by Tom Jacobson Directed by Jeff Liu

What do the first race riot in Los Angeles and gay life in steamy New Orleans have in common? Each is the subject of a new play by Tom Jacobson, one of Los Angeles' most acclaimed and prolific playwrights. Circle X Theatre Co. presents Jacobson's The Chinese Massacre (Annotated), directed by Jeff Liu, opening April 22, and Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA presents House of the Rising Son, directed by Michael Michetti, opening April 23, both at the new Atwater Village Theatre where the two companies offer a joint season in 2011.

Silk Road Theatre Project in association with the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Chicago and Millennium Park presents Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi

Silk Road Theatre Project in association with the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Chicago and Millennium Park presents Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi

Silk Road Theatre Project in association with the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Chicago and Millennium Park presents Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi

Silk Road Theatre Project in association with the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Chicago and Millennium Park presents Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi

Silk Road Theatre Project in association with the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Chicago and Millennium Park presents Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi