In closing this “70th Year of Remembrance” of the unlawful incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans as ordered by Executive Order 9066 in 1942, the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance at Cal State L.A. is presenting Wakako Yamauchi’s “12-1-A” from Nov. 8 to 18 in the State Playhouse.
The title references her family’s address at the Poston, Ariz., internment camp, where her family was detained during World War II. In the play, the fictional Tanaka and Ichioka families deal with the conflicts of camp life, including the choice of joining the Army or refusing to serve.
Showtimes: Thursday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 18, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $12 general, $8 for students and seniors. Available online at www.calstatela.edu/academic/al.
A free symposium will be held Thursday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. in the State Playhouse lobby. Presenters will be Dr. Mitchell Maki, provost from CSU Dominguez Hills and co-author of “Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress,” and John Esaki from the Japanese American National Museum, who will present a glimpse of the camp experience from the museum’s permanent exhibit “Common Ground: The Heart of Community.”
Yamauchi’s other plays include “And the Soul Shall Dance” (which was adapted into a TV drama broadcast on KCET), “The Music Lessons” and “The Chairman’s Wife.” She is also the author of several short stories. Her works are collected in two books, “Songs My Mother Taught Me” and “Rosebud and Other Stories.”
For more information, call the Arts & Letters hotline at (323) 343-4118.