The UCLA Film & Television Archive will present a special screening of “And the Soul Shall Dance” on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater at UCLA’s Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.
Originally staged by East West Players, Wakako Yamauchi’s award-winning play was adapted for KCET’s “Hollywood Television Theatre,” becoming one of the first Asian American plays to be broadcast on public television. It has since been performed by theater companies across the country.
“And the Soul Shall Dance” is a poetic, haunting drama that reveals the hardships Japanese Americans faced during the Great Depression. Set in California’s Imperial Valley, Yamauchi’s moving work explores the lives of two farming families as they struggle to make ends meet and assimilate in a so-called land of opportunity defined by systemic racism.
Yamauchi’s teleplay unfolds through the eyes of a sensitive girl, Masako (Denice Kumagai), who bears witness to the challenges facing her loving parents (Pat Li, Sab Shimono) and the unraveling lives of a neighboring couple, Emiko (Haunani Minn) and Oka (Yuki Shimoda). The Okas are joined by Kiyoko (Diane Takei), Oka’s daughter from his marriage to Emiko’s late sister.
Abused by her husband from an arranged marriage, Emiko dreams of a return to Japan to reclaim her past life, far from an inhospitable America. Her profound journey represents an indelible requiem for generations of Issei and Nisei beyond the play’s setting of the 1930s, with Yamauchi herself unjustly incarcerated as a teen at the concentration camp for Japanese Americans in Poston, Ariz. during World War II.
Before the screening, in the lobby, beginning at 6:30 p.m., UCLA Library Audiovisual Project Conservator Maile Chung will display archival materials related to East West Players from UCLA Library Special Collections.
The screening will be followed by a talkback featuring EWP Artistic Director Lily Tung Crystal, actor Denice Kumagai-Hoy, Densho Content Director Brian Niiya, and the moderator, UCLA Professor Karen Umemoto, Helen and Morgan Chu director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
Free admission. No advance reservation needed.