From left: Denice Kumagai-Hoy, cast member of “And the Soul Shall Dance”; Lily Tung Crystal, artistic director of East West Players; Karen Umemoto, director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center; and Brian Niiya, content director at Densho.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive recently presented a screening of “And the Soul Shall Dance” (1977) at the Billy Wilder Theater at UCLA’s Hammer Museum.
Originally staged by East West Players in Los Angeles, the award-winning play by Wakako Yamauchi (1924-2018) 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.
Set in California’s Imperial Valley during the Great Depression, the play 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.
A sensitive girl, Masako (Denice Kumagai), bears witness to the challenges facing her loving parents, the Muratas (Pat Li and Sab Shimono), and the unraveling lives of a neighboring couple, Emiko (Haunani Minn) and Oka (Yuki Shimoda). The Okas are later joined by Kiyoko (Diane Takei), Oka’s daughter from his marriage to Emiko’s late sister.
Shimoda and Li played the same roles in a different EWP production that also starred Jim Ishida as Murata, Mimosa Iwamatsu as Masako, J. Maseras Pepito as Emiko and Susan Inouye as Kiyoko. Other actors who have performed in the play at EWP include Clyde Kusatsu, Shizuko Hoshi, Keone Young, Sharon Omi, Nelson Mashita, Denise Iketani, Benjamin Lum, Jason Fong and Kurt Kuniyoshi.
“And the Soul Shall Dance,” based on a short story by Yamauchi, was her first play. Her other plays included “The Music Lessons,” “12-1-A,” “The Memento,” “Not a Through Street” and “The Chairman’s Wife.” She also published two books, “Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays and Memoir” and “Rosebud and Other Stories.” “And the Soul Shall Dance” and “12-1-A” were also produced in Japan.
Opening remarks were made by May Hong HaDuong, director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. During a post-screening talkback, Denice Kumagai-Hoy — a founder of the improv group Cold Tofu and a semiregular on the sitcom “Night Court” — shared her memories of playing Masako, a role that she reprised in 1984 in a production at Cal State L.A. The historical and cultural significance of the play was discussed by EWP Artistic Director Lily Tung Crystal, Densho Content Director Brian Niiya, and UCLA Professor Karen Umemoto, Helen and Morgan Chu director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
In the lobby, UCLA Library Audiovisual Project Conservator Maile Chung displayed archival materials related to East West Players, including photos and posters from the stage versions of “And the Soul Shall Dance,” from UCLA Library Special Collections.