{"id":158,"date":"2016-03-15T20:09:11","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T20:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/?p=158"},"modified":"2023-03-22T20:33:11","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T20:33:11","slug":"underneath-all-plays-are-questions-about-memory-and-identity-interview-with-u-s-playwright-chiori-miyagawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/underneath-all-plays-are-questions-about-memory-and-identity-interview-with-u-s-playwright-chiori-miyagawa\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cUnderneath All Plays are Questions about Memory and Identity\u201d  \u2014 Interview with U.S. Playwright Chiori Miyagawa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Interview by <strong>Randy Gener<\/strong><a href=\"#end1\">*<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_166\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-166\" style=\"width: 201px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-166\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1276249786-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"U.S. playwright Chiori Miyagawa \u00a9 Photo by Jennifer May\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1276249786-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1276249786.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-166\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. playwright Chiori Miyagawa <br \/>\u00a9 Photo by Jennifer May<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It has been traditional in Miyagawan criticism to state that the Japanese-born Asian American playwright Chiori Miyagawa can\u2019t resist but be poetical. \u201cIneffably beautiful,\u201d \u201cdelicate,\u201d \u201csurprising stage pictures,\u201d \u201cimpressionistic\u201d\u2014these encomiums follow her work around like a wet puppy. It is difficult to say if these reviewer adjectives attach themselves to her numinous plays because she is a woman or because she has a Japanese surname or because she often dips into the elegant waters of Japanese literature for inspiration or because the precision of her language usually reveals a dramatic imagination that is interested in irony and paradox. But the frequency by which these adjectives occur suggests that responses to her work continue to be trapped in shorthand and tropes. Sometimes these remarks seem cool and personal; they lazily comment more on the slightly accented woman rather than grapple with the whimsical theatrical adventures she has actually crafted for the stage.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, lordly descriptions that position her work as edgy or angry (Miyagawa, one commentator offered, for example, \u201chas been on the razor\u2019s edge of downtown theatre\u201d) wholly miss the point. They seem forced and contrived, although it is very nice of these advocates to want Miyagawa\u2019s work to be better known in the American pantheon. To be edgy or subversive is necessarily to undermine something established. Thing is, Miyagawa\u2019s plays are too deeply felt and too emotionally deep to have as their aim the simple desire to offend an audience or to stick brutality in your face.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Miyagawa\u2019s plays, no matter how lyrically charged, are propelled by matters of politics, feminist concerns and social justice. For example. in her 2000 play <em>Awakening<\/em>, about a young woman caught in the confined of an unsatisfactory marriage (it is based on the Kate Chopin novel <em>The Awakening<\/em>), Miyagawa evokes and ominously suggests the themes of male dominance and sexual aggression. (The intricate production by director Sonoko Kawahara leans on a gestural vocabulary and sophisticated scenography to express unfettered emotions.) In the startling and very original <em>Woman Killer<\/em> (inspired by <em>The Woman Killer and The Hell of Oil<\/em>, a Japanese Bunraku puppet play from 1721 by Monzaemon Chikamatsu), a young man is driven to commit a heinous, senseless murder. Taking the theme of Chikamatsu&#8217;s story, Miyagawa&#8217;s play leaps forward to 2001 and transports the event to Brooklyn, New York. Fusing a realistic narrative with movement, music and monologues to present varying perspectives, Miyagawa\u2019s clashes of styles compellingly scrutinize the roots of evil and takes stock of the motives behind evil actions.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Miyagawa is a provocative artificer and not a pulp-fiction rebel. Capricious in structure, political in motivation and artful in construction, her eclectic plays often pore through the wreckages of humanity in search of empathy, feeling and cross-cultural understanding. Especially when her plays grapple with tough subjects\u2014death penalty and social justice in <em>Broken Morning<\/em>, about the real stories of Texas Death Row inmates and their victims; the tragedy of atomic war in <em>I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour<\/em>; the struggles of homeless undocumented young immigrants in <em>Winter Captive<\/em>; the impossibility of escaping drug addiction in <em>Jamaica Avenue<\/em>\u2014Miyagawa is above all a staunch humanist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe everything we know about ourselves is entirely based on memory\u2014history, science, art, religion are all constructs of human memory,\u201d she once stated in an interview. \u201cOur existence is that fragile and ephemeral, yet, we all depend on other people\u2019s memory to achieve our immortality: <em>Someone will remember me after I\u2019m gone<\/em>. There is eternal sadness in the wish to be remembered and this tragedy [and comedy] of living and dying is what attracts me to\u2026<em>living<\/em> (this word is used the second time in a Zen kind of way and a seeing-the-Grand-Canyon-for- the-first-time kind of way).\u201d [2]<\/p>\n<p>This year marks the publication of two book collections of Chiori Miyagawa\u2019s plays. The seven plays that comprise the first book, entitled <em>Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays <\/em>(Seagull Books<em>, <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/distributed\/T\/bo12360757.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/distributed\/T\/bo12360757.html<\/a>), signal the stylistic patterns that recur in her body of work. She often casts her plays multiculturally. Language in her plays are direct, spare, precise, even mundane\u2014while at the same time tinged and loaded with poetic theatricality. \u201cI love beautiful words, odd combinations of words, invented words, imagistic words, revolting words,\u201d she once wrote. \u201cI love language. I love sharing language. Do poets share it ,or do they keep it to themselves? In a play, when part of the dialogue is in a foreign language, I appreciate what those lines communicate by specifically preventing the audience from understanding the meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The second play collection, <em>America Dreaming and Other Plays<\/em> (NoPassport Press, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/chiori-miyagawa\/america-dreaming-and-other-plays\/paperback\/product-20149144.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/chiori-miyagawa\/america-dreaming-and-other-plays\/paperback\/product-20149144.html<\/a>), stresses the fluidity of time and space that is the hallmark of her dramaturgy. She likes to warp, layer and mash up realities. She is attracted to whimsical connections and capricious character identities.<\/p>\n<p>The plays in this second collection are, in one way or another, provocative riffs\u2014a tapestry of politically aware immigrant identity that responds to her acknowledgement that she was born in Japan and that she desires to be steeped in its culture and experience, even though she does not identify herself as Japanese and is more accustomed to her wholly New York upbringing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have any sentimental feelings about the place of my birth,\u201d Miyagawa has said.<\/p>\n<p>I love living in NYC. Manhattan is a fantastic sideshow, performed by a huge cast of outsiders. But the road to getting here and joining the troupe was rocky for me. At 15, I had to rebuild myself in the U.S., learn an entirely new culture (an unfathomable one) and a brand new language. I haven\u2019t managed to become quite all-American in my gravelly journey. Instead, I\u2019ve made a bizarre culture of my own, a singular amalgamation of imaginary Japanese sentiments and acquired American beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere Miyagawa adds, \u201cI gave up my Japanese citizenship finally when [Bill] Clinton was elected, after holding off taking that step for a while. I still have to occasionally defend my \u2018American-ness.\u2019 Theater practitioners are by and large a very sophisticated group, and I have never really felt like an outsider. But if I take one step outside theater, distrust\/expectation of me being \u2018the other\u2019 follows me after decades of being a passport-carrying member of this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<table style=\"width: 500px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 0px; vertical-align: top;\">\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_165\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-165\" style=\"width: 283px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1314194341-e1458072737200.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover for \u201cThousand Years Waiting and Other Plays\u201d by Chiori Miyagawa (Seagull Books)\" width=\"283\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1314194341-e1458072737200.jpg 283w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1314194341-e1458072737200-241x300.jpg 241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-165\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Book cover for \u201cThousand Years Waiting and Other Plays\u201d by Chiori Miyagawa (Seagull Books)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 0px; vertical-align: top;\">\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_164\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-164\" style=\"width: 236px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-164\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1067711381.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover for \u201cAmerica Dreaming and Other Plays\u201d by Chiori Miyagawa (NoPassport Press)\" width=\"236\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1067711381.jpg 422w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1067711381-201x300.jpg 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-164\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Book cover for \u201cAmerica Dreaming and Other Plays\u201d by Chiori Miyagawa <br \/>(NoPassport Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p>RANDY GENER: In your country\/city, is there any major issue (e.g. a contemporary social problem) that artists fail or neglect to address on stage? Why? Is this due to censorship, or to a blind spot in the community&#8217;s shared perception of the world? or to a community\u2019s consciously or un-consciously avoiding it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>CHIORI MIYAGAWA: <\/strong>I believe that in New York City, just about every topic relevant or irrelevant to just about anyone who lives within what the media considers newsworthy areas of the planet is being written about and presented. I\u2019m not concerned about any major issue being ignored by theater artists.<\/p>\n<p>What distresses me is that I hardly ever see multiracial casting in theater in this beautifully diverse city. Are we supposed to learn from Chekhov\u2019s plays what people might have looked like in nineteenth-century Russia? The essential aspects of his plays have transcended local details already; additional insights can\u2019t be attained by trying to mimic the lost world. The same can be said with most of Shakespeare. We don\u2019t really believe that his poetic and archaic language belongs to only a certain faction of British people. Not many details in his plays are recognizable in our daily lives today, so why shouldn\u2019t they be cast with race-randomness? Considering the demographic of the magical city I live in, I find it frustrating how the stage is dominated by actors from one group.<\/p>\n<p>I was enchanted by Target Margin Theater\u2019s <em>Uncle Vanya<\/em>, directed by David Herskovits last spring, which did away with conventional interpretations. Yet it was clearly <em>Uncle Vanya<\/em>, a beloved play by Chekhov, fused with who we are in downtown NYC today. Also last spring, Epic Theater Ensemble\u2019s <em>Macbeth<\/em>, directed by Ron Russell, was powerful. Both Macbeth and Macduff were African American, as well as over half of the ensemble. I found the tension, both emotional and visual, satisfying.<\/p>\n<p>Is it censorship or a blind spot that actors of color have shockingly slight representation on NYC stages? I think it\u2019s probably both. But it\u2019s a much longer, possibly hazardous conversation for a playwright of color to plunge into.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What, if anything, is difficult in communicating with the designers\/directors\/actors\/playwrights? Why? How early and how often do you exchange views about the coming production? Have you designed shows yourself, and if so, does that make communication easier?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I believe that the playwright\u2019s input in the manifestation of the whole is beneficial all the way around\u2014artistically and for the health and enjoyment of everyone who is involved in the project.<\/p>\n<p>I am interested in interpretations that counter my text, both in performance and in visual aspects. My new project, <em>I Came to Look for You on Tuesday, <\/em>is a play about reunions in the aftermaths of natural disasters and war, which will be presented by LaMama ETC in fall 2013. I\u2019ve attended some of the initial meetings about the production and found myself having to explain to potential designers why I don\u2019t want the set to be made of fake debris and wreckages. The play isn\u2019t about disasters; it\u2019s about reunions\u2014something very human. And I think it\u2019s unwise to try to visually represent onstage the images that the audiences already have in their minds derived from photographs or television. There is no way to compete with what the audience brings to the theater. However, countering the text by imagining a beautiful set when much of the play is about losses is not everyone\u2019s instinct.<\/p>\n<p>When <em>I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour<\/em> was presented at Ohio Theater, no one on the team asked me why there wasn\u2019t a realistic sofa onstage. In this play, a film is being shot in Hiroshima. This film is alternately Alan Resnais\u2019s <em>Hiroshima Mon Amour<\/em> and a film that was being shot in the actual movie, \u201ca film about peace.\u201d With another set of artists, I could have spent weeks explaining my own brand of magic realism. I need directors, actors, and designers who are willing to leave the reality that appears solid and enter an alternate world.<\/p>\n<p>Good communication with one\u2019s director is critical. The rest should be easy. Overall, I have been extremely fortunate to work with directors who can get on board my train for a curious ride, and who can take me to alluring places I haven\u2019t imagined on my own.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In your creative process, which part do you enjoy least? Why? How do you tackle it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don\u2019t enjoy excessive \u201ctable work.\u201d My recent plays have so many characters and locations, we really have to get up and read it on our feet to make sense of the world. Separately from the 2014 production of <em>This Lingering Life<\/em> at Theatre of Yugen, I\u2019m developing the same play in NYC with director David Herskovits. We did a Creativity Fund Workshop at New Dramatists last summer, which was a luxurious five-day exploration of the play. On the first day, David said, \u201cWe are not going to talk about it. We\u2019ll jump right in,\u201d and I had such a good time. Questions were asked and discussed along the way, of course, but I appreciated that we didn\u2019t sit around the table. I often feel like a train is stalled when the dead weight of the table is in the middle of the room. Not working in a traditional way can be an awful experience for some actors. I negotiate this by going to directors who understand idiosyncratic puzzles that make my plays.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>During your career, have you ever received a particularly insightful piece of criticism? When, and what did it say? What made it especially important for you?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_163\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-163\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-163\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1157396311.jpg\" alt=\"Liana Pai and Billy Crudup in \u201cAmerica Dreaming,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Michael Mayer, co-production by Music-Theater Group and Vineyard Theater in New York City (USA), 1995 \u00a9 Photo by Carol Rosegg\" width=\"600\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1157396311.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1157396311-300x191.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-163\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liana Pai and Billy Crudup in \u201cAmerica Dreaming,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Michael Mayer, co-production by Music-Theater Group and Vineyard Theater in New York City (USA), 1995 \u00a9 Photo by Carol Rosegg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>What springs to my mind is a memory from my first play <em>America Dreaming<\/em>. Joel de la Fuente was in the cast, and the parents of his then fianc\u00e9e, now his wife Melissa, came to see it. I thought of my play as a severe criticism of the U.S. collective amnesia of damaging or shameful historical events. Joel told me that Melissa\u2019s parents thought the playwright must have really loved this country. I was surprised by the comment and grateful to their generosity.<\/p>\n<p>Bruce Springsteen says (not to me personally, to millions of people) that his stories\/songs are about the distance between the American Dream and the American reality. I like this. I used to think the American Dream was a scam, but it\u2019s more creative to think that it is a reality we could achieve.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m almost ready to move away from mourning shortcomings of humanity in my writing to just moving forward. My recent plays have a lot of humor in them, no matter what the subjects are\u2014and the subjects are often seriously political. I\u2019ve yet to meet Melissa\u2019s parents, but I haven\u2019t forgotten what Joel shared with me\u2014and I have thought about their experience of <em>America Dreaming <\/em>from time to time, trying to decode my own relationship to my adopted country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You are working with San Francisco\u2013based Theatre of Yugen to develop and present the world premiere of &#8220;This Lingering Life.&#8221; Conceived as \u201cEight Noh Plays in Two American Acts,\u201d this new play retells eight ancient Japanese stories. Can you offer something more specific about one or two of the stories in this play, and how they have been transformed by your writing process?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Theatre of Yugen was awarded a 2012 MAP Fund for this play, and the company will produce the play in 2014. We have a while to go, and the process with them hasn\u2019t truly started yet. This company has a very unique way of approaching theater in a manner of the traditional Noh performance, so my play doesn\u2019t fit their usual practice. I think it was part of the attraction for the company members to produce a play in a different form; however, their plan is to explore the original plays as well as my adaptations. It will be a fascinating exercise, and will be challenging for me to reconnect the source plays with my play again by tracing my own steps backward.<\/p>\n<p>The most well-known Noh play I used is called <em>Sumida River<\/em> by Motomasa (1400-1432). In it, a woman who acts crazy tries to get on a ferry to look for her kidnapped son. When the ferryman lets her aboard, she sees a group of people gathered on a riverbank along the way. The ferry stops, questions are asked, and she finds out that her son is dead and buried there. The son\u2019s sprit comes back and reunites with his mother. The text for each translated Noh play is about three pages.<\/p>\n<p>In my version, the scene takes place in a rural bus depot and the ferryman becomes two backpackers waiting for a bus. There are hungry ghosts, spirits, and dead people in <em>This Lingering Life<\/em>, but I decided against having a ghost in this particular story, even though the original play is a ghost play. One of the backpackers transforms into her son, and they have an imaginary reunion, but the spell is broken, and in the end, there is no resolution in my retelling of the story. The mother continues to believe that her son was kidnapped despite the fact that a funeral was held for him after he was killed in a car accident. I introduce the woman\u2019s daughter who appears to be a devoted to her mother, but secretly resents her for having to care for her. There is also a suggestion of a class issue\u2014how the mother\u2019s privileged isolation from the working world results in delusion about her son\u2019s death. Everyone leaves my scene still troubled.<\/p>\n<p>Noh plays usually deal with a single event that evokes extreme emotion from a single character. I was interested in playing with the same archetypes, but also in creating surroundings that are inhabited by others who have their own stories and experiences. There are 27 characters in the play, and none of them have names. They are identified by their types, such as Crazy Woman, Mystical Warrior, Woman with Tragic Hair, and Gangster on the Run, in an attempt to create sympathetic characters without making them into our neighbors.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_162\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-162\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-162\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1074578265.jpg\" alt=\"Sue Jean Kim, Joel de la Fuente and Francis Kelly in \u201cI Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Jean Wagner, co-produced by Voice &amp; Vision and Crossing Jamaica Avenue at Ohio Theater in New York City (USA), 2009 \u00a9 Photo by Carol Rosegg\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1074578265.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1074578265-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-162\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sue Jean Kim, Joel de la Fuente and Francis Kelly in \u201cI Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Jean Wagner, co-produced by Voice &amp; Vision and Crossing Jamaica Avenue at Ohio Theater in New York City (USA), 2009 \u00a9 Photo by Carol Rosegg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_161\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-161\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-161\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1120456002.jpg\" alt=\"Sue Jean Kim and Francis Kelly in \u201cI Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Jean Wagner, co-produced by Voice &amp; Vision and Crossing Jamaica Avenue at Ohio Theater in New York City (USA), 2009 \u00a9 Photo by Carol Rosegg\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1120456002.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1120456002-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-161\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sue Jean Kim and Francis Kelly in \u201cI Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Jean Wagner, co-produced by Voice &amp; Vision and Crossing Jamaica Avenue at Ohio Theater in New York City (USA), 2009 \u00a9 Photo by Carol Rosegg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<blockquote><p>You recently published two collections of plays: <a href=\"http:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/distributed\/T\/bo12360757.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays<\/em><\/a>, which includes seven plays, all of which explore the themes of memory and identity (<a href=\"http:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/distributed\/T\/bo12360757.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays<\/em><\/a>, <em>Comet Hunter<\/em>, <em>Leaving Eden Awakening<\/em>, <em>FireDance<\/em>, <em>Broken Morning<\/em>, and <em>Red Again<\/em>). And <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/chiori-miyagawa\/america-dreaming-and-other-plays\/paperback\/product-20149144.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>America Dreaming and Other Plays<\/em><\/a> (which includes <em>Jamaica Avenue<\/em>, <em>Yesterday\u2019s Window<\/em>, <em>Antigone\u2019s Red<\/em>, <em>I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour<\/em>, and <em>America Dreaming<\/em>). How different are these two collections in terms of theme, writing style, topics, approach? If you think about these two books, do they reveal different identities of yourself as a playwright? (Maybe you can talk about how you have changed as a writer?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The collection by Seagull Books, <a href=\"http:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/distributed\/T\/bo12360757.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays<\/em><\/a>, contains one unproduced play, <em>Comet Hunter<\/em>, which was the editor Carol Martin\u2019s favorite play, and therefore the key play for the book. She allowed me to choose the other plays, and I decided to include plays that had not been previously published. It is a beautiful book with many photos, but perhaps without an obvious thematic thread. I am glad for each play that is in the book; as a whole, the book may represent my chaotic journey as a writer. My subjects and styles greatly vary from play to play, though underneath all plays are questions about memory and identity. The book is international in nature, which must reflect my interests: the plays span from a thousand years ago in Japan to the nineteenth century England where the first recognized woman astronomer lived, to Chekhov\u2019s Russia, to contemporary NYC, which gets invaded by moments from U.S. history, to the death row in the Huntsville prison, which is based on an actual place, and finally to the underworld encompassing eternity.<\/p>\n<p>The plays in the collection by NoPassport Press, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/chiori-miyagawa\/america-dreaming-and-other-plays\/paperback\/product-20149144.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>America Dreaming and Other Plays<\/em><\/a>, have all been previously published elsewhere. This book has an accidental thematic cohesion. All the plays have some Japanese influence. Until these plays were collected, I didn\u2019t realize that I had so many plays that had references to Japan in some way. Some are very small\u2014one monologue about the atomic bombing by a ghost in <em>FireDance<\/em> or a couple of Japanese words in <em>Yesterday\u2019s Window<\/em>. <em>I<\/em> <em>Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour<\/em> examines appropriation of sorrow for Hiroshima by the West, and <em>America Dreaming<\/em> voyages through revisionist U.S. History, and both have Japanese characters. And always, there are questions about memory and identity.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Which of the plays in these two books do you think an international producer should be interested in? Why?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don\u2019t know. I hope international producers will be interested in any of the plays, but I can\u2019t presume what is relevant in cultures I\u2019m unfamiliar with. I\u2019ve had a few requests for my plays from Iran. I don\u2019t understand why, but I appreciate it. As far as I know, my plays have been translated to Persian, Polish, Japanese and Romanian. I welcome all interests in cultural swaps.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Why are you a playwright (as opposed to being a poet or a novelist)?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>By accident. I read <em>Long Day\u2019s Journey into Night <\/em>as a teenager and was profoundly affected by it, though my journey to becoming a theater artist was muddy and confusing along the way. I\u2019ve had some poems published years ago, and I enjoy prose writing, but theater is a magical place, which can\u2019t be replicated by poems or novels, because those genres never become a \u201cplace.\u201d I suppose I love theater because it\u2019s ephemeral and lives in people\u2019s memory and sometimes becomes part of their identities.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_160\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-160\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-160\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1045466602.jpg\" alt=\"Michi Barall and Timothy Altmeyer in \u201cFireDance,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Marya Mazor, produced by Voice &amp; Vision at the Connelly Theater in New York City (USA), 1997 \u00a9 Photo by Ward Yoshimoto\" width=\"600\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1045466602.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1045466602-300x206.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-160\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michi Barall and Timothy Altmeyer in \u201cFireDance,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa, directed by Marya Mazor, produced by Voice &amp; Vision at the Connelly Theater in New York City (USA), 1997 \u00a9 Photo by Ward Yoshimoto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_159\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-159\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1380042392.jpg\" alt=\"Jennifer Rowe, Maddux and Philip Cuomo in \u201cYesterday's Window,\u201d a site-specific performance at Lee Kelly\u2019s sculpture entitled \u201cWindow to the Gone World,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa directed by Amy Gonzalez, produced at West Wind Studio in Portland, Oregon (USA), August, 2011 \u00a9 Photo by Owen Carey\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1380042392.jpg 576w, https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1380042392-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-159\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Rowe, Maddux and Philip Cuomo in \u201cYesterday&#8217;s Window,\u201d a site-specific performance at Lee Kelly\u2019s sculpture entitled \u201cWindow to the Gone World,\u201d written by Chiori Miyagawa directed by Amy Gonzalez, produced at West Wind Studio in Portland, Oregon (USA), August, 2011 \u00a9 Photo by Owen Carey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<hr>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/Gener-150x150.png\" alt=\"Gener\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\"><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"end1\"><\/a>*<strong>Randy Gener<\/strong> is the Nathan Award-winning editor, writer and artist in New York City. A contributor to National Public Radio and TDF Stages Online, he is a curator and co-producer of &#8220;From the Edge: Performance Design in the Divided States of America,&#8221; a theatrical installation of 37 politically committed works by U.S. performance makers and young ensemble theaters which emerged during the dramatic transition in the White House from 2007 to 2011. This exhibition, which originated as the USA National Exposition at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space in the Czech Republic, debuts at LaMaMa La Galleria December 5 to 16, 2012. For his editorial work and critical essays in American Theatre magazine, Gener won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, NLGJA Journalist of the Year Award, the Rube Award for Best Arts Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, among numerous other awards. Gener was most recently honored at Los Angeles City Hall with a 2012 Filipino-American Heritage Achievement Award and a Medal for Arts\/Literature and Media from Los Angeles Filipino Association of City Employees. He also received Certificates of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles and the California State Senate, as well as a Commendation from County of Los Angeles. His media project, theaterofOneWorld.org, pursues cultural diplomacy and international arts journalism in the public interest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 14px;\">Copyright <strong>\u00a9<\/strong> 2012 Randy Gener<br \/>\n<em>Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/88x31.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"88\" height=\"31\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 14px;\">This work is licensed under the<br \/>\nCreative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interview by Randy Gener* It has been traditional in Miyagawan criticism to state that the Japanese-born Asian American playwright Chiori Miyagawa can\u2019t resist but be poetical. \u201cIneffably beautiful,\u201d \u201cdelicate,\u201d \u201csurprising stage pictures,\u201d \u201cimpressionistic\u201d\u2014these encomiums follow her work around like a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","","tg-column-two"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/03\/1276249786.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7moa7-2y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":956,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}