JON SHIROTA
Lucky Come Hawaii
Pan Asian Repertory, New York, NY
Lucky
Come Hawaii revolves around Kama Gusada, an Okinawan pig farmer who has
just made an honorable match for his daughter Kimiko, who wants no part of
it. If Kimiko breaks the match, then Kama will never be able to hold his head
up at the Maui Okinawan Association meetings. When the Japanese attack Pearl
Harbor, Kama is asked to prove his loyalty to Japan by "spying" on the American soldiers.
Written largely in Hawaiian "pidgin," Lucky Come Hawaii is reminiscent
of the Hollywood comedies of the 1940s.
Jon Shirota, born in Hawaii of Japanese-American parentage, resides in California. Upon graduating from Brigham Young University, he worked as a Treasury agent in Hollywood. He joined the Handy Writers Colony (founded by James Jones of From Here to Eternity fame), where he completed Lucky Come Hawaii, the first of his three published novels, and which he later adapted into a play. Other plays written by Shirota have been produced in Hawaii, Los Angeles, and New York. Recently he was awarded a Japan-America Friendship grant to address a number of universities and the leading newspaper in Okinawa. His speech, translated into Japanese, has been published as a textbook for high school students. Other awards include the Rockefeller Foundation Grant, the American College Theater Festival, the annual L.A. Weekly Festival, the Los Angeles Actors Theater Festival of One Acts, and the Best Stage Scenes of 1992, published by Smith and Kraus Books. His hobbies are golfing, jogging, and swimming.
Director: Ron Nakahara
Set Designer: Robert Klingelhoefer
Lighting Designer: Victor En Yu Yan
Costume Designer: Maggie Raywood
Sound Designer: Ty Sanders
Featured Performers: Stan Egi, Mel Duane Gioson, Tom Matsusaka, Norris
Shimabuku,
Ann M. Tsuji
Running Dates: October 24-December 1, 1990
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