A zen exploration of the gap between truth and convenient fictions that employs the known facts about General Tomoyuki Yamashita and his legendary gold to illuminate the tangled love lives of four disaffected New Yorkers- Calvin Kanayama, a Japanese-American man with a passion for Star Trek, his girlfriend Debbie Goldberg, a Jewish woman who loves to taunt her family by dating the goyim, her roommate Sean O'Connell, a homo who's trying not to date straight men anymore, and his fag hag Tara Eaton, a WASP model who's sporadically studying astrology and Buddhism.
Full production ran May 2009, at the Workshop Theater, as part of a repertory merger with Cross-Eyed Bear Productions, Theatre of the Expendable and Small Pond Entertainment, called Theatre of the Small-Eyed Bear!
Directed by Laura Moss, Starring: E. Calvin Ahn*, Elizabeth Erwin*, Clara Barton Green, Rachel Lin, Shawn McLaughlin, Robert Torigoe*
* These Actors are appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. Equity Approved Showcase.
Original Cast
Original Cast
L-R: Robert Torigoe, Clara Barton Green, Rachel Lin, E. Calvin Ahn, Elizabeth Erwin, Shawn McLaughlin.
L-R: Shawn McLaughlin & Rachel Lin
Photos by Elisha Schaefer
"Matsuo and I shared an obsession with history, with moral judgements. We reacted with fury at modern-day attempts to cover up what was problematical or difficult or painful in the past. Listening, I felt a special bond to him. He was somehow giving me permission to reclaim parts of the past most Americans don't want to recall, to look back without blinking, to feel as much as possible how the past resides within us."
David Mura - Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei
"Pflaster's ability to write complex and fully realized characters allows them to spend more time creating nuanced performances.
- Jerry Portwood, Backstage
"...artfully constructed, well-aimed, and resonant story of a modern New York City love triangle."
- Jon Sobel, Blog Critics