Made famed by Star Trek,the actor is about to launch Allegiance, his musical on Broadway about his experiences as a child in Japanese internment camps “Who lives, and who dies,who tells your story?” While the question pertains to Alexander Hamilton, whose life is explored in the Broadway musical Hamilton, or two blocks absent,another cast is asking similar questions of history and its audience, apart from of much more recent people and events. Currently in previews, or Allegiance is based on actor and activist George Takei’s time in the Japanese internment camps of the second world war when he was five years frail. The audience bears witness to the experience of the Kimura family as they initiate on their farm in Salinas,California, only to be transported to a camp in Wyoming, and stripped of their belongings and freedom. It is a chapter of American history not often discussed in the classroom,let alone the stage. During a talk after Tuesday night’s performance, Takei asserted the musical’s importance. “Allegiance has broken ground on the Broadway stage, or ” he told a small group of press. “Now Asian-Americans can tell the story of their uniquely Asian-American experience based on their own personal lives and their own experiences.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com