The aging of Japanese women who emigrated to the U.S. after World War II is explored via their personal journeys and family experiences. Using interviews, images, and excerpts from a play, Calligraphy, the project provides views of globalism harnessing the transformative power of the dramatic arts as chronicler. Calligraphy confronts growing older, sibling and mother-daughter relations, and race relations. When aging strikes the mothers of two cousins, one in Tokyo and one in Los Angeles, the cousins engineer a reunion unaware of the hostility that has divided their family. At odds is disquieting history involving interracial marriage, emigration, and disownment. Set in 2000 and 2001, the play explores physical and cognitive impairment, and the outcomes of growing old in a foreign country. It mines vital themes – immigration, female culture; Japanese, American, and Black cultures; cultural distortion, technology’s impact, on human life aging, and the politics of memory. The presentation seeks to encourage audiences to heighten their consciousness and consider humanity beyond media headlines or presumption. Methods used in writing the play included first-person interviews and site visits in Atami, Japan, and the U.S. with Japanese female immigrants. The structure of the event will include excerpts from the play, visuals of individuals, and production photographs. The women’s global citizenship and its bearing upon humanity is illuminated.

Authors:
Velina Hasu Houston, University of Southern California, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Velina Hasu Houston is a Distinguished Professor of Theatre in Dramatic Writing and Resident Playwright at the University of Southern California.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Tuesday Schedule

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