Analysis Of Peace Boy By Rick Shiomi

Introduction

Playwright, director, musician and theatre artist, Rick Shiomi - a Japanese -Canadian born and raised in Toronto was founding member of theatre MU in Minneapolis. He is nationally recognized for his work in Asian American theatre. As a playwright, artistic director, his work includes award winning ‘Yellow Fever’ and ‘Wallaye Kid’. He used his experiences as a Japanese-Canadian living in Vancouver’s Cordova Street to create a play titled. ‘Yellow Fever’ in which Sam-Spade the detective named Sam Shikaze was the protagonist.’ In the play, Sam Shikaze narrates what happened when he was hired to find the missing Cherry Blossom Queen. However, in the process, he was trapped in a web of racism and politics. Chuk Chan, a lawyer

helped him solve the case. Vancouver’s Powell Street is a Canadian type of Chinatown In America. Yellow Fever was first introduced 1982.

It was the best new play in San Franscisco produced at off-Broadway ground North America. He wrote the play based on what he learned in Vancouver about his Japanese-Canadian parents history. As a result of its success, Rick Shiomi was awarded the bay Area Theatre Circle Crititcs award. In 1999 , he wrote another play in conjuction with Sundraya Kase titled ‘ Walleye Kids’- a musical play which was produced by Mu Performing Arts in 2008. This play was derived from the Japanese traditional fable story of a boy called ’ Peace Boy’. The setting of this play was focused on warmer climate of Japan but Rick in ‘Walleye Kid’ shifted the setting from Japanese climate to the iced mountains of Minnesota where the baby who emerged from a peach in ‘Peace Boy’ protruded instead from a massive Walleye. In essence, these plays explains what Asians in diaspora have experienced as they live in America. Yellow Fever launched the theatrical career of Mu performing Arts. Production. Consequently, this paper investigates the relationship between a playwrights personal experience of racialization and how he or she represents the world of U.S race relations in their plays and performances of the plays. Rick’s play was developed from a racialized

or cultural experience. So, can playwrights only tell stories that directly reflect their own lived lives? His play touches on race relations. Like most playwrights in diaspora, their plays captured the racial dynamics in America, a period of race-relations in U.S . How does a playwright in diaspora take on the challenge to connect and represent the complexity of U.S diversity on race relations on stage with their personal experience of rationalization?
Yellow Fever made it possible for artists to help recent immigrant youth from Southeast Asia to express their stories in English and share them on stage before their fellow audiences, helping all to understand and value those life experience. They were able to learn Japanese cultural roots behind that art form of ‘hitting taiko drum.’ . His play familiarized the artists with current models of production with an emphasis on work that is being developed from a racialized cultural experience. He used the racialized version of a Japanese-Canadian internment as an avenue for discussing the Asian community’s in U.S. Playwrights often use their play as an avenue to wipe away Asian or African-American stereotypes. Through their personal experiences, they use the tools of drama to change perceptions of Asian or Africans in American audiences. For instance, when Rick Shiomi came to Minnesota there was no opportunity for Asian- American actors to perform. Shiomi opened the door and growth of Asian-Americans performers increased from five percent to Mu’s total of thity percent. It is worthy to mention that Mu began from a comparative narrow ethnic base where acialization existed. Asian and African Americans were categorized as a group of people and into a race. However, Rick Shiomi’s play on ‘Yellow Fever’ resonates with local audiences because it brought memories of the Japanese internment camps. All his plays did not serve only his Asian community but he “chose to reach out to the broadest spectrum, bringing audience of widely divergent perspectives,experiences and expectations together to share their visionand artistic work.’’ Besides he began to learn about Japanese- Canadian roots in the community when he moved to America and started work at Power Street Festival in 1970’s. The explosion of Asian American theatre’s huge success brought Asian American companies and individulized artists together.
Playwrights use their multiethnic vision and personal life experiences in a different way of looking at America in the twenty-first century. For example, Shiomi’s awarded play Yellow Fever’ was influenced significantly by what he learned in Vancouver about his family who were Japanese-Canadian. Moreover, his historical background influenced his play writings when he learned that his father and uncle in Japanese internment demonstrated great interest in theatre. Immigrant playwrights in America had common traits particularly the wish to preserve the culture and language of their country of origin. Inculcating a sense of community ties is a driving motivation behind any theatre group formed within an immigrnat community coupled with preserving their language and culture on a grassroot level.
Playwrights need a supportive community and like Rick Shiomi , they endeavor to reach out to new audiences across American cities through their plays. Their personal experience of rationalization represents a vibrant but embroynoic culture struggling to establiish its own identity out of the myriad influences that are constantly bombarding them. Rick Siomi’s Asian emerging culture in Mu town grew up and identified his characters and their issues. Similarly, playwrights employ and select their personal experiences carefully to demonstrate the vast diversity of themes that represent the complex world of U.S race relations in their play writing. However, in case of Shiomi, his plays were usually chosen to reveal common’s motifs about Japanese diaspora in America. His provided a foundation thearectical infrastructure for theatre artists in Minnesota to find their niche and voice. He was able to make his work visible by finding the right community.
Playwrights plays are usually write about characters with multi-dimensional human problems in U.S- race relations that can affect anyone regardless of their cultural identity.

The characters in their plays seek to know where they belong and how they should define themselves. As mentioned above, Shiomi’s parent’s experieince in Japanese intenment camp in British Columbia is evident in all the themes of his plays. Their plays are derived from the origin of lived and personal experiences. The Japanese intenment experience zooms large in the history and development of Asian American drama which has created a very American experience. Playwrights tell an American story on U.S diversity of race relations because race is the central question in American history. So, their plays are indicative of the demographics and immigration patterns of their contemporary time. This implies that Playwrights experience a culture that mirrors their own lives and provides a window into a world of U.S race relations in performances of their plays. Their plays problematize the categories of race and etnicity through acting and play on stage. In Rick Shiomi’s plays he tries to find a common ground for progressive Japanese-Canadians in America

community.
Conclusion
Rick Shiomi plays like ‘Yellow Fever’ and Walleye Kids’ were written for Canadian -American audiences. The Yellow Fever investigates a mystery that brings memories of the Japanese –Canadian internment camps. The play was acted in a ommunity of Japanese-Canadian culture in Vancouver. A detective story that connects his personal experience of racialization and how it represents the complex world of U.S race relations. Rick Shiomi through his play exposed Canadian audiences to Asian Amerian cultures. Shiomi explored his cultural heritage and potential of South East Asia from his parent’s Japanese Canadian internment historical background. Through their plays, playwrights reveal the relationship between their personal experience of racialization and the complex world of U.S race relations. They talk about their experiences of racism through their plays and arts. Like Yellow Fever, it explores racism and politics and Asian American culture.

References
1. Lemanczyk, Sarah. (2009, January). Rick Shiomi: Carving a Space. American Theatre, 26(1), 68-71. e