Asian Friends Stage ‘Sansei’ Benefit

Saturday night’s benefit performance of “Sansei,” an original musical theater piece by the jazz-fusion band Hiroshima, was chosen for a first at the Music Center--the first major public event hosted by the Asian American Friends of Center Theatre Group, a pan-Asian support group for the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre.

The AAF, organized in 1986, is working to increase Asian involvement at the Music Center, and involves Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Southeast Asian members. “Sansei” refers to third-generation Japanese Americans, children whose grandparents came from Japan. AAF’s members are Nisei and Sansei; members of the band Hiroshima are Sansei.

To kick things off, a ceremony was held before the show with a cultural exchange between Los Angeles dignitaries and representatives of the mayor of the City of Hiroshima and the governor of Hiroshima Prefecture.

Master of ceremonies, actor George Takei, introduced Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who accepted four trees from Japanese dignitaries, including Japanese Consul General Hiromoto Seki. Among the trees was a phoenix palm to be planted in the forecourt of the Music Center, symbolizing the rebirth of modern Hiroshima.

Hiroshima Gov. Toranosuke Takeshita spoke about the assistance by the United States in helping to rebuild the city after the atomic blast. Mayor Tom Bradley also made a few brief remarks before disappearing quickly.

AAF Honorary Chairman Michael Woo once again established himself as the cutup of the City Council when he took the dais after someone inadvertently referred to “people from many planets” moving to L.A. “What he failed to point out,” Woo said wryly, “is that most of them are moving into my district.”

Other speeches were made by Sandra Kimberling, president of the Music Center Operating Co., Lawrence Ramer, president of the Center Theatre Group Board of Directors, and Mark Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson.

By the time the speeches were winding down, drumming was drifting up from outside. In front of the Taper a group of Japanese taiko drummers, Zenshuji Zendeko Taiko, were pounding rhythmically and energetically for the entertainment of the arriving crowd. (Takei stopped on the way out to sign an autograph for a youthful “Star Trek” fan.)

The evening was technically a dress rehearsal, and the company was making adjustments and changes up until curtain time. Inside the Taper, things went smoothly despite Davidson’s pre-curtain caveat about the potentially disastrous proclivities of dress rehearsals. At the very last minute, a decision was made to insert an intermission in the 2 1/2-hourlong show, and it was a wise move.

It was 11:15 when guests finally sat down to asparagus salad in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and even later when the actors and members of Hiroshima came in with director Robert Egan, who had forsaken the traditional dress rehearsal post-show notes. At the tables were benefit chairs Les Hamasaki, Yet Locke, Ruth Watanabe and Dolores Wong of Los Angeles, and Kenji Numata, Toshimitsu Saito and Isao Tomikawa of the City of Hiroshima.

Also spotted around the room were CTG Managing Director Stephen Albert, CTG Board of Directors Chair J. David Haft and benefit committee members Marie Chun, Wendy Eng, Rumiko Hasegawa, David Hyun, Richard Kudo, Joanne Kumamoto, Edwin Kwoh, Wanice LaMoyne, Beulah Quo, Doris Kim Tom and Nancy Yee.

By 12:30 a.m., guests were drifting out, clutching complimentary packets of a Japanese “health elixir” and tiny potted trees of their own.