Writer Is Center of Attention After SCR Opening

Theater buffs crowded the Center Club in Costa Mesa last week after watching the world premiere of “Ballad of Yachiyo” by Philip Kan Gotanda at South Coast Repertory.

Gathered for post-performance appetizers and desserts, party guests rubbed elbows with Gotanda, who wrote the play-- co-commissioned by SCR and Berkeley Repertory--while in residence at Berkeley Rep on a National Theater Artist Grant.

The Story

“Ballad of Yachiyo” (at SCR through Feb. 11) weaves the tale of a 16-year-old girl’s quest for love on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai early in the 20th century. Against a backdrop of life on the sugar-cane plantations, Yachiyo falls in love with a married man. After becoming pregnant with his child--and being rejected by him--she swims to her death in the ocean.

Gotanda based Yachiyo’s character on his father’s elder sister, “who died tragically,” he said.

“I knew the bare minimum about her . . . what I began to do is create an imagined account of her young life, her journey and her end--in part, because this is my blood, my relative,” Gotanda said. “It was meant in some way to pay respect to her death, her life. Most of the immediate family didn’t talk about her much because of the nature of her death. If something happens in the past that, to some degree, makes us uncomfortable, we tend to sort of put it aside.”

The Party

As guests plucked appetizers such as chicken with hoisin sauce and barbecued duck from silver trays, they chatted about the play, which was underwritten with a grant from AT&T;:Onstage.

“I loved it--it was like an opera without music, a tragedy,” said Sharon Lesk, who had just returned from a business trip to snow-covered Virginia (“30 feet!--I went sledding for the first time in 30 years.”)

Said Richard Tripp: “It was a female thing. A very nice, ‘Little Women’ kind of story, a lady’s tale.”

Martin Benson, SCR’s artistic director, called the play “an extraordinary achievement.”

“The central character was based on a member of Gotanda’s family, and he turned that into a work of art,” Benson said.

Who Was There

Guests also included David Emmes, SCR’s producing artistic director, with his fiancee, Paula Tomei, managing director of SCR (the newly engaged couple will marry this summer).

Also attending were AT&T; Vice President Carol McLarty, Lorain Wong, Alida Amabile, Larry Holt, Wendy Tokuda, Ron and Jean Wakabashi, Tohei Takeuchi, Nancy Yoshimura and Cayleen Nakamura.

Also among guests were Olivia and Andy Johnson, Mark Johnson with Barbara Hiller, Jim and Barbara Glabman, Catherine McLarand, Larry and Dee Higby and Arlene and George Cheng.