{Connor Johnston, who plays young Ishiro in Snow Falling on Cedars (second from the right).}

Oregon Episcopal School student Connor Johnston took a big step forward in his performance career when he was cast in Snow Falling on Cedars. KPTV tracked him down for their “High School Spotlight” segment.

He talks about the process of acting, his dreams for the future, and some of what he’s left behind to move forward with his dreams.

Check it out here.

Today as rain began to fall on Portland cedars, the cast of Snow Falling (plus Stage Manager Stephanie Mulligan; Marketing/Communications Director Cynthia Fuhrman and me, your Community Programs Manager) took a field trip away from the Gerding Theater to eat lunch with a very wonderful group of elders from the Japanese community for Ikoi-No-Kai Senior Hot Lunch at Epworth Methodist Church in Southeast Portland.

We were honored to be invited to lunch by Henry Sakamoto, president of the Japanese Ancestral Society , a co-founder of the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, and a copacetically swinging crooner in the Billy Eckstine tradition (you can hear him this Sunday at Central Library with Minidoka Swing Band).

Since 1979,  this vital program has been serving lunch (for as few as 15 to as many as 80) five days a week–with special Japanese-style meals every Tuesdays and Thursdays. For seniors, there is a $3.50 donation requested (for younger diners, it’s $4.50). Beyond any price, however, is the opportunity to connect with a generous and world-wise group of Portlanders who lived through much of the history that Snow depicts.

I can’t begin to capture the spirit of this as well as my dear friend Polo Catalani (an astutely poetic observer of everyday life)  who, writing in the Asian Reporter, noted:

“Once inside that humble church basement, we saw something of what’s underlying our society’s segregation. Actually we sat in it. Smack in the middle of them. Oregon history. Lots of them. We chatted among them while waiting for lunch. Heavenly steaming miso, bara sushi made of pearly rose rice, pickled daikon and lively ginger on the side. Yum.”

After a warm welcome from Mr. Sakamoto and some introductions, I thanked folks and introduced them to actor Bruce Locke (who plays Kabuo) who spoke eloquently about his experience growing up in Portland. Many who know Bruce beamed with pride as the actor shared anecdotes (that Sakamoto was his boyhood basketball coach; about visiting Epworth–praying with friends and neighbors there and saying goodbye to those who passed; and how resonant his return to Portland was). The cast were all introduced and then–LUNCH! Such a splendid spread and such wonderful spirit in the room.

After lunch there was time for some mingling, making acquantainces (and renewing old ones, in Bruce’s case) and a chance to offer 60 of our new friends an opportunity to be our guests for an evening that we hope will be every bit as spectacular and fulfilling as Ikoi-No-Kai was for us.

“you make the fire
and I’ll show you something wonderful”
—Bashō

Final preview for Snow Falling on Cedars this evening.  Sales have been so brisk that we’re already adding two performances.  Overheard a woman behind me last night during the Internment Camp scene, “Is this all real?  My god.”

{photo by Owen Carey. Hatsue (Olivia Oguma) and Ishmael (Vince Nappo) find solace in each other’s arms inside a hollowed out cedar tree when Hatsue discovers her family is to be shipped to an internment camp in Snow Falling on Cedars.}

One of the challenges has been finding a balance between the intimacy of some of the scenes, the poetry of the language and the energy to drive the thing forward.  Felt like the actors were finding more of their stride last evening and the story was hanging together.

{photo by Owen Carey. Officer Powell (Scott Coopwood) and his deputy (Casey McFeron) investigate a clue uncovered by newspaper reporter Ishmael (Vince Nappo) in Snow Falling on Cedars.}

Cynthia, our Marketing Director, just emailed:  we’re now 80% to our income goal a day before opening.  We’re usually happy if we get to 30% by opening night.  Fun times.

{photo by Owen Carey. Defense Lawyer Nels (Tobias Andersen) searches for a plausible story to explain Kabuo’s (Bruce Locke) innocence in Snow Falling on Cedars.}

Great article in Willamette Week yesterday interviewing Bruce Locke (right) who plays Kabuo.  Bruce’s family has been in Portland since 1890, and much of the discrimination the play exorcises touched earlier generations. 

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{Kabuo (Bruce Locke) faces the realization that he, along with his fellow islanders of Japanese descent, will be sent to internment camps for the duration of World War II.}

We’re super excited to have Bruce Locke starring as Kabuo in our production of Snow Falling on Cedars, opening this Friday on our Main Stage. Not only has he had a fantastic film and TV career, he is a native Oregonian of Chinese descent whose family history illustrates some of the themes of discrimination and the fight for justice that run through the production.

Ben Waterhouse of the Willamette Week sat down with Bruce to talk about his family, his Oregon experience, and the process of bringing Snow to life.

Here’s an excerpt from that interview:

Does the show illuminate your family’s experience for you in any way?

Although I’m Chinese-American, I grew up with a lot of the Japanese-Americans that lived this story. My friends’ parents and grandparents were the ones at the camps. My family is intermarried with Japanese-Americans. So I have relatives, through marriage, that had this experience. This is not a new subject to me. I didn’t find any factual information illuminating. I think the emotional information I found more illuminating. What we’re doing is, we’re reliving these terrible experiences, and every time you do something like that, and you work with wonderful actors, visceral emotions come up, that give you an idea of “If I had lived through this, what would I have felt?” Those images are really strong and very real.

Read the whole interview here.

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We finally left the rehearsal hall and moved onstage this week.  Lots of questions about how we keep the intimacy found in the rehearsal hall once we move into the theater.  (Vince Nappo and Olivia Oguma are seen above rehearsing their first scene inside the cedar tree.)

Jayne Taini brought in this beautiful picture of her parents in Seattle in the thirties that reminded us both of Mr. and Mrs. Chambers in the play.

The shop pulled the Christmas Carol set down, and started to load in the pieces of the Snow set.

Jayne underwent a pretty dramatic transformation from her lovely everyday self, to . . . .

Mrs. Chambers, Ishmael’s mother.

Vince tried on his 10-year old outfit.  Bill Bloodgood, our set designer, is in the background checking out the boat.

Alan Ariano plays three different characters, the second being Mr. Nitta, seen here in his ’strawberry picking gear’.

And Mia Tagano also plays multiple roles, with Mrs. Nitta modeled after the rice-picking women of Japan whose backs get stuck bent over from so many years of stooping in the fields.

Ishmael and Hatsue stay out of the rain by ducking into a hollow cedar tree in the woods.

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