Mar. 11: Thom Sesma, Patti LuPone, Cindy Cheung, Ken Leung, Jennifer Lim, Sab Shimono, James Yaegashi and more set for Shinsai: Theaters for Japan Benefit in NY

On Sunday, March 11, 2012, Shinsai: Theaters for Japan, will be performed at 3pm and 8pm at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, Seventh Street at Third Avenue in New York.

Thom Sesma Photo by Lia Chang

Shinsai: Theaters for Japan, a two performance benefit to raise funds that will go directly to Japanese theater artists devastated by last year’s great earthquake (Shinsai), will feature Michi Barall, Cindy Cheung, Joel de la Fuente, Angel Desai, Ann Harada, Jennifer Ikeda, Paul Juhn, Peter Kim, Ken Leung, Li Jun Li, Jennifer Lim, Angela Lin, Paolo Montalban, Olivia Oguma, Jon Norman Schneider, Thom Sesma, Sab Shimono, Jade Wu, Johnny Wu, James Yaegashi and Stacey Yen, under the direction of Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher.

UPDATED: 3/6/12 12:45pm

Jennifer Lim Photo by Lia Chang

Broadwayworld.com reports that Patti LuPone, Richard Thomas, Mary Beth Hurt, Jay O. Sanders and Henry Stram will join forces with the previously announced Asian American actors to raise funds that will go directly to Japanese theater artists devasted by last year’s earthquake when they appear in this Sunday’s March 11 benefit performances of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan, at the Great Hall at Cooper Union (Seventh Street at Third Avenue).

Patti LuPone and Henry Stram will appear in the 8pm performance only. Jay O. Sanders and Mary Beth Hurt will appear in the 3pm performance only. Richard Thomas will appear in both the 3pm and 8pm performances.

Read more: http://broadwayworld.com/article/Patti-LuPone-Richard-Thomas-and-More-Join-SHINSAI-THEATERS-FOR-JAPAN-Benefit-20120306#ixzz1oMLLtsQM

Edward Albee. Photo by Lia Chang

This stellar lineup will perform a series of ten minute plays and musical numbers by an eclectic group of award-winning American and Japanese writers and composers including Edward Albee, Shoki Kokami, Oriza Hirata, Richard Greenberg, John Guare, Kumiko Shinohara, John Kander, Fred Ebb & Joseph Stein, Tony Kushner & Jeanine Tesori, Nen Ishihara, Toshiki Okada, Toshiro Suzue and Yoji Sakate. Playwrights Philip Kan Gotanda, Richard Greenberg, Suzan-Lori-Parks, Naomi Iizuka and Doug Wright will contribute original work to the benefit which will also feature a segment from the 1976 musical Pacific Overtures revised especially for the occasion by its creators librettist John Weidman and composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

Angela Lin and Peter Kim at the Chinglish opening night party at Brassiere 8 1/2 in New York on October 27, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

The New York performances of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan will be just one of many presentations taking place on March 11, the first anniversary of the quake, at regional theatres throughout the United States. All proceeds from the performances that day around the country, will be sent from the Dramatists Guild Fund to the Japan Playwrights Association, who will in turn distribute the monies to those members of Japan’s theatre community who were stricken by the earthquake.

New York City’s leading theatre companies, including Atlantic Theater Company, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, The Play Company, Playwrights Horizons and The Public Theater, have joined forces to present Shinsai: Theaters for Japan.

Shinsai (SHEEN-sigh) means great quake in Japanese. The genesis of the event began shortly after the disaster when actor James Yaegashi, whose family is from a nearby area, called friends in New York theatre to say “We as a theatre community have to do something to help our fellow artists on the other side of the world.” This galvanized the various theatre professionals to whom Yaegahsi reached out who in turn joined forces with the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Cooper Union, Dramatists Guild Fund, Japan Playwrights Association, Japan Society, The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and Theatre Communications Group to present this nation-wide effort.

Cindy Cheung Photo by Lia Chang

Tickets to Shinsai: Theaters for Japan, priced at $25 for each performance are available at the Public Theater box office (425 Lafayette Street), by phone at (212) 967-7555 or by visitingwww.publictheater.org.

For additional information: visitwww.tcg.org/shinsai. Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/SHINSAI-Theaters-for-Japan/286171358070366

Philip Kan Gotanda at the Public Theatre in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

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