New York

Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is presenting THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD written by Tony award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) and directed by May Adrales, in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street in New York. THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD begins preview performances on February 5 and will continue through March 17, 2013. Opening night is on February 25, 2013. All tickets for the initial run of the production are $25 as part of the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access. Purchase Tickets

(Photo) David Henry Hwang Photo by Lia Chang

The cast features Ruy Iskandar (The Public Theater’sMeasure for Measure and Classic Stage Company’sPurimcelo) as Ma and Yuekun Wu (Theater for the New City’s Love in Tears and Laughter & Luo Shen: Legend of the Luo River) as Lone.

On a California mountaintop in 1867 near the Transcontinental Railroad, two Chinese workers struggle through poverty and hunger to reconnect with the traditions of their homeland. THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD premiered as part of a commission by the New Federal Theatre in 1981, and had its professional debut on July 16, 1981 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. It was directed by John Lone, with Lone and Tzi Ma in the cast. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for a 1982 Drama Desk Award. THE DANCE...

Congrats to Manu Narayan, who has been nominated for a 2012 San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award for his electrifying turn as Richard Roma in La Jolla Playhouse’s Glengarry Glen Ross, in the category of outstanding male featured performance in a play. Multimedia: Manu Narayan Dazzles as Richard Roma in La Jolla Playhouse’s Revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross

Manu Narayan (Photo by Lia Chang)

On Monday, February 4, 2013, more than 110 local and national theater artists representing more than 45 San Diego theatrical productions will compete for the 2012 San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Awards at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, 700 Prospect Drive, La Jolla, CA. The award ceremony, which will take place from 6 to 10 p.m., is produced by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. Admission to the ceremony is free. Reservations and details can be found at www.sdcriticscircle.org.

Michael K. Lee as Frankie Suzuki and Lea Salonga as Kei Kimura in the World Premiere of Allegiance – A New American Musical, with music and lyrics by Jay Kuo and book by Marc Acito, Kuo and Lorenzo Thione, directed by Stafford Arima, at The Old Globe. Photo by Henry DiRocco.

Allegiance, The Old Globe’s world premiere musical starring George Takei, Telly Leung and Lea Salonga, is in the lead with six nominations including Outstanding New Musical; an outstanding female featured performance nomination for Salonga’s portrayal of Kei Kimura and an outstanding male...

December 17, 2012

American war hero and distinguished Senator Daniel Inouye has died at the age of 88 of respiratory complications at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

"Tonight, our country has lost a true American hero," said President Barack Obama. Senator Inouye was the second longest serving senator in the U.S. and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his World War II heroics.

He was a member of the U.S. Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in U.S. history. 

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I can’t wait to get my holiday cheer on at the world premiere of BUMBUG The Musical, a new Rock Opera by Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri, presented by LAUGHistan, during its limited engagement at The Clurman Theatre (Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street) in New York. I loved the workshop production of Bakwas Bumbug, presented by Desipina at the Wild Project in 2011, and have been anxiously awaiting its return.

(Photo) Internationally Acclaimed singer Falu (center) shares her breathtaking voice and dance moves with the Angel Crew (left to right: Lipica Shah as Sunita, Matthew Knowland, Kiarri Andrews & Brooke Ishibashi) in the show stopper song “Ajaa Ajaa” from LAUGHistan’s World Premiere of “BUMBUG The Musical”. Photo Credit: Lia Chang

(Photo) Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte as “Scroogewala” from LAUGHistan’s World Premiere of “BUMBUG The Musical”. Photo Credit: Lia Chang

Performances begin Thursday, December 6 and continue through Saturday, December 22. Opening Night is Saturday, December 15 (8 p.m.).

Helmed by Mercedes Murphy, BUMBUG The Musical, is an electrifying musical reinvention of “A Christmas Carol” told through the looking glass of NYC Immigrants and Hyphenated America. Like so many immigrants, disillusioned Deli-owner Scroogewala left his motherland years ago to pursue the American dream. Amidst his battle with holiday merriment, Scroogewala is visited by a motley crew of misfits who remind him that love, loss and laughter are all a part of that...

San Francisco

Burton, My Brother

by Ben Fong-Torres

The hardest part about losing a sibling – or anyone close to you, come to think of it – is having to go out and see friends and hear those most innocent of questions: “What’s new with you?” or “How’re you doing?”

Depending on who’s asking, I’ve been saying, “All right, thanks, and you?” or “Not so great. My younger brother died.” And then you gird yourself for the questions and sympathy, and you let out a couple of details, and try to figure out a transition to another subject; any other subject.

That’s how it’s been since November 11th, the Sunday of Thanksgiving week. Burton, who was 63 and the youngest of us five children, died after several years of living with a weak heart, helped not at all by kidney dialysis.  Since childhood, Burton was slow, and did not advance far, in school or in life. Later in life, he had no friends. And so, when he passed away, we, his family, chose not to have a service. Our mother, 91, is in nursing care and in no shape, physical or mental, to be attending a funeral for the third child she has lost.

So, no obituary, no service, no facebook page, as we had for my sister Shirley, who died in June of last year. She was a public person, constantly in the media. Burt was the flip side.

But he was vitally important in our family. As a close friend wrote, “Looking back, Burton was a blessing for your family. He was the one who kept your parents company.” At the Bamboo Hut, our...