by Philip Kan Gotanda

 Auditions for CCSF Spring Show 2024

UPDATED:  Thank you for your interest! Auditions took place in December for most roles and understudies.

There are only acting two roles still open: Olga ( must play a Japanese speaking Russian in her 20's) and Benji ( a boy from Oklahoma) See description below.

Four Musicians needed:

TUG – Older Musician.  Drummer.  African American.  Knew Chet in Chicago.

SHADOW CHET- Asian horn player

SLEEPY – Musician.  African American.   Young.   Hotheaded.   Part of the new breed of musicians moving towards bebop.

BLACK-JAPANESE BLUESMAN * – (Performed by Tug) Sings, scats, plays harmonica.

Please fill out the audition form (below) for those roles/musicians only. Ignore the Dec. dates!

https://forms.gle/VDfV6cFK1KGUmsRt8

NOVEMBER 2023:

 CCSF Theatre Arts will present a full length contemporary play  in May 2024. We return to the historic professional theatre Z Space in the Mission District

Auditions will be Tuesday Dec 12th  3-5 pm for most lead roles and supporting roles.

 Some additional roles to be cast early in Spring semester but this play needs advance preparation so we are casting early.

Interested actors, designers and crew contact pmiller@ccsf.edu with the title Spring 24 Show

 1948 Fillmore District to some the " Harlem of the West" to others Japan Town. 

Racial tensions simmer, love triangles soar and the wrecking ball looms as each community feels the weight of the past and the pressure of an uncertain future.

This rich poetic play is set in the intersection of the post war African American and post internment Japanese American communities jostle shoulder to shoulder in the boarding houses and on the employment lines, find each other on the dance floors and in the bedrooms of a 1948 boarding house.

It is peopled with vibrant young characters who find each other in friendship, illicit romance and the desire to live a full life despite their checkered pasts. The play is full of the jazz and swing music of the era and we hope to have live musicians share the stage with us.

Philip Kan Gotanda is a Gugenheim awarded playwright. He lives in the East Bay, teaches playwrighting at UC Berkeley and his work is performed around the US including "Yankee Dawg you die", "Sisters Matsumoto" and "The Wash". This play is dedicated to August Wilson and has a similar vibe.

PRESS and QUESTIONS CONTACT

Patricia Miller pmiller@ccsf.edu

CHARACTERS –

CHESTER/CHET MONKAWA - Nisei.  2nd generation Japanese American.  30-ish.  Runs the Monkawa Rooming House in Japanese Town.  Chet was a rising jazz musician before the War.   Still has a musician’s look and feel, a hip-ness.  Hair semi-slicked back with a hint of a pompadour. 

CHET SHADOW DOUBLE – Horn Player.

EARL T. WORTHING - African American.  Late 30’s.  Came from the South during the War to work on the docks.  Lives with his 11-year-old daughter, Berniece, and his newly arrived sister-in-law, Leona Hitchings.

LILLIAN OKAMURA – Nisei.  Attractive, late 20’s.  Was engaged to Chet’s younger brother, Tadashi.  Daughter of San Joaquin Valley truck farmers.  Recently begun work at the Monkawa Rooming House.

MARY-LOUISE TUCKER – Caucasian, late 20’s to early 30’s, pretty.  She is world weary. Originally from Oklahoma.  She lives in the last room down the hall with her brother.  Works at a taxi-dance hall. 

MR. OJI - Nisei.  Mid-30’s.  Career bachelor.  Educated, oddball.  Accountant, presently unemployed.   Boarder.  

LEONA HITCHINGS - African American woman in her mid to late 30’s.   Proud, self-educated with an air of importance.  Older sister of Earl Worthing’s young estranged wife.  Recently arrived from Mississippi to help Earl care for her sister’s child.

OLGA MIKHOELS – Early to mid 20’s, Russian Jew from Novosibirsk.  Came to San Francisco by way of Yokohama, Japan.  Pretty, ambitious, survivor.  Works and boards at the Monkawa Rooming House.

BENJI TUCKER - Caucasian.  Brother of Mary-Louise.  Mary-Louise takes care of him. 

MR. GOTO - 50-ish, Issei-Nisei.  Businessman.  Lives in Japanese Town.

TUG – Older Musician.  Drummer.  African American.  Knew Chet in Chicago.

SLEEPY – Musician.  African American.   Young.   Hotheaded.   Part of the new breed of musicians moving towards bebop.

BLACK-JAPANESE BLUESMAN * – (Performed by Tug) Sings, scats, plays harmonica.