The Politics Of Life

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments FIRST AND FOREMOST, I express my gratitude to Sucheng Chan and Roberta Uno, whose support for and belief in my creative and academic vision enriched and encouraged the development of this book. I give special thanks to Sucheng Chan for her editing expertise . I also express my appreciation to the playwrights for writing these plays, allowing them to be included in this volume, and providing supportive information about their backgrounds and careers. In addition, I express my thanks to Janet Francendese, senior acquisitions editor at Temple University Press, for her enthusiastic support of my efforts to create this book, and to Shirley Geok-lin Lim for her insightful critiques of my plays and her permission to quote her in this book. I also thank Marc Thomas King, my research associate, who helped in processing some of the written text to computer and whose general support of two of my creative projects this year has been invaluable. For the artistic support and development that has led me to my peculiar position in international, American, and Asian/Pacific American theater, I express my heartfelt obligation to the following : my mother, Setsuko Takechi Perry, who encouraged me to write poetry at the age of six; my artistic family at the Old Globe Theatre -Craig Noel, Jack O'Brien, Thomas Hall, Mark Hofflund, Bill Eaton, and others-who give me the rarities of love and nurturance in the American theater; my artistic family at Manhattan Theatre Club-Lynne Meadow, Barry Grove, and others-who nurture my vision and art; Norman Fedder, Joel Climenhaga, Harold xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Nichols, Theodore Apstein, Richard Walter, Michael Gordon, Robert Brustein, David Hillbrand, Mako, Keone Young, Alberto Isaac, Momo Yashima, Tisa Chang, Leon Denmark, Douglas Turner Ward, the late Samuel Barton, Count Stovall, Judith Nihei, Emilya Cachapero, Ernest Abuba, Tom Szentgyorgyi, the late Jonathan Alper, Julianne Boyd, Olympia Dukakis, Louis Zorich, Patricia Yasutake, Jessica Teich, Gordon Davidson, Akira Wakabayashi, Naomichi Fujinobu, Gwenn Victor, Peggy Shannon, Susan Albert Loewenberg, Emilie S. Kilgore, Julia Miles, Juli Thompson Burk, Dennis Carroll, Gene Shofner, Michael C. Donaldson, Gary D. Kaufman, Phylis Geller, the late Steve Tatsukawa, Mary Jane Eisenberg , Dana Ardi, Bobbi Thompson, Robert Kelley, Randy Adams, Yuriko Doi, Robert Alpaugh, Howard Allen, Gary Gisselman, Tomas Hernandez, Ron Sossi,Jan Lewis, Lucy Pollak, Jody Roman, Richard Toscan, James Day Wilson, Herbert Shore, Melissa Meyer, Bonita Matthews, Margie Smilow, Donna Marie Carolan, Lois Berman , Lee Grant, Cedric Scott, Sidney Poitier, James Clark, Arthur Storch, Barbara Trembley, Yvonne Styles, Deidre Berthrong, Bob Myman, John Ritter; and my wonderful literary agents, Mary Harden of Bret Adams, Ltd., and Merrily Kane of The Artists Agency. I also must thank the people in my personal life who provide spiritual, cultural, and artistic encouragement, without which this book never would have been realized: my mother, Setsuko, and my stepfather, Homer L. Perry; my son, Kiyoshi Sean Shannen Houston; H. Rika Houston, Brian Ten and family, Victor Wortman, Frances Young and family, Tohta Tomizawa and family, Haruko Takechi and family, Donald Nahaku, Kazue and Daniel Logan, Joji Kawada Houston, Teresa Kay and Tracy Jay Williams, Steven Kent Brauer, Sandy Alpert, Philip Tajitsu Nash, Arlene Derenski, Donna Marie Carolan, Barbara Broman, Patsi Graham, Natalie and Harlow Ginright, Honey B. Friedman, Yuri and Bill Kochiyama, Bonnie ada Homsey, Takayo and Sy Fischer, Olga Varga, Lori Rika Inano, Camille Hamilton, David Silverman, Irving and Nancy Pearlberg, Mark Utzinger, Chi-en Telemaque, Patricia Ayame Thomson, Melanie Hughes, Ruth De Sosa, Dura Temple, Sheri Bailey, Ann Ng, Joyce Nako, Wakako Yamauchi, Momoko Iko, Sharon Maeda, Jude Narita, Sue Kunitomi Embrey, Emma Gee, George Toshio Johnston, Phyllis and Galen Murakawa, Marilyn Tokuda, the Reverend Gary London, Allison Erkelens Shutler, Alison and Jordan Frank, Kathxii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS rin and Alexander Seitz, Richard R. Isaacs, Walter Allan Bennett, Mari Sunaida, Paul F. Moore II, Corinne Asaeda-Ramirez, Freda Foh Shen, Tara Marchant, St. Augustine's By-the-Sea Genesis House Church, all of my Amerasian brothers and sisters who struggle as people of color in America, and others who are too numerous to mention. I also owe thanks to my maternal grandmother, Fusae Takechi, whose spirit living through my mother and through me has renewed me again and again, both personally and artistically. Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank all the theater artists and technicians who continue to bless the theater with their enriching talents and help to bring dramatic literature to life, and...