Tune in Saturday, Dec. 5, at 8 p.m. (PT) for the online premiere of “The Betrayed” by the late Nisei playwright Hiroshi Kashiwagi and featuring the Grateful Crane Ensemble’s Helen Ota and Michael Palma (pictured).The two-act play, part of the “Couples by Couples” reading series in honor of Kashiwagi, is a love story about a young Nisei couple who meet at Tule Lake and fall in love, but are torn apart by two controversial, government-issued “l(fā)oyalty” questions. Forty years later, they meet again and discover their answers to these questions had consequences that affected them for the rest of their lives.
“As a ‘No-No,’ my dad felt bad about the terrible split these questions caused within our Japanese American community,” said Grateful Crane’s Soji Kashiwagi. “By writing this play, his hope was for reconciliation and a community healing. By presenting this play, our hope is for the same.”View “The Betrayed” by going to this link.