Update 2/14/16: I'm sad to report that Robert Maeda, the subject of Kimi's play, Bend, passed away in January. Kimi's tour will continue as planned as a memorial to her father's life.
Japanese American theatre artist, Kimi Maeda, is bringing her one-woman show, Bend, back to New England this month. She'll have five shows in the Boston area (details below) as well as three more at Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont, Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire (please see her website for details on these shows). The tour was made possible by the New England chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League through a grant from the national JACL Legacy Fund Grants Program. Kimi's tour is part of the New England JACL's commemoration of the Day of Remembrance.
I saw Kimi perform at Brandeis University last April. The show was deeply moving and the most innovative theater I had seen in a long time. It seemed like the sort of show you need to see more than once so I'm looking forward to seeing it again.
Bend
Using sand, shadow, and projection, Bend tells the story of two men interned in a Japanese American relocation camp during World War II. The first is Robert Maeda (puppeteer Kimi Maeda's father) an Asian Art historian who was only a young boy when he went into the camp. The second man would become the subject of Dr. Maeda's research: Isamu Noguchi, a half-Japanese-half-American sculptor whose work appears in a wide range of spaces and contexts from the giant Red Cube in New York’s Financial District to countless lamps, tables, and stone sculptures in private homes.
Late in life, Dr. Maeda began working on a book about Noguchi, but as dementia gradually overtook his life, his work was never finished. His daughter, Kimi, was inspired to take on the task he started decades ago, exploring the life of Noguchi in relation to his (and her) own personal history. Using sand as her canvas, Kimi skillfully transforms image after image, combining live feed projection of these drawings with archival footage from WWII. The result is a sublime evening of visual theater that captures the transient, elusive quality of time and memory.
Date & Time
Friday, February 19, 2016
3:00pm
Location
UMass Boston
Snowden Auditorium, Wheatley Hall, 1st Floor, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125
Admission
Free
Date & Time
Sunday, February 21, 2016
1:00pm
Location
Tufts University
Balch Arena Theater, 40 Talbot Ave., Medford, MA 02155
Admission
Free
Date & Time
Thursday, February 25, 2016
7:00pm
Location
MIT
Tang Center, Bldg E51 Room 095, 2 Amherst St., Cambridge, MA 02142
Admission
Free
Date & Time
Friday, February 26, 2016
8:00pm
Saturday, February 27, 2016
8:00pm
Followed by a reception hosted by the New England JACL.
Location
Puppet Showplace Theater
32 Station St., Brookline, MA, 02445
Admission
$15 - purchase tickets here
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