Philip Kan Gotanda is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 playwright and filmmaker. Much of his work deals with Asian American

Asian American

Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...

 issues and experiences.

Biography

Over the last three decades Gotanda has composed many plays designed to broaden theater in America. Through his plays and advocacy, he has been instrumental in bringing stories of Asians in the United States to mainstream American theater, as well as to Europe and Asia. The creator of one of the largest bodies of Asian American-themed work, Gotanda's plays and films are studied and performed at universities and schools across the USA.

Gotanda wrote the text and directed the production of Maestro Kent Nagano’s Manzanar: An American Story, an original symphonic work with narration. His newest work, After the War, premiered at the American Conservatory Theatre in March 2007. After the War chronicles San Francisco’s Japantown in the late 1940s, when Japanese Americans returning from the internment camps encountered a flourishing African American jazz scene. A Japanese translation of his play, Sisters Matsumoto, opened in Tokyo with the Mingei Geikidan Company.

Gotanda is also a respected independent filmmaker; his works are seen in film festivals around the world. His most recent film, Life Tastes Good, was originally presented at the Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 and can presently be seen on the Independent Film Channel

Independent Film Channel

The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...

. Along with executive producers Dale Minami and Diane Takei, he is currently developing his newest film, Inscrutable Grin, with their production company, Joe Ozu Films.

Gotanda holds a law degree from Hastings College of Law, studied pottery in Japan with the late Hiroshi Seto, and resides in Berkeley with his actress-producer wife Diane Takei. His play collections include No More Cherry Blossoms and Fish Soup and Other Plays, published by the University of Washington Press. Other published plays include The Wash

The Wash (1985 film)

The Wash is a 1985 Japanese film by Philip Kan Gotanda, who also wrote the play it is based on. It tells the story of a newly-separated nisei couple, husband Nobu and wife Masi, and their individual and collective struggles with their past, which along with their marriage centered around Japanese...

, The Dream of Kitamura, Day Standing on its Head, Yohen, and The Wind Calls Mary.

Awards Gotanda has received include the Guggenheim, Pew Trust, 3 Rockefeller, Lila Wallace, National Endowment for the Arts, National Edowment for the Arts-Theater Communications Playwriting Award, PEN Center West, LA Music Center Award, 2007 Japan Society of Northern California, Chinese For Affirmative Action, NJHAS, City of Stockton Arts Award, East West Players, Asian American Theater Company Life Time Achievement, 2 California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, 2009 MAP Fund Creative Exploration Grant, 2008 Granada Arts Theater Fellowship, UC Berkeley Arts Center Fellow in Theater, Sundance Theater Fellow, Sundance Film Fellow Program.

Career

Gotanda is considered a leading American playwright and one of the most prolific playwrights in Asian American theatre

Asian American theatre

Asian American theater is theater written, directed or acted by Asian Americans.- Background :Asian American theater emerged in the 1960s and the 1970s with the foundation of four theatre companies: East West Players in Los Angeles, Asian American Theatre Workshop in San Francisco, Theatrical...

. Theaters where Gotanda's works have been produced include American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1968, as the East Bay’s first resident professional theatre. Michael Leibert was the founding artistic director, who was then succeeded by Sharon Ott in 1984. The company runs seven...

, Campo Santo+Intersection, East West Players

East West Players

East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As one of the nation's first Asian American theatre organizations, East West Players today continues to produce works and educational programs that give voice to the Asian Pacific American...

, Manhattan Theatre Club

Manhattan Theatre Club

Manhattan Theatre Club is a theater company located in New York City. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country’s most acclaimed...

, Mark Taper Forum

Mark Taper Forum

The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...

, Missouri Rep, New York Shakespeare Festival

New York Shakespeare Festival

New York Shakespeare Festival is the previous name of the New York City theatrical producing organization now known as the Public Theater. The Festival produced shows at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, as part of its free Shakespeare in the Park series, at the Public Theatre near Astor Place...

, Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....

, Asian American Theater Company

Asian American Theater Company

Asian American Theater Company is a non-profit theatre performance company based in San Francisco.-Background:The Asian American Theater Company was established in 1973 by playwright Frank Chin to develop and present original works of theatre about Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent...

, Robey Theatre Company

Robey Theatre Company

Robey Theatre Company is a Los Angeles-based non-profit theatre company.- History :Robey Theatre Company was founded in 1994 by Danny Glover and Ben Guillory. It takes its name from the pioneering Black actor and activist, Paul Robeson...

, San Jose Repertory Theatre

San Jose Repertory Theatre

The San Jose Repertory Theatre was founded in 1980 by James P. Reber as the first resident professional theatre company in San Jose, California, and is currently the largest non-profit, professional theatre company in the South Bay...

, Seattle Repertory Theatre

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Seattle Repertory Theatre is a major regional theatre located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget Sound and Theatre Communications Group. Founded in 1963, it is led by Artistic Director Jerry Manning and Managing Director Benjamin Moore...

, and South Coast Repertory

South Coast Repertory

South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...

.

He has been Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1968, as the East Bay’s first resident professional theatre. Michael Leibert was the founding artistic director, who was then succeeded by Sharon Ott in 1984. The company runs seven...

.

Plays

• The Avocado Kid
• Song For a Nisei Fisherman
• "Bullet Headed Birds"
• American Tattoo
• The Wash
• Yankee Dawg You Die
• The Dream Of Kitamura
• Fish Head Soup
• Day Standing on Its Head
• Yohen
• The Wind Cries Mary
• The Ballad of Yachiyo
• Sisters Matsumoto
• A Fist Of Roses
• floating weeds
• Manzanar: An American Story
• After The War
• Under The Rainbow
• "#5 The Angry Red Drum"

Films

• The Wash (1988) — screenplay
• The Kiss (1992 short) — director, screenplay, actor
• Drinking Tea (short) — director, screenplay
• Life Tastes Good (1999) — director, screenplay, actor

See also

• List of Asian American writers
• Japanese American internment
  Japanese American internment
  Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
  
  

Critical studies

As of March 2008:

1. From Ethnic to Mainstream Theater: Negotiating 'Asian American' in the Plays of Philip Kan Gotanda By: Dunbar, Ann-Marie; American Drama, 2005 Winter; 14 (1): 15-31.
2. Die Imaginierung ethnischer Weltsicht im neueren amerikanischen Drama By: Grabes, Herbert. IN: Schlote and Zenzinger, New Beginnings in Twentieth-Century Theatre and Drama: Essays in Honour of Armin Geraths. Trier, Germany: Wissenschaftlicher; 2003. pp. 327–44
3. Philip Kan Gotanda By: Randy Barbara Kaplan. IN: Liu, Asian American Playwrights: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood, 2002. 69-88.
4. Philip Kan Gotanda By: Maczynska, Magdalena. IN: Wheatley, Twentieth-Century American Dramatists, Fourth Series. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale; 2002. pp. 116–27
5. Asian American Theatre History from the 1960s to 1990s: Actors, Playwrights, Communities, and Producers By: Kim, Esther Songie; Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 2001 Feb; 61 (8): 2998-99. Ohio State U, 2000.
6. Yankee Dawg You Die by Philip Kan Gotanda By: Cho, Nancy. IN: Wong and Sumida, A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America; 2001. pp. 185–92
7. Philip Kan Gotanda By: Ito, Robert B.. IN: Cheung, Words Matter: Conversations with Asian American Writers. Honolulu, HI: U of Hawaii P, with UCLA Asian American Studies Center; 2000. 402 pp. pp. 173–85
8. Philip Kan Gotanda By: Hwang, David Henry; BOMB, 1998 Winter; 62: 20-26.
9. Choice and Chance By: Siegal, Nina; American Theatre, 1996 Feb; 13 (2): 26.
10. Fish Head Soup and Other Plays By: Omi, Michael. Seattle: U of Washington P; 1995.
11. David Henry Hwang
    David Henry Hwang
    David Henry Hwang is an American playwright who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American dramatist in the U.S.He was born in Los Angeles, California and was educated at the Yale School of Drama and Stanford University...
    
    's M. Butterfly and Philip Kan Gotanda's Yankee Dawg You Die: Repositioning Chinese American Marginality on the American Stage By: James S. Moy, Theatre Journal, Vol. 42, No. 1. (Mar., 1990), pp. 48–56.

External links

• www.philipkangotanda.com
• interview with Gotanda on www.hastings-i.org
• profile on AsianWeek.com
• No More Cherry Blossoms: Sisters Matsumoto and Other Plays, University of Washington Press, 2005.