Analysis Of Peace Boy By Rick Shiomi

Introduction

Playwright, director, musician and theatre artist, Rick Shiomi - a Japanese -Canadian born and raised in Toronto was founding member of theatre MU in Minneapolis. He is nationally recognized for his work in Asian American theatre. As a playwright, artistic director, his work includes award winning ‘Yellow Fever’ and ‘Wallaye Kid’. He used his experiences as a Japanese-Canadian living in Vancouver’s Cordova Street to create a play titled. ‘Yellow Fever’ in which Sam-Spade the detective named Sam Shikaze was the protagonist.’ In the play, Sam Shikaze narrates what happened when he was hired to find the missing Cherry Blossom Queen. However, in the process, he was trapped in a web of racism and politics. Chuk Chan, a lawyer

It was the best new play in San Franscisco produced at off-Broadway ground North America. He wrote the play based on what he learned in Vancouver about his Japanese-Canadian parents history. As a result of its success, Rick Shiomi was awarded the bay Area Theatre Circle Crititcs award. In 1999 , he wrote another play in conjuction with Sundraya Kase titled ‘ Walleye Kids’- a musical play which was produced by Mu Performing Arts in 2008. This play was derived from the Japanese traditional fable story of a boy called ’ Peace Boy’. The setting of this play was focused on warmer climate of Japan but Rick in ‘Walleye Kid’ shifted the setting from Japanese climate to the iced mountains of Minnesota where the baby who emerged from a peach in ‘Peace Boy’ protruded instead from a massive Walleye. In essence, these plays explains what Asians in diaspora have experienced as they live in America. Yellow Fever launched the theatrical career of Mu performing Arts. Production. Consequently, this paper investigates the relationship between a playwrights personal experience of racialization and how he or she represents the world of U.S race relations in their plays and performances of the plays. Rick’s play was developed from a racialized

The characters in their plays seek to know where they belong and how they should define themselves. As mentioned above, Shiomi’s parent’s experieince in Japanese intenment camp in British Columbia is evident in all the themes of his plays. Their plays are derived from the origin of lived and personal experiences. The Japanese intenment experience zooms large in the history and development of Asian American drama which has created a very American experience. Playwrights tell an American story on U.S diversity of race relations because race is the central question in American history. So, their plays are indicative of the demographics and immigration patterns of their contemporary time. This implies that Playwrights experience a culture that mirrors their own lives and provides a window into a world of U.S race relations in performances of their plays. Their plays problematize the categories of race and etnicity through acting and play on stage. In Rick Shiomi’s plays he tries to find a common ground for progressive Japanese-Canadians in America