In the Limelight: Diversity on Stage
In the Limelight is on display in
the Special Collections Department from April
13 through June 30th. Featured are works from
CEMA’s growing performing arts collections.
This new and fascinating exhibit includes
original scripts, photographs, graphic art
and collectibles autographed by the likes
of Cesar Chavez, Luis Valdez, and Jane Fonda.
On exhibit are works from El Teatro Campesino, considered
the most influential Latino theater company in the country.
Founded by Luis Valdez, El Teatro Campensino’s first
stage was the flatbed of a truck used for the benefit of hardworking
laborers in the farmlands of California. The display features
a German poster announcing the Teatro’s La
Carpa de los Rasquachis. Also included is José Montoya’s
silkscreen of Zoot Suit, the first play by a Chicano
playwright performed on Broadway.
UCSB alumni and celebrated playwrights Frank Chin
(1965) and Philip Kan Gotanda (1974) are also on display. Chin
is founder of the Asian American Theater Workshop, and playwright
for Chickencoop Chinaman and Year of the Dragon. Gotanda’s Fish
Head Soup and Dream of Kitamura are among the
plays highlighted.
Genny Lim's Paper Angels tells of the hardship endured
by Chinese immigrants during their confinement
on Angel Island. Elizabeth Wong’s first draft of The Laundry is
a hilarious teleplay for a Seinfeld episode, while
her play script China Doll depicts the tumultuous
life of Anna May Wong, the first Asian American actress to
reach iconoclastic status.
Dan Guerrero’s Gaytino! is an autobiographical
comedy that engages the audience through decades of Chicano
history and the gay experience from a unique and personal perspective.
Also displayed are historical photographs used
by Velina Hasu Houston for her play, Tea, a story
about five Japanese war brides, each married to an American
soldier of a different race.
Rounding out the exhibit is Sojourner Kinkaid Rolle’s Ayo’s
Journey, a multidimensional theater performance about
the transatlantic slave trade, based on a 12-poem cycle.