Manzanar NHS To Host The Play, “Bronzeville,” May 20-23, 2011

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The following is a press release from the National Park Service.

INDEPENDENCE, CA — In Spring 1942, the U.S. Army forcibly removed more than 110,000 Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes; over 11,000 of them were imprisoned at Manzanar. Communities like Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles were abandoned literally overnight.

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At the same time, Blacks from the Deep South headed west to work in defense industry. Prohibited from living in “white” neighborhoods by restrictive housing codes, many people moved into Little Tokyo, eventually renaming the area Bronzeville.

The story of Bronzeville will come to life in the Manzanar Interpretive Center from May 20 through 23, as Robey Theatre Company, Inyo Council for the Arts, and the Manzanar National Historic Site present the play Bronzeville.

Co-written by Japanese American playwright Tim Toyama and African American playwright Aaron Woolfolk, and directed by Ben Guillory, Bronzeville explores the conflicting reactions of members of a Black family when they discover a Japanese American hiding in “their” attic to avoid being sent to Manzanar. Each person wants to “do the right thing,” but they have differing ideas of what that means. Read more of this post