OPINION
Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
October 16, 2017
Volume 27 Number 20
October 16, 2017
ISSN: 1094-9453
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MY TURN
n Dmae Roberts
Greg Watanabe —
actor extraordinaire!
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’ve had the honor of working with Greg focus on the life of Gordon Hirabayashi, a
Watanabe for the last month during the civil-liberties hero.
As a lifelong George Takei fan, I was fortunate
production of Caught, an innovative play by
Christopher Chen with an art installation by a enough to work with him briefly when he hosted the
mysterious artist. We are in the middle of our Crossing East series more than a decade ago. But I
performance run at Artists Repertory Theatre. wanted to find out what it was like for Greg to work
Greg has been incredible to work with and learn with George in a play on Broadway. He said it was
from while dusting off my acting skills in this an amazing experience.
“George is a great guy. He and
production about the meaning of
Brad [his husband] are just lovely,
truth in art and journalism as well
positive, giving people,” Greg said.
as the nature of cultural
“And what you see is what you get
appropriation.
with George. He is just as jovial,
Watanabe is a veteran actor who
considerate, and unequivocal as he
made his Broadway debut in
appears in public. And to work on a
Allegiance with George Takei and
Broadway
show
about
the
recently performed Hold These
incarceration experience with him
Truths, a solo play by Jeanne
and all the other amazing folks who
Sakata about Gordon Hirabayashi.
worked on that show … it was one of
Earlier this year he starred in
Portland Playhouse’s production of
the most fulfilling experiences of
The Language Archive by Julia
my life.”
Cho. Greg has worked at major
Watanabe is reprising his role in
theatres around the country, so I Greg Watanabe is starring in Caught,
the musical play Allegiance with
was curious to find out more about an innovative play by Christopher
Takei at East West Players in Los
his acting career.
Angeles from February 21 to April
Chen currently featured at Artists
I was surprised to learn Greg Repertory Theatre. (Photo/Russell
1, 2018. He’ll play Mike Masaoka
was majoring in English literature J. Young)
again, which is the only character
at the University of California, Berkeley when he in the play based on and named after a real
took an introductory acting class. He said he “imme- historical figure. He’s looking forward to sharing
diately changed” his major to dramatic arts and the story of the Japanese-American internment
never looked back. His older sister is a rock with folks on the west coast who weren’t able to
musician, so his parents were supportive of his make it to New York. He also says he’s “eager to
career choice.
have more conversations with folks about their own
“I grew up in a really white suburb of Orange experiences” and hopes his extended family has a
County, California,” Watanabe said, “so working on chance to see it so he can hear more family stories.
Asian-American plays, working with API theaters
With so many roles in his acting credits, I asked
and artists, interacting with community members, Greg for his bucket list of the roles he’d still like to
has been my education. And I continue to travel on play. He said he’d “love to do Vietgone before I age
that learning curve.”
out of it!” Vietgone, a play by Qui Nguyen about the
Watanabe said he didn’t have a lot of training Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective,
when he started acting. He relied on his instincts drew packed houses at the Oregon Shakespeare
and emotions, as well as the textual analysis he Festival last year. He also mentioned he has never
learned in his literature studies. He credits the been involved in Phillip Kan Gotanda’s Yankee
Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco Dawg You Die! or Rick Shiomi’s Yellow Fever, and
with giving him the support he needed to grow into would love a chance to work on those plays.
the actor he is today, one who could master the
I also asked Greg about his thoughts on the
challenge of performing solo in Hold These Truths current state of representation of Asian-American
for an hour and 40 minutes. He found that actors. In most ways, he said, it’s better than it’s
experience “pretty scary, and ultimately, incredibly ever been.
rewarding.”
“On stage, on television, and to a lesser extent in
During Hold These Truths, he also explored his movies,” Greg said, “there are more Asian Pacific
own identity and those on his father’s side of the Islanders, Native Hawaiians, and South-Asian
family, who were “incarcerated in the Heart Americans playing a wider variety of characters
Mountain concentration camp.” He was also able to
Continued on page 9
I
Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.