Tag Archives: George Takei

Takei’s WWII Internment Drama

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George Takei in Allegiance

George Takei’s childhood experience living in camps in Arkansas and California has inspired a new musical called Allegiance.

Takei plays two characters in the show: Ojii-San, the grandfather of a family in an internment camp, and Sam Kimura, a 77-year-old former internee whose story is told from the present day.

Takei told NPR —

I see Allegiance as my legacy project. The story is very important to me and it’s been my mission in life to raise Americans’ awareness of that shameful chapter of American history. I think we learn more from those times in our history where we stumbled as a democracy than we learn from the glorious chapters. We have the history of slavery or inequality to women, and now the civil rights movement of the 21st century is the struggle for equality for the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. And I think it’s important for Americans to know about the times that we failed, and Allegiance tells that story.

Previews began September 7 at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and several video clips of highlights are available on the theatre’s website.

Playing the younger version of Takei’s character, Young Sam, is Telly Leung (Godspell, “Glee”), and his sister is played by Lea Salonga,winner of a Tony Award for her performance in the role of Kim in Miss Saigon, the first Asian to play Eponine in Les Misérables and the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and Fa Mulan in Mulan and Mulan II

Throughout the run of Allegiance a museum exhibit about the history of Japanese Americans who lived in San Diego prior to World War II and their removal to the internment camps is on display in the San Diego Museum of Man Annex directly adjacent to The Old Globe. The exhibit is free to the public and will be open two hours prior to each performance on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturdays; from noon to 7 p.m. on Sundays; and from noon to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays as part of Balboa Park’s Free Tuesdays.

[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster for the story.]

Aurora Theater Massacre

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A gunman opened fire on the audience at a midnight showing of the new Batman movie Dark Knight Rises in Aurora (CO), killing 12 and wounding 59 others. Early reports said some waiting in line wore costumes. Even the suspected gunman had orange-dyed hair, and police say he referred to himself as The Joker. The Denver Post has extensive coverage.

I decided to write something because Dave Langford noted the story on Ansible Links as “Depressing News From Denver.” I don’t know his exact reasons, though he’s certainly right, and fannish news blogs really need no more reason than that it’s a sad story which obviously involves people we would characterize as science fiction fans even if we don’t know who they are.

George Takei made this comment on Facebook:

Many victims of today’s tragedy were fans of science fictuion/fantasy. They stood in line to be the first to see, to be inspired, and to escape. As a community of dreamers, we mourn this terrible tragedy and this senseless taking of innocent life.

Over 150,000 people had already clicked “like” at this writing.

SF Site ran a brief report. Someone left a comment on SF Signal’s review of the movie saying they live near the theater in Aurora but had not attended.

The shootings happened at a Cinemark Century theater, and there have been media reports about new restrictions on costume-wearing patrons. I did not find anything from Cinemark addressing costumes, however the spokesman for the large AMC chain issued a statement:

Contrary to media reports, costumes are not banned, but we will not admit guests with face-concealing masks and we will not allow fake weapons in the buildings. We want all our guests to feel comfortable at our theatres and we will be closely monitoring.

The dead and wounded have yet to be named in news reports. I made a list of of people in early news stories identified as being in the theater and checked it against Denvention III members from the progress reports and got no matches. Hopefully it will stay that way — we’ll see. I note Aurora does have enough of a fan presence to be the host city for next year’s Costume-Con.

The Wedding Clasher

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“What is it with George Takei and his issues with me,” rants William Shatner in response to the multitude of press stories about Takei’s decision not to invite Shatner to his wedding. However, George Takei told Entertainment Tonight that he did invite Shatner, then never heard from him.

David Klaus, who sent the story, issues a caution about Shatner’s YouTube video: “This is difficult to watch, to the point of being painful. There is so much anger on both sides…. I respect both men equally for their individual accomplishments, and that there is so much ill-will between them (and between Mr. Shatner and the rest of the cast as well, except for Mr. Nimoy) is difficult to grok.

“Fans always expect the cast to be who they portray in their personal actions and ethics, and forget that the Enterprise only exists as a miniature model or as a graphic on a monitor screen and the actors come from different levels of emotional maturity (even at their advanced ages) and different educations and life experiences, not the discipline and common ethic of Starfleet and its Academy.”