The Matsumoto family considers their futures in a scene from Sisters Matsumoto. Left to right: Christine Toy Johnson (Chiz), Sala Iwamatsu (Rose), Ryun Yu (Henry), Kim Miyori (Grace), Nelson Mashita (Hideo), and Stan Egi (Bola).

Photo: T. Charles Erickson

Now On Stage Summary

Sisters Matsumoto
By Philip Kan Gotanda
December 31, 1999-January 30, 2000

East Coast premiere

In the autumn of 1945, three proud daughters of a wealthy California farm family—traditional Grace, vivacious Chiz, and young, optimistic Rose—return to their childhood land and home after being released from one of the camps where 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned by U.S. authorities during World War II under Executive Order 9066. But the attitudes exposed by the war and the death in confinement of their father have shattered the Matsumotos' images of their privileged past and shaken their faith in the American dream. When a long-concealed secret about their inheritance is revealed, the sisters must decide how to rebuild their lives in their beloved country that has betrayed them. Between lighthearted tales of family romances, spirited comedy and fierce ideological conflicts, Sisters Matsumoto compassionately explores a rarely dramatized chapter of American history through the lives of one engaging family. Philip Kan Gotanda has become the nation's leading Japanese-American dramatist in recent years with such plays as The Ballad of Yachiyo and The Wash; Sisters Matsumoto will be his Boston debut. Sharon Ott, known to Huntington audiences from 1994's memorable The Woman Warrior, will direct Sisters Matsumoto.

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