Download World Premiere Valley of the Heart

…The South Bay’s Award-Winning Professional Theatre…
World Premiere
Valley of the Heart
Luis Valdez’s Sweeping Epic Rooted in Historic Santa Clara Valley
Written and Directed by Luis Valdez
February 10 – March 6, 2016
Previews: Feb. 10, 11, 12
Press Opening: Saturday, February 13, 2016, 8:00 p.m.
Media Release
For Immediate Release
December 21, 2015
Media Contact:
Cecilia Clark, Media & Marketing
408-283-7142 ext. 11
[email protected]
San Jose, CA – , December 21, 2015 - San Jose Stage Company in partnership with El Teatro
Campesino kicks off the New Year with the highly-anticipated World Premiere of Valley of the Heart,
by internationally renowned playwright, director and producer Luis Valdez. Directed by Valdez, this
American love story is deeply rooted in the fertile Santa Clara Valley and runs February 10 through
March 6 at San Jose Stage Company. The fight to maintain dignity, identity and family are at the heart
of this sweeping epic that illustrates the ironic divide between America’s ideals and its actions in what
the San Jose Mercury News says is a "multicultural touchstone,” and the Los Angeles Times
says “We need memory plays as powerful as this one … a quintessentially California play,
written by a master of the genre.”
“I think of this play as a Kabuki/Corrido because it blends both cultures. I wanted to capture the
multicultural fabric of life in this state,” said Valdez. “There’s a triangulation in the play – that if you take
the Japanese-American experience and contrast it with the Mexican-American experience, what ties
them together is the American experience,” added Valdez.
On the heels of WWII, the Yamaguchis and the Montanos are two immigrant families struggling to
provide a future for their American-born children after the Great Depression.
The emotional stakes intensify when the families’ oldest children, Teruko played by Melanie Mah, whose
Off Broadway credits include 4,000 Miles at the Lincoln Center Theater, and Ben played by Lakin
Valdez, who recently starred in ACT’s critically-acclaimed, Between Riverside and Crazy, fall in love. But
the attack on Pearl Harbor and the government’s Japanese-American internment camps threaten
everything the families and young lovers have built and believe in. The imprisoned Japanese Americans
confront issues ranging from patriotism, rebellion and heroism while Teruko and Ben fight to maintain
their love in the face of fear, war, and separation.
“I’m extremely proud and excited to partner with Luis and El Teatro Campesino on such an important
and sadly relevant story that needs to be told.” said Randall King, San Jose Stage Company’s
Artistic Director. “This story speaks not only to the grim period of World War II, it underscores the
current national struggle to define ‘What does it mean to be an American? Who is allowed the comfort
and shelter of our freedoms? Where do the lines of public safety and discrimination intersect?’
“Our partnership is the culmination of many rich conversations with Luis about the role live theatre plays
in building and sustaining community and engaging that community with a sense of activism,” added
King.
Luis Valdez’s Story
The story of survival is deeply personal to Valdez, who The New York Times once called the hero of Latino
theater. This powerful story is in essence autobiographical. In the mid-1940s, Luis’ Dad supported his
family by working on a farm in Delano, California that was owned and operated by a Japanese family.
The family was ripped apart because of the United States government internment camps (Executive
Order; 9066) during World War II.
Luis never forgot this family, his early childhood friends, or the discriminating heartbreak they endured,
which ultimately forced the Valdez family to relocate to San Jose in search of work outside the migrant
stream. This experience shaped Valdez, who would later channel his sense of justice and passion for
the arts into teaching farm workers to perform on the back of flatbed trucks on the picket lines with Cesar
Chavez. This was the birth of the El Teatro Campesino theater company.
Assembly Centers and Internment Camps
During WW II, more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from their homes
and communities and transported to “Assembly Centers.” They were then moved to one of ten different
internment camps in the interior of the country and held until 1945. Two thirds of these Japanese
Americans were United States citizens. After their release, many had no homes, jobs or communities in
which to return. For more information on the internment camps and the resettlement efforts from 194565, visit the Japanese American Museum of San Jose at www.jamsj.org/japanese-american-historymuseum-san-jose/exhibitions.
Three-Year Partnership
The World Premiere of Valley of the Heart kicks off an exciting three-year partnership between San
Jose Stage Company and El Teatro Campesino that combines the rich history of two venerable theatre
companies and will result in future co-productions and programmatic collaborations.
Valley of the Heart Sponsors: Applied Materials, Alcario & Carmen Castellano, City of San Jose,
Distracted Globe Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, SVCreates, Silicon Valley
Community Foundation.
CAST: Randall Nakano*, Christina Chu, Ryan Takemiya, Melanie Mah*, Anthony Chan, Gustavo
Mellado*, Rosa Maria Escalante, Lakin Valdez*, Andres Ortiz, Christy Sandoval
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers
PLAYWRIGHT, DIRECTOR AND ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP of EL TEATRO CAMPESINO
and SAN JOSE STAGE COMPANY
Luis Valdez (Playwright, Director and Co-Founder and Artistic Director of El Teatro Campesino) is
regarded as one of the most important and influential American playwrights living today. His
internationally renowned, and Obie award-winning theater company, El Teatro Campesino (The Farm
Workers' Theater) was founded by Valdez in 1965 - in the heat of the United Farm Workers (UFW)
struggle and the Great Delano Grape Strike in California's Central Valley. This theater, tucked away in
rural San Juan Bautista in San Benito County, is the most important and longest running Chicano
Theater in the United States. In 2014, Valdez’s workshop production of Valley of the Heart was
presented on the stage of this theater.
His involvement with Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the early Chicano Movement left an indelible mark
that remains embodied in all his work even after he left the UFW in 1967: his early actos Las Dos Caras
del Patroncito and Quinta Temporada, (short plays written to encourage campesinos to leave the fields
and join the UFW), his mitos (mythic plays) Bernabe and La Carpa de los Rasquachis that gave
Chicanos their own contemporary mythology, his examinations of Chicano urban life in I Don't Have To
Show You No Stinkin' Badges, his Chicano re-visioning of classic Mexican folktales Corridos, his
exploration of his Indigenous Yaqui roots in Mummified Deer, and - of course - the play that re-exams
the "Sleepy Lagoon Trial of 1942" and the "Zoot Suit Riots of 1943," two of the darkest moments in LA
urban history - Zoot Suit - considered a masterpiece of the American Theater, as well as the first
Chicano play on Broadway and the first Chicano major feature film. Valdez’s numerous feature film and
television credits include, among others, the box office hit film La Bamba, starring Lou Diamond
Phillips; Cisco Kid, starring Jimmy Smits and Cheech Marin, and Corridos: Tales of Passion and
Revolution, starring Linda Ronstadt.
Valdez’s hard work and long creative career have won him countless awards including numerous LA
Drama Critic Awards, Dramalogue Awards, Bay Area Critics Awards, the prestigious George Peabody
Award for excellence in television, the Presidential Medal of the Arts, the Governor's Award from the
California Arts Council, and Mexico's prestigious Aguila Azteca Award given to individuals whose work
promotes cultural excellence and exchange between US and Mexico. Valdez has written numerous
plays and authored numerous articles and books. His latest anthology Mummified Deer and Other
Plays was recently published by Arte Publico Press.
As an educator, he has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, Fresno State
University and was one of the founding professors of CSU Monterey Bay. He is the recipient of
honorary doctorates from, among others, the University of Rhode Island, the University of South
Florida, Cal Arts, the University of Santa Clara and his alma mater, San Jose State University.
Valdez was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts in Washington D.C. In 2007, he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship as one of the
50 artists honored across the United States.
Randall King (San Jose Stage Company Artistic Director) is the Artistic Director and Co-founder of
San Jose Stage Company where he’s played a distinguished leadership role in advancing the
development and production of new work by local playwrights, while contributing to the body of new
American plays through The Stage’s presentation of 46 new works and 14 world premieres in 33
seasons. Under King’s artistic direction the company continues to experience incredible growth and
foster new creative partnerships, including the three-year relationship with El Teatro Campesino and a
collaboration with Dublin’s Center for Cultural Arts in Ireland, resulting in a new work that will be
commissioned with a rising Irish playwright and an international team of artists, designers and actors.
The play will make its World Premiere in Dublin and San Jose in 2017.
King has elevated The Stage’s artistic excellence through his choice of programming and collaborations
including bringing San Diego REPertory Theatre’s production of A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, written
and performed by Herbert Siguenza of Culture Clash, to The Stage in 2014. In King’s efforts to reach a
more diverse audience, two bilingual matinees were added. In Spring 2014, The ThreePenny Opera
ran for an 8-week extended run and swept the Outstanding Musical Awards Categories at the First
Annual Theatre Bay Area Awards (November 2014). In association with Sacramento-based Capital
Stage Company, The Stage produced Kristoffer Diaz’s 2010 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Elaborate
Entrance of Chad Diety in 2013. The production received the Silicon Valley Theatre Awards for
Standout Contemporary and Technical Standout Production for Set, Video and Fight Choreography.
Under King’s artistic leadership, The Stage collaborated with local playwright Jennifer LeBlanc, in the
commission and production of Jane Austen’s Persuasion in 2013, and commissioned and produced the
World Premiere Buffalo’ed in 2012. This bold new theatrical work by Bay Area playwright Jeannie
Barroga, with nationally recognized choreographer Alleluia Paris, was supported by the GerbodeHewlett Foundation 2-Year Collaborative Initiative.
King’s notable directing credits include The Stage’s 2015-16 season opener, RFK. He received the Bay
Area Critics Circle Award for Best New Musical Production for Cumberland Blues, featuring the music
of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. He initiated the development of the project and
commissioned the musical score and also directed the unprecedented three-month run of Steve
Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile at The Stage.
In addition to his artistic leadership and directing credits, King has an award-winning acting career. He
was last seen on stage as the iconic Willy Loman in The Stage’s critically-acclaimed, Death of a
Salesman (Standout Classical Production, Silicon Valley Theatre Awards in 2015), as H. C. Curry in
The Rainmaker, Frank Hamer and Judge in Bonnie and Clyde (Theatre Bay Area Award nominated),
EKO in The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Mark Rothko in Red, Jack Lawson in Race (2013
Standout Contemporary Production, Silicon Valley Awards), Dodge in Buried Child (2012 Standout
Drama Production, Silicon Valley Theatre Awards), Sharky in The Seafarer (named Top Ten in Theatre
in 2009 by the Bay Area News Group), Ariel in The Pillowman (2010 Standout Dramatic Production
Award by Wave Magazine and Artsopolis-sponsored Silicon Valley Theatre Awards), and many others.
He has performed in leading roles at many theaters and has been seen in films directed by Francis
Ford Coppola (The Rainmaker), Lawrence Kasdan (Mumford), and Michael Bay (The Rock) and others,
and has also appeared in numerous television productions.
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
WHAT:
World Premiere
Valley of the Heart
Written by Luis Valdez
Directed by Luis Valdez
SHOWS:
Previews:
Opening:
Run Dates:
WHERE:
San Jose Stage Company - 490 South First Street in the SoFA district of downtown San
Jose, CA
TICKETS:
Single tickets are ($30-$65) and 3-play season tickets are ($81 - $147), offering savings
of up to 30% over single tickets, free exchanges, and many more benefits. Call the box
office at 408.283.7142 or order online www.thestage.org. Discounts are available for
students, seniors, and groups.
Feb. 10 @ 7:30 pm / Feb. 11 @ 7:30 pm/ Feb. 12 @ 8:00 pm
Feb. 13 @ 8:00 pm (SOLD OUT)
Feb. 10 – March 6, 2016
Wednesday & Thursday @ 7:30 pm
Friday & Saturday @ 8:00 pm
Added Saturday Matinees: Feb. 20 (SOLD OUT)
Feb. 27, March 5 @ 2:00 pm
Sunday @ 2:00 pm
ABOUT SAN JOSE STAGE COM PANY
Now in its 33rd Season, San Jose Stage Company is recognized as the South Bay’s leading
professional theatre company. Under the leadership of Co-founder and Artistic Director, Randall King,
The Stage has earned a reputation for artistic excellence through provocative and edgy theatrical
experiences that spark ideas and dialogue with the audience.
Devoted to new, cutting-edge work and re-imagined American literature and world classics, The Stage
uses innovative stagecraft, multi-media that propels the narrative, and accomplished, local actors in
true repertory style. With the farthest seat in the house no more than 15 feet from the three-quarter
thrust stage, the connection between actor and audience is profoundly visceral.
Attracting more than 30,000 patrons to downtown and employing more than 150 local artists
annually, San Jose Stage Company continues to be a vital force in the region’s economic and
creative landscape. As a strong community partner, The Stage has been the creative home for
more than 500 performance groups including San Jose Jazz and Notre Dame High School working together to engage, provoke, and inspire current and future theatre participants and
arts advocates.
The Stage has produced 160 productions, including 14 world premieres and 46 new works and
is ranked as the 2nd largest professional theatre and 8th largest performance arts organization
in Silicon Valley (Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal).