Bernice and I attended the musical 'Almond Eyes' that played at CSUEB (Cal State Hayward) in July and greatly enjoyed it.
It's still in "workshop," according to the two authors, Jay Chee (book and lyrics) and JoAnn Yuen (music), who made an appearance after the standing-ovation close. Apparently they are looking for more opportunities to present the play--this was the premiere, for which Cal State Hayward's theater department should be proud.
Based on the life of an Asian song-and-dance act, Toy and Wing, before and after World War II on the West Coast of the U.S., Almond Eyes opens our eyes to a world little known to most of us: The so-called Chop Suey vaudville circuit, and the difficulty non-white entertainers had in being taken seriously. The writer did a very good job of telling a story that, being a real one, doesn't have an entirely neat Hollywood ending. It was warm, charming, amusing, disturbing in parts, and entertaining. The acting was very good too, with the leading man and lady doing a terrific job, with an unexpected boost near the end of the show from Lawrence-Michael C. Arias, whose boozy MC sings a heart-breaking swan song that is pitch-perfect poignant.
The show ended with Dorothy Toy's elderly dance troupe stomping all over the stage to the delight of the crowd.
--mac
CSUEB's press release does a good job of summarizing the event:
The cast of 23 ranged from two professionals to an elementary school student, and drew from across the Bay Area, including 10 CSUEB students, plus 10 CSUEB technicians and crew, two City College of San Francisco students, one from San Francisco State University, one from Laney College, and even one CSUEB staffer, Annie Manning from ethnic studies.
Top that off with a post show performance by 70-year old showgirls from the Grant Avenue Follies, a San Francisco troupe of Asian American chorus girls who began performing in San Francisco as early as the 1940s, and the opening night appearance of Dorothy Toy, herself, now 91 and attired in a spangled black and silver evening gown and six-inch heels, the performance took on the air of an event and drew considerable attention to the CSUEB Theatre and Dance Department.
As if this didn’t make for sufficient buzz, Ray Gin, production manager for “A Chorus Line,” made a surprise visit to the show’s final performance looking for Asian American artists who develop socially responsible programs with an outreach appeal. Prompted by Baayork Lee, Broadway choreographer and originator of “Connie” in the original "Chorus Line", Lee’s organization, The National Asian Artist Program fosters emerging artists who speak to underserved communities.
Almond Eyes was also invited to participate in the San Francisco Theatre Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens on the Sunday following closing night. Another venue in San Jose has also approached the Department to remount the production in San Jose, pending funding, according to Director A. Fajilan.
Fajilan praised her team of musical director Chris Erwin and choreographer Laura Ellis for fixing, refining, re-envisioning and keeping the students on task as they brought Jay Chee and JoAnn Yuen's script to life and showed why Toy and Wing were dubbed the Asian Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.
The production and design staff also rose to the challenge and did not let the "workshop" label impede their designs and visions, according to the director.
“Asian Americans have such few shows that focus on their American experience,” said Fajilan. “I hope to change that by presenting new works every year. It is quite a task to take on a premiere musical and workshop shows that have the potential to leave a lasting impact on American Theatre and History. We all were fortunate to have ‘Almond Eyes’ as the first installment in our Artists of Color Series,” she said.
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