Bronzeville (play)

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Bronzeville is a play written by Tim Toyama and Aaron Woolfolk. Developed and produced by the Robey Theatre Company, the original production and two subsequent revivals were directed by Ben Guillory. The play debuted at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in Los Angeles, California, on April 17, 2009. Woolfolk and Toyama were subsequently nominated for an Ovation Award, and they and Guillory were nominated for NAACP Theater Awards.

The play is named after the nickname given to the Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, neighborhood from 1942 to 1945, when Japanese Americans were removed from their homes and placed into internment camps. During that time, many African Americans migrated to California from the southern United States and settled in Little Tokyo, which became known as Bronzeville.

The play is set between the spring of 1942 and the spring of 1945. It tells the story of an African American family, the Goodwins, from Mississippi that moves to Los Angeles. When they discover a Japanese American man, "Henry" Tahara, hiding in their attic, the family must confront their own values as they struggle to both protect themselves and do what is right.

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Tim Toyama and Aaron Woolfolk both independently learned about Little Tokyo's Bronzeville period, Toyama from a friend, and Woolfolk after seeing a mural of Charlie Parker in the neighborhood. In 2007, Toyama approached Robey Theatre Company artistic director Ben Guillory about producing the play, and asked for a recommendation for an African American writer who could co-author the work. Guillory recommended Woolfolk, who at the time was developing the film The Harimaya Bridge about an African American man in Japan. Over the next two years, Toyama and Woolfolk developed the plot, characters, and story, and wrote the play.

In 2008, Toyama entered the play into the East West Players, David Henry Hwang Writer's Institute, where he and Woolfolk further developed the play and where it was performed for the first time in a staged reading. Bronzeville premiered on April 17, 2009, at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. It was sold out and extended by two weeks. Some early marketing materials erroneously stated that the play was based on a true story.

Bronzeville had its first revival as an abridged version in May 2011 at the Manzanar National Historic Site in Independence, California. It was produced by the Robey Theatre Company, Manzanar National Historic Site, and Inyo Council for the Arts. A second, full-length, revival was produced by the Robey Theatre Company, the Latino Theater Company, and Kathie Foley Meyer and was staged at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in June and July 2013 as part of the Project Bronzeville festival.^[1] On March 28, 2014, a staged reading of the play was presented by The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco, California.

Bronzeville received positive reviews.^[2][3] The LA Stage Times called the 2013 revival "a revelation" that "packs a powerful punch."^[4]

Woolfolk and Toyama were nominated for an Ovation Award in the category Best Playwrighting for an Original Play.^[5][6]

Bronzeville was also nominated for four NAACP Theater Awards: Toyama and Woolfolk for Best Playwright, Guillory for Best Director, the cast for Best Ensemble Cast, and Luke Moyer for Best Lighting, for which he won.

• Hide "Henry" Tahara (Original cast member: Jeff Manabat)
• Jodie Goodwin (Original cast member: Dwain A. Perry)
• Alice Goodwin (Original cast member: Adenrele Ojo)
• Mama Janie (Original cast member: CeCe Antoinette)
• Felix Goodwin (Original cast member: Larry Powell)
• Jane "Princess" Goodwin (Original cast member: Candice Afia)
• Joseph Cardell "Tubby" Griffin (Original cast member: Robert Clements)
• Theodus "Hamp" Hampton (Original cast member: Landon H. Lewis, Jr.)
• June Bug (Original cast member: Anthony B. Phillips)
• Naoma Tahara (Original cast member: Dana Lee)
• FBI Agent Frank Morgan (Original cast member: Benjamin Fitch)
• Officer Smith (Original cast member: Darrell Phillip)
• FBI Agent Larry Powell (Original cast member: Darrell Phillip)
• Sam Teraoka (Original cast member: Michael Yama)

In the 2013 full revival, all of the roles were reprised by the original cast members except for Alice Goodwin (played by Kellie Dantzler), Felix Goodwin (Aaron Jennings), Jane "Princess" Goodwin (Iman Milner), FBI Agent Frank Morgan (Mark L. Colbenson), and Sam Teraoka (Vladimir Velasco). The character June Bug was edited out of the story.

• Kishawi, Sami (August 21, 2012). "'How to tell your friends from the Japs' in Time, 1941 vs. 'Turban Primer' in RedEye, 2012". Chicago Monitor. Includes an image of the Time article.