Philip Kan Gotanda

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American dramatist (born 1951)

title: "Philip Kan Gotanda" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1951-births", "living-people", "20th-century-american-dramatists-and-playwrights", "american-male-dramatists-and-playwrights", "american-dramatists-and-playwrights-of-japanese-descent", "american-theatre-directors-of-japanese-descent", "american-film-directors-of-japanese-descent", "writers-from-san-francisco", "university-of-california-college-of-the-law,-san-francisco-alumni", "film-directors-from-san-francisco"] description: "American dramatist (born 1951)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kan_Gotanda" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American dramatist (born 1951) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox writer "]

FieldValue
namePhilip Kan Gotanda
imagePhilip Kan Gotanda photo by Lia Chang.jpg
captionPhilip Kan Gotanda at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in Manhattan, New York for the benefit performances of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan in March 2012.
birth_date
birth_placeStockton, California
occupationPlaywright, filmmaker
nationalityAmerican
period1979–present
notableworksThe Wash
Yankee Dawg You Die
spouseDiane Takei
awardsGuggenheim Fellowship
NEA Fellowship
Rockefeller Playwriting Award
website
::

| name = Philip Kan Gotanda | image = Philip Kan Gotanda photo by Lia Chang.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Philip Kan Gotanda at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in Manhattan, New York for the benefit performances of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan in March 2012. | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Stockton, California | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Playwright, filmmaker | nationality = American | period = 1979–present | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = The Wash Yankee Dawg You Die | spouse = Diane Takei | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = Guggenheim Fellowship NEA Fellowship Rockefeller Playwriting Award | website =

Philip Kan Gotanda (born December 17, 1951) is an American playwright and filmmaker and a third generation Japanese American. Much of his work deals with Asian American issues and experiences.

Life and career

Gotanda wrote the text and directed the production of Maestro Kent Nagano's Manzanar: An American Story, an original symphonic work with narration. His newest work, After the War, premiered at the American Conservatory Theater in March 2007. After the War chronicles San Francisco's Japantown in the late 1940s, when Japanese Americans returning from the internment camps encountered a flourishing African American jazz scene. A Japanese translation of his play, Sisters Matsumoto, opened in Tokyo with the Mingei Theatre Company.

Gotanda is also an independent filmmaker; his works are seen in film festivals around the world. His most recent film, Life Tastes Good, was originally presented at the Sundance Film Festival and can presently be seen on the Independent Film Channel. Along with executive producers Dale Minami and Diane Takei, he is currently developing his newest film, Inscrutable Grin, with their production company, Joe Ozu Films.

Gotanda holds a J.D. degree from Hastings College of the Law, studied pottery in Japan with the late Hiroshi Seto, and resides in Berkeley with his actress-producer wife Diane Takei. His play collections include No More Cherry Blossoms and Fish Soup and Other Plays, published by the University of Washington Press. Other published plays include The Wash, The Dream of Kitamura, Day Standing on its Head, Yohen, and The Wind Calls Mary.

Theaters where Gotanda's works have been produced include A Contemporary Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, American Place Theater Asian American Theater Workshop Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Campo Santo+Intersection, East West Players, Eureka Theater, The Group Theater, La Mama, Manhattan Theatre Club, Mark Taper Forum, Magic Theater, Mingei Geikidan – Tokyo, Missouri Rep, New Federal Theater New York Shakespeare Festival, Pan Asian Rep, Playwrights Horizons,Promenade Theater/National Theater – London, Asian American Theater Company, Robey Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and South Coast Repertory.

He has been Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Plays

  • The Avocado Kid (musical)
  • Song For a Nisei Fisherman (play with songs)
  • "Bullet Headed Birds" (play with songs)
  • "Jan Ken Po" (collaboration w. David Henry Hwang, Rick Shiomi)
  • American Tattoo
  • The Wash
  • Yankee Dawg You Die
  • The Dream Of Kitamura
  • Fish Head Soup
  • Day Standing on Its Head
  • Yohen
  • In the Dominion of Night (full-length spoken word play. Performed with the New Orientals, a retro jazz ensemble,)
  • The Wind Cries Mary
  • The Ballad of Yachiyo
  • Sisters Matsumoto
  • A Fist of Roses (in collaboration with Campo Santo)
  • Floating Weeds
  • Manzanar: An American Story (original symphonic piece with spoken narrative text – librettist)
  • After the War (revised to After The War Blues in 2014)
  • Under the Rainbow (evening of two one acts: Natalie Wood Is Dead; White Manifesto or Got Rice?)
  • #5 The Angry Red Drum
  • Child is Father to Man (short play presented by Silk Road Rising as part of "The DNA Trail")
  • Apricots of Andujar (chamber opera – librettist)
  • The Life and Times of Chang and Eng – The Inescapable Truth of Love That Binds
  • Love in American Times
  • Body of Eyes (song cycle – lyricist. Shinji Eshima, composer)
  • "Night Fishing". Podcast. Collaboration with composer David Coulter.
  • The Jamaican Wash (Adaptation of The Wash with a Jamaican American family)
  • #CAMPTULELAKE (short play commissioned by the Goethe-Institut as part of the Plurality of Privacy in Five-Minute Plays project and produced at A.C.T. in 2017)
  • Rashomon (Adaptation commissioned by Ubuntu Theater Project)
  • Pool of Unknown Wonders: Undertow of the Soul
  • Both Eyes Open Opera. Librettist. Composer: Max Giteck Duykers
  • West of Grove Street. A Play About Old Love. Dying. And The Crossing of Red Lines.

Films

  • The Wash (1988) — screenplay
  • The Kiss (1992 short) — director, screenplay, actor
  • Drinking Tea (short) — director, screenplay
  • Life Tastes Good (1999) — director, screenplay, actor
  • The Other Barrio (2015) — actor

Awards and honors

References

Notes

Critical studies

(as of March 2008}

  • Cho, Nancy (2001) "'Yankee Dawg You Die' by Philip Kan Gotanda" in Wong and Sumida, A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature. New York: Modern Language Association of America. pp. 185–92
  • Dunbar, Ann-Marie (Winter 2005) "From Ethnic to Mainstream Theater: Negotiating 'Asian American' in the Plays of Philip Kan Gotanda" American Drama. 14 (1): 15–31.
  • Grabes, Herbert (2003) "Die Imaginierung ethnischer Weltsicht im neueren amerikanischen Drama" in Schlote and Zenzinger, New Beginnings in Twentieth-Century Theatre and Drama: Essays in Honour of Armin Geraths. Trier, Germany: Wissenschaftlicher. pp. 327–44
  • Hwang, David Henry (Winter 1998) "Philip Kan Gotanda" BOMB. 62: 20–26.
  • Ito, Robert B. (2000) "Philip Kan Gotanda" in Cheung, Words Matter: Conversations with Asian American Writers. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press with UCLA Asian American Studies Center. 402 pp. pp. 173–85
  • Kaplan, Randy Barbara (2002) "Philip Kan Gotanda" in Liu, Asian American Playwrights: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood. 69–88.
  • Kim, Esther Songie (2000) Asian American Theatre History from the 1960s to 1990s: Actors, Playwrights, Communities, and Producers (Dissertation, Ohio State University) Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences. 61 (8): 2998–99.
  • Maczynska, Magdalena (2002) "Philip Kan Gotanda" in Wheatley, Twentieth-Century American Dramatists, Fourth Series. Detroit, Michigan: Thomson Gale. pp. 116–27
  • Moy, James S. (March 1990) "David Henry Hwang's 'M. Butterfly' and Philip Kan Gotanda's 'Yankee Dawg You Die': Repositioning Chinese American Marginality on the American Stage" Theatre Journal. 42 (1): 48–56.
  • Siegel, Nina (February 1996) "Choice and Chance" American Theatre. 13 (2): 26.

References

  1. Dunbar, Ann-Marie. (Winter 2005). "From Ethic to Mainstream Theater: Negotiating 'Asian American' in the Plays of Philip Kan Gotanda". American Drama.
  2. [http://www.philipkangotanda.com/bio.htm Bio] at his website
  3. (January 18, 2024). "Philip Kan Gotanda {{!}} Densho Encyclopedia".
  4. Harvey, Dennis. (March 30, 2007 ). "After the War". [[Variety (magazine).
  5. (April 7, 2017). "Gotanda's 'Sisters Matsumoto' at Lesher Center for the Arts". [[The Rafu Shimpo]].
  6. Hashimoto, Kathy. (August 29, 2022). "Philip Kan Gotanda: Past and Present". [[J-Sei]].
  7. "San Francisco: American Conservatory Theater".
  8. (2023). "Awards – Dramatists Guild Foundation".
  9. (2023). "2023 New Members List {{!}} American Academy of Arts and Sciences".
  10. "Philip Kan Gotanda – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation".
  11. (January 18, 2024). "Philip Kan Gotanda {{!}} Densho Encyclopedia".
  12. "Philip Kan Gotanda – ND Anti-Racist Theater NOW".
  13. (August 2000). "Lila Wallace–Reader's Digest Writers Award".
  14. (1997). "NEA-Annual-Report-1997".
  15. (June 20, 1996). "2 S.F. writers win Pen West awards". [[SFGate]].
  16. (January 28, 2024). "jsnc_gala-awardees-1987-2022".
  17. (May 24, 1999). "East West Players Celebrates 33rd Anniversary May 24".
  18. "Catalog {{!}} LATW".
  19. (January 28, 2024). "2016 Grantees in Theater / Performance".
  20. (28 June 2013). "Philip Gotanda – UC Davis Arts".
  21. "United States Artists >> Philip Kan Gotanda".
  22. (22 December 2020). "The Legacy Playwrights Initiative Announces Inaugural Winners".

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