The cast of the BBC radio serial drama 'The Dales' celebrate the recording of the show's last episode after a run of twenty-one years, 17th April. Lieutenant Lewis Reenlisting Thomas Dixon', Spanish-American War, 19 June 1898,. Theater and imagination activities for kids age 3 and up. Creative drama is process-based, not product-based.
WE ARE NOT FREE
Creative Drama Article
By Traci Chee (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020, 400 pp., $17.99, hardcover)
Yonsei author Traci Chee’s ambitious new novel, “We Are Not Free,” weaves 13 devastating stories of San Francisco Japantown Nisei reeling in the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Immediate, personal and pulsing with drama, the book takes us from March 1942 to the spring of 1945, after the West Coast ban on persons of Japanese ancestry is finally lifted.
She is a terrific writer, providing something that is missing from most books about camp: the raw emotions that course through every character — rage, gritty determination, resentment, and even love and heartbreak.
This is a work of fiction; while I respect the author’s freedom to shape the story as she chooses, I am conflicted about aspects of the book. Historical fiction is an author’s creative interpretation of history, which frequently involves inserting events and people into an otherwise factual framework, and it can be a fine line to walk. She retains the names of some historical figures (particularly ones the characters disdain, such as the controversial Japanese American Citizens League leader Mike Masaoka and Gen. J.L. DeWitt) but fictionalizes virtually everyone else, and I’m not clear why. In one chapter, 18-year-old Stan witnesses the shooting of James Hatsuaki Wakasa, who is killed by Topaz (Central Utah) concentration camp military police, yet Chee changes Wakasa’s name, rather than memorialize him and his wrongful death.
I also found that 13 different narratives is a lot to keep track of, and while some chapters delve more deeply into their characters, the stories blurred into a wash. Strangest of all, she peppers the entire novel with the slang word, “keto,” a derogatory term for a white person that I have only come across in rare historical readings. Practically every one of her 13 characters says it. In my experience, family and community would more likely use the word “hakujin,” and it not only feels shallow to use this offensive, discriminatory language, compared to the rest of the novel’s lofty aspirations, it also makes me question the authenticity and facts of other parts of the book.
Nevertheless, I appreciate her sensitivity to the diverse points of view that the inmates were forced to adopt during their incarceration. She includes voices of resistance, such as the No-Nos, the resisters and the renunciants, juxtaposed with the patriotic military volunteers and draftees. Only a fully committed writer could build characters whose inner voices speak so passionately and uninhibitedly.
Creative Drama Games
Chee’s finest work culminates in the chapter told from the perspective of 442nd Regimental Combat Team soldier, Twitchy Hashimoto, and I will admit that while reading his story, I ached for the harrowing pain that the Issei and Nisei endured throughout the war, and wept.
Drawing on 10 years of National Theatre Live broadcasts as well as recordings never previously seen outside of the National Theatre’s archive, the video content includes 30 video performances. As a supplement to the filmed productions, exclusive digitized archival materials such as prompt scripts, costume designs, and more are available to provide behind-the-scenes background and contextual information.
Selected Video Performances
National Theatre Collection features a wide range of works regularly studied in secondary and higher education. Unique in scope, the collection includes such performances as:
Drama The Creative Archives
- Literary adaptations, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankensteinadapted by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller
- Greek classics such as Medea by Euripides, in a contemporary adaptation by Ben Power, directed by Carrie Cracknell with Helen McCrory in the title role
- Vibrant modern stagings of Shakespeare, such as Twelfth Night, directed by Simon Godwin, with Tamsin Greig in the role of Malvolia
- 20th-century classics such as Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancsand the Young Vic’s production of Lorca’s Yerma, adapted and directed by Simon Stone with Billie Piper in the title role
- Comedies such as She Stoops to Conquerby Oliver Goldsmith, directed by Jamie Lloyd with a cast including Cush Jumbo and Katherine Kelly, and One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean, directed by Nicholas Hytner, and featuring James Corden's Tony Award-winning performance
…and many more.
Creative Drama In Education
Archival Content
Content from the National Theatre Archive provides valuable insight into the creative, technical and administrative process that goes into every performance. One example is a costume bible which is the main book that a costume designer or assistant designer creates. This book holds all the paperwork needed for any production including sketches, clothing sizes, receipts, fabric care instructions, mechanical notes, and corresponding scenes.
Included as a complement to the video production of Frankensteinis the Costume Bible created by designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb for the 2011 production at the Olivier Theatre:
About National Theatre
The National Theatre’s mission is to make world class theatre that’s entertaining, challenging and inspiring – and to make it for everyone. It aims to reach the widest possible audience and to be as inclusive, diverse and national as possible with a broad range of productions that play in London, on tour around the UK, on Broadway and across the globe. The National Theatre's extensive UK-wide learning and participation program supports young people’s creative education through performance and writing programs like Connections, New Views and Let’s Play. Its major new initiative Public Acts creates extraordinary acts of theatre and community; the first Public Acts production was 2018’s Pericles. The National Theatre extends its reach through digital programs including NT Live, which broadcasts some of the best of British theatre to over 2,500 venues in 65 countries. The National Theatre invests in the future of theatre by developing talent, creating bold new work and building audiences, partnering with a range of UK theatres and theatre companies.
About National Theatre Archive
The National Theatre Archive is a treasure trove of material, covering all of the creative, technical and administrative records of the National Theatre. The collection covers the movement to found the National Theatre and the period from the start of the company in 1963 right up to the present day. There is an online catalogue and in-person access to the archive materials is free of charge in the reading rooms in London. The National Theatre Archive is also home to the Black Plays Archive, an online catalogue for the first professional production of every African, Caribbean and Black British play produced in Britain.
National Theatre Collection is available for perpetual purchase as a standalone collection or as a subscription through theTheatre Performance and Design Collection which includes: