Previews
February 11 – 18
Opening Night
February 19
Performances
February 20 – March 13
Presented at New Village Arts Theatre | 2787 State Street, Carlsbad Village
DESERT ROCK GARDEN is a memory play about belonging, family, and creating something beautiful out of nothing. This fictionalized historical story about a young orphan and a Japanese immigrant who forge a friendship in the Topaz Relocation Center in 1943 reveals the inherent human ability to transform nothing — loneliness and barren desert — into something long-lasting and precious.
February 19th, 2022 marks the 80th Anniversary of Executive Order 9066 resulting in the forced removal of 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry to incarceration camps across America.
Originally produced as part of NVA’s Final Draft New Play Festival, DESERT ROCK GARDEN is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, California Civil Liberties Program, the City of Carlsbad, and the Forsyth Leonard Fund.
CAST:
Director
Yari Cervas
Dramaturgy by
Shirley Fishman
Stage Manager
Nathan Waits
Original Music and Sound Design by
Marc Akiyama
Scenic Design by
Reiko Huffman
Lighting Design by
Annelise Salazar
Properties Designer
Robert Malave
Costume Design by
Jojo Siu
Development Stage Manager
Alex C Luong
Cultural Consultant
Michael Kurima
Cast
Chloris Li (Penny)
Lane Nishikawa* (Fuzzy)
*Members of Actors’ Equity Association
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
Masks and proof of vaccination or negative COVID test required for entry. Please visit Policies and Accessibility for full details.
| Don’t miss the opportunity to share this timely and poignant play with your class.For student matinees, we are excited to offer a post-show talkback with Japanese American community leaders who are passionate about sharing the history of the Incarceration camps and their impact on Japanese Americans past and present. Interested in bringing your students? E-mail Joy at joy@newvillagearts.org *Recommended ages: 8th-12th grade |
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
Topaz Museum
Manzanar National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)
Minidoka National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)
Tule Lake Monument National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)
National Education Center
U.S. National Park Service – Virtual Museum Exhibits
www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/manz
Japanese American Citizen League
Japanese American National Museum
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive
The National Archives Catalog
Children of the Camps – The Documentary
https://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/
Life Interrupted: The Japanese American Experience in World War II Arkansas
www.ualr.edu/lifeinterrupted/cirriculum/index.asp
Japanese American Internment: Fear Itself
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/japanese-american-internment-fear-itself/
Manzanar and Beyond
Manzanar Committee
Internment of San Francisco Japanese
www.sfmuseum.org/war/evactxt.html
National Japanese American Historical Society
Japanese Americans & the U.S. Constitution