{"id":7682,"date":"2014-04-11T09:32:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T14:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=7682"},"modified":"2024-07-02T14:37:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T14:37:11","slug":"holdtruths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=7682","title":{"rendered":"PlayMakers presents regional premiere of \u2018Hold These Truths\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joel<\/a>
Joel de la Fuente<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PlayMakers Repertory Company will present the regional premiere of \u201cHold These Truths,\u201d written by Jeanne Sakata, April 23-27. The production is the last in the 2013-2014 PRC\u00b2 series, which features performances of topical plays coupled with engaging post-show discussions with the creative artists and other panelists.<\/p>\n

PlayMakers is the professional theater company in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. nightly and 2 p.m. on April 27 in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road. Ticket prices start at $15 and may be purchased at www.playmakersrep.org<\/a> or by calling (919) 962-PLAY (7529).<\/p>\n

Inspired by a true story, \u201cHold These Truths\u201d<\/em> takes place in Seattle during World War II, as University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi fights U.S. government orders to forcibly incarcerate people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. Struggling to reconcile his country\u2019s betrayal with his passionate belief in the U.S. Constitution, Hirabayashi journeys toward a greater understanding of America\u2019s triumphs \u2014 and confrontation with its failures.<\/p>\n

StageScene LA called <\/em>\u201cHold These Truths<\/em>\u201d \u201cthe powerful and moving story of one man, who, in his own words \u2018could not give up on the Constitution.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirabayashi (1918-2012) was an American sociologist best known for his resistance to Japanese-American internment during World War II, one of only three persons to openly defy it. After being convicted for curfew violation, he was sentenced to 90 days in prison. The verdict was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in Hirabayashi v. United States (1943). In 1987, the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit overturned his conviction. In 2012, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Hirabayashi for his principled stand.<\/p>\n

Stage and screen performer Joel de la Fuente will reprise his role as Hirabayashi plus 36 other characters in the one-man drama, which had its New York premiere in October 2012 with Epic Theatre Ensemble. He was nominated for the 2013 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. The New Yorker said his performance was \u201cgripping \u2026 eerily true to life.\u201d The Washington Post called the play \u201celoquent\u201d and de la Fuente \u201cmagnetic.\u201d De la Fuente plays Dr. Johann Pryce in the Netflix original series \u201cHemlock Grove\u201d and appeared for 10 seasons on \u201cLaw & Order: SVU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playwright Sakata, who is also an award-winning actress, became enamored of Hirabayashi\u2019s story and interviewed him in the late 1990s. Members of her father\u2019s family were forcibly expelled from their homes and locked up behind barbed wire in the Arizona desert during World War II, but she said they refused to talk of these painful wartime years. Sakata said meeting Hirabayashi \u201chas been a life-changing and redemptive experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis tenacious quest for freedom echoes that of all Americans who hold the truths of the Constitution and refuse to let go,\u201d Sakata added.<\/p>\n

Director Lisa Rothe directed the 2012 world premiere of \u201cPenelope\u201d for PlayMakers. In addition to her work in theater, she is developing a new opera (\u201cAda\u201d) presented by The Center for Contemporary Opera. Rothe has taught and directed for many theater programs including NYU\u2019s Graduate Acting Program, Yale School of Drama and The Juilliard School.<\/p>\n

Carolina Asia Center, the University of North Carolina\u2019s flagship organization for Asia-related activities, is sponsoring the opening night reception for \u201cHold These Truths.\u201d<\/p>\n

PlayMakers is based in UNC\u2019s College of Arts and Sciences. The Drama League of New York has named PlayMakers one of the best regional theaters in America and INDY Week calls PlayMakers the best live theater company in the Triangle.<\/p>\n

Ticket packages are currently also available for PlayMakers\u2019 2014-2015 season. For more on the new season, visit www.playmakersrep.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PlayMakers Repertory Company will present the regional premiere of \u201cHold These Truths,\u201d written by Jeanne Sakata, April 23-27. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24,72,36,38,39,40],"class_list":["post-7682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fine-arts-humanities","tag-carolina","tag-playmakers-repertory-company","tag-unc","tag-unc-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-chapel-hill","tag-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7682"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46582,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682\/revisions\/46582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}