The Grateful Crane Ensemble performed earlier this year at a reunion of Tanforan internees and their families held in San Bruno and San Francisco.

Photo by J.K. Yamamoto

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — “The Camp Dance: The Music and the Memories,” a nostalgic musical revue featuring hit songs of the 1940s and entertaining vignettes from Japanese American camp dances, will have its Oregon premiere on Saturday, Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the Ross Ragland Theater and Cultural Center, 218 N. 7th St. in Klamath Falls.

Presented by the Tule Lake Committee and produced by the Los Angeles-based Grateful Crane Ensemble, “The Camp Dance” is a two-hour show that features the Moonlight Serenaders, a five-member group that will take its audience on a sentimental journey back some 65 years to the floor of the Japanese American camp dance.

“At its core, the show is about making the best of a bad situation,” said Soji Kashiwagi, playwright and producer of “Camp Dance.” “During World War II, when our government incarcerated nearly 80,000 American citizens without due process, the high school youth in camp decided to turn up the music and dance.

“Our show celebrates the dances they had behind barbed wires, the music they made and the human spirit it took to survive camp.”

“Camp” refers to the 10 War Relocation Authority “relocation centers” that the U.S. government used to incarcerate 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry without due process. Tule Lake, near the California-Oregon border, was one of the 10 camps, located not far from Klamath Falls.

Funded by grants from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, “The Camp Dance” has been performed in front of sold-out, standing-room- only audiences throughout California and the West since 2003.

Directed by Alberto Isaac with musical direction by Scott Nagatani, the show combines song, dance, comedy and drama and includes favorite ’40s tunes such as “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,“ “Moonlight Serenade,” “Jukebox Saturday Night” and “Sentimental Journey,” to name a few.

“The stories we tell are recognizable and universal to anyone who has ever attended a high school dance,” said Kashiwagi. “Boy sees girl, boy likes girl, boy is too shy to ask girl to dance, boy finally gets up the nerve to ask girl — this scene has been played out at every high school dance ever held. The only difference is that this high school dance was held in the context of a World War II prison camp.”

Other elements of the show include the story of the girl who dreams of going to the senior prom with the big man on campus, but ends up with the class nerd instead; the story of Ralph Lazo, a 16-year-old Mexican American who voluntarily gave up his freedom and went to camp to support his Japanese American friends; and a tribute to the soldiers of the 100th Batallion/442nd Regimental Combat Team, many of whom volunteered out of camp to serve with distinction overseas.

According to Kashiwagi, another highlight of the show is the guest appearance of Japanese American vocalist Mary Kageyama Nomura, the “Songbird of Manzanar.”

He remembered the show a couple years ago when Nomura — now in her early 80s — returned to the same stage she sang on as a 16-year-old teenager at the Manzanar camp in California.

“This show was particularly significant because it was held in an actual camp — in the same auditorium — where Mary sang some 60-plus years ago. Singing at Manzanar as a free woman, Mary received a standing ovation from the audience, 90 percent of whom were local Caucasians from the Owens Valley.

“With this audience, we learned that Mary’s singing and the show itself has a universal, crossover appeal and that non-Japanese Americans can enjoy the music, stories and message as much as Japanese Americans do.”

Kashiwagi believes the Klamath Falls show, with its close proximity to Tule Lake, will have a similar emotional impact on both the local audience and the performers as well.

“My entire family on both sides was incarcerated at Tule Lake,” said Kashiwagi. “So this show hits very close to home for me.”

The show also features a special guest appearance by San Francisco-based actor/performer Merv Maruyama, who will sing nostalgic Japanese songs in tribute to first-generation Japanese immigrants.

Cast members for the show include Haruye Ioka, Kennedy Kabasares, Keiko Kawashima, Darrell Kunitomi and Kurt Kuniyoshi. Musicians include Nagatani on piano and Danny Yamamoto (of the band Hiroshima) on drums.

Tickets for the one-time-only performance are $20 for Section A, $15 for Section B and $10 for Section C. Students and seniors get a $5 discount in any section.

For tickets and information, call the Ross Ragland Theater at (541) 884-0651. Box office hours on non-event days are Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All tickets must be paid for at time of order. Credit cards are processed immediately. The theater accepts cash, checks, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and debit cards.

For more information on the ensemble, go on-line to www.gratefulcrane.com. For more information on the Tule Lake Committee, visit www.tulelake.org.

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