Naomi's Road: Pulls the heart in all the right places and directions

Vancouver Opera's first Opera in the Schools Commission is superb!

Two
children are left in the care of an aunt, when their father is sent
away from them, after their mother leaves the country to look after her
sick grandmother.  And the “holiday” they are told they have just
boarded a train for is actually going to be a re-location camp for the
next 3 years of their life.  They will be called “enemy aliens,”
called racial slurs, and they may never see their real home
again. 



This is all
great stuff for school children to learn about bullying, Canadian
history, the importance of family, and how to make friends.  Oh…
and it has been turned into an opera.



Vancouver Opera has turned to the children's version of the award winning novel Obasan by Joy Kogawa for it's second-ever original commission, designed for their Vancouver Opera in Schools program. 
Naomi's Road revolves around the upheaval of a 9 year old girl's life,
as she and her older brother are removed from their home in Vancouver,
and sent to a re-location camp in Slocan, located in BC's Interior.



Limited by a
45-minute time frame, the creative team of composer Ramona Leungen with
librettist Ann Hodges were challenged to bring alive a dark time in
Canada's history, but make it palatable and relatable for 21st century
school children.  They have succeeded in spades!  Naomi's
Road conveys the story without oversimplifying it.  The music is
acessible and emotional, with soaring melodies and lovely ensemble work.



I attended the
Saturday afternoon performance following the previous evening's World
Premiere.  A question period followed the short but lively
performance during which adults in the audience wanted the opera
extended by an hour, and children wanted to know how the actors could
change costumes so fast playing multiple roles.



Young soprano
Jessica Cheung stands out.  Her projection portraying a 9 year old
is amazing.  She is completely believable, with little nuances
that enhance her character.  When I remarked to Jessica after the
performance about “another costume change” into very chic and hip
street clothes, she remarked “So people don't think I really am a
little girl.



Composer Ramona
Luengen, says of Jessica, “We were so thrilled to find her.  She
brings so much vitality and spark.  We just wanted to keep
her.  Where else are you going to find a twenty year old that can
play a 10 year old… and sing?!?!”



Sam Chung does a
good turn as Stephen, Naomi's older brother.  He initially plays a
shy reserved child who becomes emotionally volatile as he discovers
that the “holiday” really isn't a holiday and becomes cynical about
many things related to the internment.  Sam does a good job
evolving Stephen's emotional maturity compressing three years into 45
minutes.



Gina Oh and Sung
Taek Chung both take on multiple roles, playing Mother, Obasan &
Mitzi and Father, Rough Lock Bill, Trainmaster and Bully,
respectively.  They create characters complete and separate from
the roles they shed with a change of clothes.  Seeing Gina go from
loving mother to reserved aunt to childish Mitzi within 30 minutes is
remarkable.  I particularly liked how Sung played doting father,
then later reappeared as Rough Lock Bill – a First Nations Character in
Slocan who befriends the children, gives Stephen a flute and helps
demonstrate racial acceptance and unconditional friendship.



During the
Q&A, a question was asked about the role played by Joy Kogawa,
author of Naomi's Road children's book.  Luengen described
attending a reading by Kogawa 2 years ago, in the Kogawa childhood home
(now threatened by demolition – see www.kogawa.homestead.com),
which she describes as magical.  Anne Hodges said that Joy gave
them complete reign over the story and never said to take or leave
anything out, nor questioned what they did.  “She was like a
benevolent and peaceful spirit that permeated what we did, and always
seemed to be in town whenever we needed her.”



When I told
music director Leslie Uyeda that I had tears in my eyes when the
children were in the train scene, she replied, “You're the third person
who has said that… that scene is so emotionally charged, especially
when they are separated from their father.  It is so
iconographic.  It's in all the pictures,” she commented about the
photographs showing Japanese-Canadians at the train station waving to
family members being sent to different camps, and used on the cover of
the book Obasan.



If this is only
the 2nd-ever commission by the Vancouver Opera (the first was 1994's
The Architect), I can only eagerly anticipate the next one, and hope
that it will be soon.  Maybe they will pick another
Vancouver-based story such as the Komagata Maru incident that affected
the South Asian community, or an issue from Chinese-Canadian history,
similar to the opera Iron Road, that is yet to show in Vancouver.



Kudos for the
Vancouver Opera's Naomi's Road.  I foresee a long life for it,
touring BC's schools and beyond.  Glad I wasn't sitting on a
gymnasium floor for 45 minutes… but I think the kids will definitely
enjoy it!



Please sign the petition to preserve the Kogawa Homestead. Click on the white banner – this will forward you to an on-line petition.
Donations can be made in care of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation

The “Save the Kogawa Homestead” Committee is meeting:

Friday, September 30th, 4pm
Sylvia Hotel
1154 Gilford @ Beach Avenue
Vancouver, BC

This will be the first meeting in person of the reconstituted
committee.  It is important for us to meet in person and
strategize how to best save the house where author Joy Kogawa had so
many happy childhood memories and was raised until the internment of
Japanese-Canadians forced the Kogawa family to Slocan BC.

For the history of the committee: see www.kogawa.homestead.com

Several strategies will be discussed, and we will also discuss key
meetings with movers and shakers in our literary community + political
community.

Worst case scenario:  Kogawa House is demolished.
Best case scenario:  Kogawa House is saved and preserved on original site.
Alternative scenario: Kogawa House is saved but moved to another
site.  But this could be similar to the displacement faced by the
Japanese Canadians who were interned!

Good people are needed for this committee!
Please step forward and make yourself known.

Please sign the petition to preserve the Kogawa Homestead. Click on the white banner – this will forward you to an on-line petition.

Donations can be made in care of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation

Vancouver Courier story on Joy Kogawa:


Literary icon's home faces wrecker's ball
By Sandra Thomas-Staff writer
http://www.vancourier.com/issues05/094205/news/094205nn11.html

Last
November city council passed a motion to plant a cherry tree propagated
from one growing in the backyard of the former home of author Joy
Kogawa.

But if a demolition application recently filed at the
city by the owner is approved, that tree could soon be one of the last
remaining tangible symbols of the home on West 64th Avenue.

Kogawa
lived there until she was six years old, when her Japanese-Canadian
family was interned in the Slocan Valley during the Second World War.
The Marpole house was then auctioned off at a bargain price by the
government's “Custodian of Enemy Alien Property” program. Her 1983
autobiographical work Obasan, named one of the most influential novels
of the 20th century by Quill and Quire, a monthly magazine of the
Canadian book trade, tells the story of the internment camp through the
eyes of a child.

Kogawa, who keeps small apartments in both
Vancouver and Toronto, noted the irony of receiving the bad news while
being honoured at several events across the city.

“It is how life operates,” said Kogawa from her children's home in Surrey. “It is the yin and yang of the world.”

Kogawa
was honoured last weekend at a One Book, One Vancouver event for her
novel Naomi's Road, the children's version of Obasan, at Vancouver
Public Library, and at a dinner for Ricepaper Magazine, during the Word
on the Street Book and Magazine Fair, and at the premiere of Naomi's
Road performed by Vancouver Opera.

Kogawa, who was named to
the Order of Canada for her writing and work with the Japanese-Canadian
redress movement, said she was “dumbfounded” by the news the home is in
danger. Two years ago Kogawa discovered the property was for sale and a
committee was formed in an attempt to purchase it. The home was
eventually bought by private owners. In December 2004 when the owners
started renovations without a permit, the Joy Kogawa Homestead
Foundation contacted both the city and the media to increase pressure
on the federal and provincial governments to save the home as a
historical and cultural icon.

The city issued a stop-work
order which the new owners followed. They also donated the three doors
and 12 windows they had removed to the city for safe keeping. The
owners, who have no messaging service, did not answer several phone
calls from the Courier.

“I don't want to be aggressive, I don't want to fight,” Kogawa said. “We'll see what friendship can do.”

Jim
Green, a city councillor and mayoral candidate for Vision Vancouver,
said he was at the house with Kogawa recently to look at the cherry
tree.

“This is too sad,” he said. “This is a historical place in Canada and it should be preserved.”

Green sits on the city's heritage committee but admits the city can do little to save the home.

“There
is very little we can do with the powers we have,” he said. “It will be
up to the will of council because I expect it to come before the
development permit board because it would have a significant impact
historically on Vancouver.”

Green said he and Kogawa expect to plant the cherry tree on the grounds of city hall within the next couple of weeks.

For more updates on the Kogawa Homestead status, please see:
www.kogawa.homestead.com
For more updates, articles on Kogawa Homestead and Joy Kogawa on this web site, please see:
Joy Kogawa's Obasan and Homestead