Community Asian Theatre of the Sierra (CATS) is excited to celebrate its 30th year in 2024 with the return of Snow Falling on Cedars, written by David Guterson, at the Nevada Theatre in Nevada City. This national best-selling novel was a PEN/Faulkner Award Winner. Kevin McKeon adapted it to the stage in 2007 and directed it for CATS in 2010; he will reprise his role as our director. Auditions will be on October 8, 9, and 10 at the Nevada Theatre.
For a description of roles and audition times, and to register, please visit https://catsweb.org/snow-auditions/. Headshots and resumes may be emailed to Artistic Director Lisa Moon at drmoon@chanmoon.com. Requests for sides and scripts may also be sent to Lisa. No monologues are required.
Auditions will consist of readings from sides. Show dates are April 19 to May 18, 2024 (Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees.) There will be no Thursday shows. Rehearsals commence in February 2024.
Need: 13 male and female actors to portray 44 roles, of which 7 are principal roles. Need Asians and non-Asians ages late 20’s to 70s.
CATS’ 2010 production was nominated for 7 Elly awards by SARTA (Sacramento Area Region Theatre Alliance), in which CATS won 3, including for Best Overall Production. The book was selected by Nevada County Reads and the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools in 2010, and it was made into a movie in 1999, starring Ethan Hawke, Yuki Kudo, and Max von Sydow.
Snow Falling on Cedars takes place on San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, in the state of Washington. It is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. San Piedro is home to salmon fishermen and strawberry farmers and also home to many Japanese-Americans. In 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese- American is charged with his murder. Snow Falling on Cedars opens in the courtroom trial of Kabuo Miyamoto.
In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man’s guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries—memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo’s wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched.
Snow Falling on Cedars explores the notions of love and loss as they relate to racism, responsibility, and injustice. Every character in the novel is both directly and indirectly affected by what happens during World War II.
“Haunting. . . . A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper.” — Los Angeles Times
A Drama of Suspense, Enduring Love, and Cultural Prejudices in post-WW II
Email: info@catsweb.org
Tickets in Feb. 2024: https://catsweb.org