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Playwright, Filmmaker, Librettist Philip Kan Gotanda

Over the last five decades, Philip Kan Gotanda has been instrumental in bringing stories of Asians in the United States to mainstream American theater as well as to Asia and Europe.  

Mr. Gotanda has specialized in the Japanese American family, writing a cycle of works in theater, film and opera chronicling their story from the early 1900s to the present.  Mr. Gotanda's newest work, is the opera,  Both Eyes Open, created with composer Max Giteck Duykers. Both Eyes Open is an operatic telling of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Rather than a historical recounting, Both Eyes Open offers an impressionistic narrative centering on the psychological trauma of the American concentration camps.

Mr. Gotanda holds a law degree from UC Law SF and studied pottery in Japan with the late Hiroshi Seto.  Mr. Gotanda is a respected independent filmmaker. His films, Life Tastes Good, Drinking Tea and The Kiss were official selections of the Sundance Film Festival.  A 1980s concert of Mr. Gotanda performing original songs with violinist David Henry Hwang can be found on his website:  philipkangotanda.org

Mr. Gotanda is a professor emeritus with the Department of Theater Dance and Performance Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.  Mr. Gotanda is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Dramatist Guild Foundation Legacy Award recognizing Mr. Gotanda’s contributions to American theater, the USA Fellowship Award, among other honors and recognitions.  Mr. Gotanda was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

upcoming event: September 24 (thursday) @5-7pm

Please join us for a conversation between Philip Kan Gotanda and David Henry Hwang in celebration of Philip's long and distinguished career in teaching at UC Berkeley. Philip and David met in 1978. Since then, they have become pillars of Asian-American theater and pioneers of Asian-American opera and film - Philip with MANZANAR: AN AMERICAN STORY, BOTH EYES OPEN, AFTER THE WAR, YANKEE DAWG YOU DIE, YOHEN, THE WASH, LIFE TASTES GOOD, and David with M. BUTTERFLY, FOB, YELLOW FACE, SOFT POWER, S.F. Opera's DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER and THE MONKEY KING. They will share their experiences over many decades of playwriting, writing operas, making films, and teaching.

Both Eyes Open

read a review here:

‘Unique and immersive soundscape’ offers a powerful rendition of wartime incarceration

David Henry Hwang Theater (July 3rd to 27th, 2025)

Yankee Dawg You Die

The play has long been an indictment of the stereotypes and limitations imposed by the entertainment industry on actors of color. This play ignites crucial conversations about representation, identity, and the resilience of Asian American artists–how far we’ve come and how much further there is to go.

In the News

  • For 50 years, he’s written about the Japanese American internment. Now, he’s turning to opera.

    “UC Berkeley professor and playwright Philip Kan Gotanda tells the story of a young Japanese American farmer who loses everything in Both Eyes Open, to be performed on campus Feb. 15 and 16.”


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  • An Opera Connects Immigrant Experiences from the 1940s to the Present

    “Philip Kan Gotanda spent more than four decades as a filmmaker and playwright before he decided to try storytelling in a new format: opera. Gotanda, whose work focuses primarily on the Japanese American experience and World War II, was feeling creatively blocked; he was looking for a new approach to his work. With the help of a composer (Max Giteck Duykers) and a director (Melissa Weaver), Gotanda took on the role of librettist for his first experimental opera, Both Eyes Open…”

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  • Legacy Playwrights Initiative Spotlight

    “Todd London interviews 2020-21 Legacy Playwrights Initiative Award winner Philip Kan Gotanda.

    The Legacy Playwrights Initiative honors playwrights for their sustained influence on the American theater and gives renewed attention to their body of work.

    The Initiative has five main components: 1) Two monetary Legacy Playwright Awards; 2) Advocacy and financial incentives for professional theatre production for the awarded playwrights; 3) New publication efforts and the reissuing of previously published plays; 4) Work to build awareness and opportunity within the theater field and in American universities; 5) Filmed interviews highlighting the careers of these Legacy Playwrights.”

    Watch Interview

  • Bay Area artists on affirmative action: ‘When I tell my story, race matters’

    As the Supreme Court outlaws affirmative action at colleges, Bay Area actors, composers, directors and arts leaders speak out.

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  • The Wash available on the Criterion Channel

    The Wash, adapted from a play by Philip Kan Gotanda, this keenly perceptive drama focuses on the upheavals that rock a Japanese American family when the sixty-something Masi (played by Nobu McCarthy) announces she is leaving her conservative, emotionally neglectful husband, Nobu (played by Mako), after forty years together. As she finds rejuvenation in a new relationship, he struggles to move forward. Touching on issues of assimilation, generational conflict, and the legacy of the Japanese internment, The Wash is a moving and beautifully performed look at the intricacies of love in old age.

    Now streaming on the Criterion Channel as part of its Asian American 80's film offering. Membership required to view but a 7 day free trial is available.

    Watch here

  • Six new fellows of American Academy of Arts & Sciences

    “The American Academy of Arts & Sciences announced its new fellows this week, among them six distinguished UC Berkeley faculty members.

    The new UC Berkeley fellows are medical anthropologist Charles Briggs, philosopher John Campbell, neuroscientist Marla Feller, playwright Philip Kan Gotanda…”

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