Interviews
Legacy Playwrights Initiative Spotlight
12/19/2023
“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.”
Embodied Memories: Japanese Americans across Generations
03/15/2023
Karen Tei Yamashita in conversation with Philip Kan Gotanda, moderated by Lisa Hirai Tsuchitani. This event was part of the inaugural Asian American Research Center Artist-in-Residence series. Sponsored By: Asian American Research Center, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program, Center for Japanese Studies, Department of English, Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, Japanese American Studies Advisory Committee, and the Othering & Belonging Institute.
J-Sei At the Movies with Philip Kan Gotanda
09/09/2022
“J-Sei Movie Night welcomes back Philip Kan Gotanda, a renowned major force in American theater and the creative arts. Philip will present his 1996 feature-length film, Life Tastes Good, an original comedy-drama about a rogue mobster who meets a mysterious woman while hiding from his vengeful nemesis as he tries to reconcile with his two estranged children.
We’ll also catch up with Philip to learn about his more recent projects, including this year’s premiere in June of Both Eyes Open, an experimental chamber opera by composer Max Giteck Duykers and librettist Philip Kan Gotanda.”
Interior Chinatown: An Evening with Charles Yu and Philip Kan Gotanda
08/26/2022
This event was a part of On the Same Page, UC Berkeley’s way of welcoming new students into the intellectual community. Each year, they feature a book, theme, or other work of art to provide the focus of a range of events, courses, and activities that bring new students into contact with each other and UC Berkeley faculty. In 2022, the featured book was Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu.
JSei At the Movies
09/21/2020
“AN EVENING WITH PHILIP KAN GOTANDA. Philip, a celebrated playwright whose work over 30-plus years has broadened the scope of American theater as well as Asian American theater, will talk with us on Zoom about his life and work. He is the author of more than two dozen plays, including The Wash, Yankee Dawg You Die, and Sisters Matsumoto. Philip continues to challenge us with innovative, sometimes surreal, theater experiences, such as with his recent play, Pool of Unknown Wonders: Undertow of the Soul, which debuted in Berkeley in 2018. Philip has also written and directed three films and in addition is a musician, composer, actor, teacher, and activist. He is a professor in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. As a special treat, we will watch together a short film written and directed by Philip—DRINKING TEA (1996), starring Sab Shimono and Nobu McCarthy. This is a really rare opportunity to see this film and chat with its director.”
Life Tastes Good Interview
03/28/2016
“Award-winning filmmaker/playwright/author Philip Kan Gotanda speaks about his directorial film debut LIFE TASTES GOOD.”
After the War Blues
03/08/2014
“Meet the cast and crew of After the War Blues from the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. Written by UC Berkeley professor Philip Kan Gotanda and directed by Steven Anthony Jones, the play depicts growing tension in the post-WWII San Francisco community. The production runs from March 7th to March 16th at Zellerbach Playhouse.”
Cal at Sundance 2013
02/02/2013
“Philip Kan Gotanda has been instrumental in bringing Asian American stories to mainstream theater and cinema in the United States and abroad. His films "The Kiss" and "Life Tastes Good" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and can be seen on Netflix and PBS. He has also been selected to participate in both the Sundance Theater Lab (Fish Head Soup, After The War) and the Sundance Filmmakers Lab for Directors and Screenwriters. His awards and grants include: the Guggenheim, National Arts Club, Pew Charitable Trust, Rockefeller, The Lila Wallace Award, National Endowment for the Arts, etc. Currently, Professor Gotanda teaches for the UC Berkeley Theater department while developing new plays.”
Bunker Twins Event
06/12/2012
“Friends of the Library event at Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill on December 6, 2011. Featuring Philip Kan Gotanda and the students of Professor Heidi Kim's English 265 Honors class. Part 3 of 3.”
Interview - Hosted by the Silk Road Theatre
03/08/2010
“An Interview with Philip Kan Gotanda, author of ‘Child is Father to Man’, one of seven plays featured in Silk Road Theatre's “The DNA Trail’.”