2020 PRESS RELEASE
DEAR YOKO
PHILIP SOKOLOFF
Publicity for the theatre
P.O. Box 94387
Pasadena, CA 91109-4387
(626) 674-0504
e-mail: [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 4th, 2019
Press/media contact: Philip Sokoloff, (626) 674-0504, [email protected]
DEAR YOKO
WHAT: Dear Yoko. at The 2020 Hollywood Fringe Festival
WHO: Written and performed by Anzu Lawson. Developed and directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson. Presented by Happy Hapa Films in association with the Whitefire Theatre.
Technical design by Brandon Loeser.
WHERE: The Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423.
WHEN: Preview Sunday, 6/7, 3:30pm-5:30pm; curtain at 4pm
Friday, 6/12, 7:30pm-9:30pm; curtain at 8pm
Saturday, 6/20, 9:30pm-11:30pm; curtain at 10pm
ADMISSION: $14
ONLINE TICKETING: on Fringe Profile page and on Event Bright
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Following successful 2019 engagements at the Whitefire Theatre and Santa Monica Playhouse, the acclaimed show “Dear Yoko” finally comes to the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2020.
Anzu Lawson (who plays Ashley Kim on NBC’s Chicago Med) is an Asian-American actress who grew up in Southern California in a broken family.
Based on Lawson’s own life, DEAR YOKO unveils the personal history of multi-generational racism and non-acceptance as a young Asian girl growing up in white-washed America and patriarchal Japan. This emotionally-charged intimate story reveals how the iconic Japanese-American artist, singer and peace activist, Yoko Ono, lead Lawson to discover how to finally live her life authentically.
In a child custody battle, Anzu was kidnapped by her tiger mom at 15 years old to Japan. Soon thereafter, Anzu worked from being a teen model to garnering her first #1 hit on the Japanese Billboard Charts as a J-POP singer-songwriter. After a dark family secret was revealed, Anzu fled to America, alone and soon discovers her fame in Japan does not follow her here. She pursues acting and lands a leading role opposite Viggo Mortensen in the film American Yakuza. But this was a time when Asian-American roles for Asian-American actresses, were few and far between, so she sustains herself with a succession of jobs: waitress gigs, then as a personal assistant to martial arts film star Steven Seagal. She exits after he attempts to take liberties with her.
She inadvertently becomes a masseuse to the stars, literally rubbing the shoulders of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest. And then, upon appearing in a television episode with Brad Garrett, he inspires her to try her hand at stand-up comedy.
In 2011, Anzu’s dramaturge suggests that she portray Yoko Ono. Unbeknownst to Anzu, Ono would become a source of incredible inspiration & life teachings for her. This show seamlessly weaves together belly laughs with poignant and often tearful reminders of the many transgressions in history that should never be forgotten or repeated. To this day, Yoko is still accused of being the “woman who broke up The Beatles” but in this piece, Anzu shines an unprecedented light on Yoko Ono’s side of the story and lets us in on the real reason why John Lennon started a Peace revolution with the forward-thinking underground artist turned humanitarian for the world.
Jessica Lynn Johnson directs Dear Yoko… Acclaimed both as a solo performer and as a director of solo artists, she is the founder of the company Soaring Solo. Her directing credits include Unemployed Finally, The Mermaid Who Learned How to Fly, 365 Days of Crazy, Triangles Are My Favorite Shape, Bully-mia, Not My Show, Answers Outta The Blue, and more.
If you missed Dear Yoko in 2019, you now have another chance to catch Anzu Lawson’s extraordinary performance.
A limited number of discount tickets are available at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dear-yoko-one-woman-show-by-anzu-lawson-tickets-81684738251?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
“DEAR YOKO is an extraordinary personal story of Anzu’s growth as a woman and an artist, in an odyssey that spans two continents and how she found in Yoko Ono an example of an extraordinary Asian woman of accomplishment who always lived her life authentically, even to this day. Her totally absorbing tale had me hooked from start to finish, often feeling as if I really was watching Yoko Ono onstage.”—— Shari Barrett – Broadway World
“Anzu Lawson bares a remarkable resemblance to Yoko Ono, couple that with a really wonderful, deep sense of the artist and phenomenal acting skills and we are presented with Yoko Ono…almost in the flesh."——NoHoArtsDistrict.com