What fuels it all for me right now is gratitude, because I’m grateful all these things are happening, and that there are so many more opportunities than there used to be, and when I’m tempted to feel overwhelmed as sometimes I do, I really try to go back to that place of gratitude, and I think that fortifies the energy that I have for all these different [projects and] challenges. — Jeanne Sakata
If you’re looking for what it takes to be an actor long-term, over the course of your LIFE, then you’ve come to the right place, and you’re going to really enjoy today’s episode!
Perhaps you discovered your passion for acting later in life, or maybe you didn’t get the early start on this career you think you need—our guest today was in the exact same spot, and she still pursued it and has experienced quite a bit of success!
Today on the show is actress and playwright Jeanne Sakata, with a 30+ year career spanning theater, film, television, and voiceover. She was in two different stage productions this past year, both with notable companies, jumping from Shakespeare to new plays: appearing in Othello at A Noise Within in Pasadena, CA and in Do You Feel Anger? at the Vineyard Theatre in NY.
For her first play, Jeanne wrote the celebrated and award-winning solo show Hold These Truths, based on the life of Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese-American student at the University of Washington who challenged the American Government during World War II.
Jeanne and I definitely chat about this play and all the different ways it intersect and connects with her life—plus it’s just such a fascinating story!
The show has been produced all over the country and recently in Canada—and for those in Southern California, you can check out Hold These Truths at San Diego Rep, where the show opens November 14th! I’ve seen the play—it’s an amazing story and a great production!
Just a bit of what we cover in this episode with Jeanne:
- Growing up on a lettuce farm right near the railroad tracks
- Thinking she would be a journalist and majoring in English at UCLA
- How acting and therapy both came into her life at the same time
- How the Spanish language opened her eyes to working on Shakespeare
- Her deep need to tell Gordon’s story based on her own family’s history
- How her marriage and relationship has lasted over 40 years—and so much more!
She has such a great attitude toward celebrating your successes, allowing for flow, and being open to multiple approaches!
Jeanne even shares how she worked on a monologue with a Cambodian accent for a TV show, so don’t miss that!
About the guest
Jeanne Sakata has worked at acclaimed regional theatres all over the country, including in NY, Seattle, Portland, the Bay Area, and numerous theatres in Southern California. She has played opposite such legendary actors as Chita Rivera, Estelle Parsons, and Raul Julia.
Jeanne is a member of LA’s award-winning classical group, the Antaeus Company, and has won a Los Angeles Ovation Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in Chay Yew’s Red at East West Players, the Lee Melville Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles Theatre Community, Playwrights’ Arena; and the Drama-Logue Outstanding Performance Award for her work in The Maids at East West Players.
Jeanne has over 40 credits on film and TV including recurring parts on the shows Dr. Ken and High School Musical: The Musical – The Series, and she has even appeared in Justin Lin’s YOMYOMF web series.
Hold These Truths received a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance, and a Theatre Bay Award for Outstanding Production, Principal Performance and Direction. It is also on display at the Library of Congress Playwrights Archive in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection in Washington DC, where the Jeanne Sakata Collection was established.
I feel fortunate to call Jeanne a peer and friend—and we’ve even shared the stage a couple of brief times. I’m very honored she’s here, and I hope you enjoy this one!
Don’t miss Jeanne’s play Hold These Truths at San Diego Rep, starting November 14th!
Please enjoy my chat with Jeanne Sakata!
Total Running Time: 2:09:25
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Want to hear from another actress who feels like things took a while? Check out my talk with Gigi Bermingham!
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let us know in the comments.
Scroll below for links mentioned in today’s episode and additional show notes…
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Show Notes
Jeanne Sakata around the web
Her Site | Hold These Truths | Twitter | Wikipedia | Film/TV | Off-Broadway | Additional Theatre
Highlights
- Bouncing from auditions to writing
- Approaching things in a much more relaxed way
- The push she’s seen in the industry to have more diversity in roles, and auditioning more
- Consciously practicing gratitude and celebrating the small steps
- Growing up on a lettuce farm right near the railroad tracks
- All of her father’s family going into Internment Camps during World War II
- Her grandfather able to leave the camps because of his skills and expertise, and being able to reclaim his business (unlike many Japanese families)
- Living in suburbia: being a tomboy, playing sports, girl scouts, sleepovers
- Envying all the kids who did theatre
- Thinking she would be a journalist – majoring in English @ UCLA
- Discovering Asian American theatre through East West Players
- Deciding to become an actor by taking a summer workshop
- How acting and therapy both came into her life at the same time
- How an understudy gig at the Taper led to a production at the Public Theatre in NY
- How the Spanish language opened her eyes to working on Shakespeare
- Raul Julia being a role model to actors of color, as diversity in casting was still an issue
- Hearing different actors from different backgrounds tackling Shakespeare’s text
- Playing gardeners in Richard II as their Japanese American mothers
- Her journey with making her Shakespeare performances sound more like everyday “Jeanne”
- Working on one of her first movie roles, among other theatre veterans
- Working with Chaw Yew several times – that he can be a mentor and ass-kicker
- Getting the call to play an aging, male, Beijing opera star, and unsure she can do it
- Winning an award for her performance as the opera star
- Terrified about not looking authentic with her performance in Singapore
- Why playing Maria Callas was her dream role and why she thought she’d never play it
- How she connected with Maria Callas on a personal level going into the audition
- Discovering Gordon Hirabayashi’s story and wanting to see him onstage
- Her deep need to tell Gordon’s story based on her family’s history
- Working on the web series YOMYOMF
- The joy of having a professional schedule, but also plenty of creativity and spontaneity
- Her challenges with learning a Cambodian dialect for a TV show
- What helped her feel so comfortable doing the monologue of escaping the Khmer Rouge
- What she loves to do when she’s not working, her daily habits and rituals
- How her marriage and relationship has lasted over 40 years
Selected People and Items Mentioned
- Hold These Truths, Jeanne’s play
- LA Theatre Works
- Pajero Valley, Watsonville, CA
- Executive Order 9066 – Internment Camps
- Alien land laws
- Sakata Ranches (Travers and Sakata)
- Gordon Hirabayashi
- East West Players
- And the Soul Shall Dance, play by Wakako Yamauchi
- BRS/Gage, her agent
- Agnes Medley, our American Friend, play
- Tea by Velina Hasu Houston
- Macbeth with Raul Julia with Richard Jordan, director
- The Addams Family
- The Heidi Chronicles, play
- Richard II with Kelsey Grammar, Armin Shimerman (ep #2), and many other notables
- A Noise Within’s Othello with Nike Doukas (ep #6) as dialect coach
- Fine Things with DW Moffatt and Tom Moore, director
- Chay Yew, playwright and director
- Tim Dang, director
- Master Class play with Maria Callas
- The Courage of Their Convictions (book)
- David Mura, poet
- A Personal Matter, a documentary about Gordon—watch it online!
- Time Flies When You’re Alive, Paul Link’s solo show about his wife dying from cancer
- Jude Narita, solo show artist
- Sab Shimono, actor
- Justin Lin, director and YOMYOMF network
- Suzy Nakamura, actress
- ABC’s Threat Matrix
- A Cambodian Odyssey by Dr. Haing Ngor
- Khmer Rouge
- The Killing Fields, film
- Mako, actor
- San Diego Rep
Watch Jeanne on Threat Matrix
Dr. Haing S. Ngor’s acceptance speech for The Killing Fields
Jeanne’s monologue (as Dara) from Threat Matrix
[accordion clicktoclose=”true”][accordion-item title=”+ click to view/close the monologue” id=leontes state=closed]DARA
The stream bed, it was dry season
But the rocks still slippery
Uncle Sam help me, carry my baby
He say he have baby boy long time ago in the States
[AGENT FRANKIE: Did he talk about his boy, did he say his name?]
No, but he say worse pain in world
is losing family
[AGENT FRANKIE: How long did you walk?]
At least three hours, then no more
But Uncle Sam, he move quickly like he see in dark
Then he stop us at pool of water near big boulder
Uncle Sam say, many mines in jungle on side
Only way through water
Water deep, cold
Sam carry my baby high
On other side, we see small house
He had name for it.
[/accordion-item] [/accordion]
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