Surfing DNA at East West Players

I saw a performance of "Surfing DNA" at East West Players this past weekend. Being that we're season subscribers and I've been buried beneath a lot of various projects - from work, personal, and other miscellaneous, I hadn't really looked at what the play was about before going to see it.

The description itself isn't that helpful:

Born in a trunk to vaudevillian parents on the Chop Suey circuit, Jodi Long - winner of L.A.'s Ovation award for her role in Flower Drum Song - surfs a hilarious and poignant voyage from the Ed Sullivan Show to medieval Japan to the Scottish Highlands, inescapably steered by the forces embedded in her DNA.

As a performance, it's not my most favorite production, but it was interesting to me, particularly in light of the work of this website. What it is really is an exploration of actress Jodi Long's multi-racial identity. I had seen her previously at EWP in "The Wind Cries Mary" where she plays a Japanese American character. I hadn't realized at the time that she is actually Hapa - her mother is Japanese American (I think a Nisei), while her father is of Chinese descent originally from Australia with a Scottish grandmother.

During the course of the one-woman performance (no intermission), Long spends the entire time on the stage alternating between a personal dialogue with the audience and acting as various relatives (and mother's boyfriend) in telling of her mother's samurai family roots, her mother's journey leaving camp to go to New York, her father's Chinese Australian relatives, and discovering her Scottish heritage. In the end, all of the cultures come together in her.

At times comical, endearing, and poignant, Long's performance was interesting to watch how she pulled apart and weaved back together all of the 'strands of her DNA'.

For more information about the show including show times and ticket prices, visit East West Players' website: www.eastwestplayers.org/surfingdna.htm