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THEATRE MUSIC ®
The Music Center’s Study Guide to the Performing Arts
TRANSFORMATION
ENDURING VALUES
ARTISTIC PROCESSES
TRADITIONAL CLASSICAL
1. CREATING (Cr)
CONTEMPORARY
2. PERFORMING, PRESENTING, PRODUCING (Pr)
EXPERIMENTAL
3. RESPONDING (Re)
MULTI-MEDIA
4. CONNECTING (Cn)
FREEDOM & OPPRESSION
THE HUMAN FAMILY
THE POWER OF NATURE
Title of Work:
which ignite, inform, and entertain young audiences.
A Slice of Rice
“Pieces of a Puzzle” is a theme song for these stories, each of which are separate and complete, yet part of a
Creators: Producer: Great Leap, Inc. Artistic Director: Nobuko Miyamoto b. 1939
whole artistic vision. Three of the following four pieces comprise a standard program: Joanne Is My Middle Name (Nobuko Miyamoto); Guys Like Me (Calvin Jung); Trust
Background Information:
(Louise Mita); Secrets of the Samurai Centerfielder
Nobuko Miyamoto began her career as a dancer,
(Daniel Kwong).
performing on Broadway and in film musicals, such as
Creative Process of the Artist or Culture:
West Side Story, The King and I, Flower Drum Song and
For Joanne Is My Middle Name, Nobuko Miyamoto
Kismet. She then went on to find her own voice in the
went deep inside herself to dramatize the dilemma of
concerns of the Asian American community. Songs she
being a third generation Japanese American searching
wrote and sang with Chris Iijima became the first album
for a way to belong. She found the binding theme of
of Asian American music, “A Grain of Sand.” In 1978
trying to adapt her name and followed her trail of name
she founded theater company Great Leap, Inc. and has
changes. As a young girl, she connected with the magic
guided the creation of original works in music, dance
of the arts through music, which in turn awakened her
and theatre, presenting concerts at colleges and theatres
passion to dance and dramatically tell stories. Her
throughout the United States. In 1983 she released her
process to create this theatre piece began with an exercise
second album, a solo work of her original songs entitled,
in writing her autobiography as a long story. She found
“Best of Both Worlds.”
From 1987-1989, Nobuko
it resembled a big song with a main theme or chorus, “I
authored the critically acclaimed musicals, Talk Story I
Had a Dream,” and different verses tracing her personal
& II. Her music and choreography were used for the
history. This songstory begins
major dance scene in the motion picture “Karate Kid
with her childhood experiences of
II.” Nobuko has won a Woman Warrior Award from
living in Japanese internment
the Asian Pacific Women’s Network, the Vesta Award
camps during World War II, and
presented by the Los Angeles Woman’s Building, and a
continues through her various rites
California Arts Council Music Fellowship.
of passage to the acceptance of
About the Artwork: In A Slice of Rice, three Asian Americans, three stories, three art forms - a songstory, a dancestory, a talkstory are woven together to speak of the diversity that is Americana. They share their personal experiences
Photo courtesy of Great Leap, Inc.
her heritage and her name.
“It is important for us to have our own voice... one that runs through the rivers of our experiences, threads past to future, entwines us with each other and unites us with the ocean of human existence.” Nobuko Miyamoto
California