Los Altos Actress Appears in Bay Area Premiere of ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’

It takes a really great play to make an actress want to appear in it three times, in three different productions.

For Los Altos actress Mia Tagano, that play is Snow Falling on Cedars—and Mountain View-based TheatreWorks’ current production of this new play marks her third time performing as the character, Fujiko.

Most people have heard of the book, Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson, or, perhaps, the movie, Snow Falling on Cedars, released in 1999, starring Ethan Hawke. Recently, the classic story has also been transformed into a play—and TheatreWorks is proud to present its California premiere, on stage at the through April 24.

Tagano, of Japanese descent, said it was the parallels between the lives of the characters and those of some of her ancestors that have drawn her back to the story, time and again.

“Parts of the story are very similar to my own," she said. "I am fourth-generation Japanese on my mother’s side; her grandparents came to the U.S.A. in 1918. I am playing a Japanese-American woman who, along with her family, is taken to the Manzanar internment camp. I also play a strawberry farmer, and my grandparents were strawberry farmers who met in their internment camp.”

Robert Kelley, artistic director for TheatreWorks and the production’s director, said when he heard one of his favorite books was being developed into a play, he immediately got to work trying to secure the rights for TheatreWorks.

Kelley said it took a few years of working and waiting for the rights to the script to come through, but it was all worth it.

“It’s a very strong, powerful drama, and I think it’s tremendously moving, and very beautiful too,” he said.

The story of Snow Falling on Cedars revolves around the murder trial of Kazuo Miyamoto, a Japanese-American man who is accused of killing Carl Heine, a Caucasian fisherman.

“It’s a kind of mystery that also involves a romance,” Kelley explained. “It is set on an island in the San Juan Islands off of Seattle, both in the early 1940s and especially in 1954, when the murder trial is going on, and that’s sort of the basics of the play—it all sort of unfolds through this murder trial and flashbacks from the past.”

Racial prejudices are central to the story’s theme.

“The [Japanese-American] people lost a lot of people during World War II to the internment camps, and that’s a big part of the play as it unfolds,” he added. “Part of the story involves a romance between a [male] Caucasian teenager and a Japanese-American teenage girl, who are essentially pulled apart because of the forces of the war. So, in some ways, I’d say the play is about a murder trial that shouldn’t have been, and a romance that should.”

Tagano said that of the three productions of Snow Falling on Cedars she has done—the others being the East Coast premiere in Hartford, and the West Coast premiere in Portland—this is the one she is most excited about, since her Bay Area family will get to see it.

Getting the chance to work with the gang at TheatreWorks was also another big plus.

“I have had the honor of being in their play, M Butterfly, where I played both Suzuki and Commander Chin—very different roles from my current one,” said Tagano, who's also worked as a teacher in the "Playing with Poetry" program and a reader in their "New Works Festival."

Tagano has quite a resume, with more than 20 years in the business. She earned her bachelor’s degree in drama from Ohio State University and attended the Professional Actor Training Program, and she earned her master’s degree in theater from the University of Washington in Seattle. Some of her theater credits include roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company; California Shakespeare Theatre; a solo show called Cincinnati, which ran in Seattle, San Francisco and London; and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival.

She also has a few TV appearances to her credit, including stints on Law and Order and All My Children.

Both Tagano and Kelley think the story of Snow Falling on Cedars will come across powerfully on stage, through TheatreWorks.

“This is a really moving American story, and I think this is a show people will really want to see,” said Kelley. “And, we have a professional cast that comes from all over the country, as well as some regional actors, so we have a really great group of actors that is really bringing this story to life.”

‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ runs through April 24 at the , 500 Castro St. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit theatreworks.org.