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Rick Shiomi
Born	Richard Alan Shiomi (1947-05-25) May 25, 1947 (age 77) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Pen name	R. A. Shiomi
Occupation	Playwright, Artistic Director
Nationality	Japanese-Canadian
Education	University of Toronto, Simon Fraser University
Period	1983 - Present
Genre	Theater
Subject	Asian Experience
Notable works	Yellow Fever
Website
http://www.muperformingarts.org/
Literature portal

Rick Shiomi (born 1947) is a Japanese-Canadian playwright and stage director. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Minneapolis, Minnesota based theater company, Mu Performing Arts.

Early life

Mr. Shiomi's parents were among the many Canadians of Japanese descent who were forced into internment camps near the end of World War II. They had previously lived in British Columbia; however, they moved to Toronto after their release and soon thereafter gave birth to their son, Richard Alan Shiomi, in 1947. Shiomi was raised there and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in history in 1970.

After graduation he continued his education in British Columbia, receiving a teaching license from Simon Fraser University. He then went on to teach in Japan and Hong Kong for three years before returning home to Canada where he became a prominent member of the Japanese community. One of the projects he was involved with was organizing the Powell Street Festival and helping to create a film titled The First 100 Years which was designed to teach children about the Japanese in Canadian history. He was an active member of the Japanese-Canadian Citizen's Association. During this time he helped to edit Inalienable Rice: A Chinese & Japanese Canadian Anthology.

During his time in Vancouver, Shiomi met up with playwrights David Henry Hwang and Philip Kan Gotanda. Gotanda read one of Shiomi's short stories about his families experience in the internment camps and suggested he create a play out of it. Shiomi followed Gotandal's advice and wrote Yellow Fever.

Career

Rick Shiomi began his career in San Francisco, California at the Asian American Theater Company where his first play "Yellow Fever" was produced in 1982. He later moved to New York where the play was produced by the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre and then had a successful off-Broadway run. The Pan Asian Repertory Theatre then produced several more of his plays, including two prequels to Yellow Fever titled Once is Never Enough and Rosie's Cafe.

While in Minnesota as a visiting lecturer, Shiomi found an emerging Asian American community and a well-developed general theater scene. He also met his future wife who, along with others, helped him co-found Theater Mu. As the Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts Shiomi has worked with many other Minnesota based organizations to make Asian American cultures more accessible to the public.

Shiomi works almost entirely behind the scenes, or behind a taiko drum, but in 1999's The Tale of the Dancing Crane he took center stage as an actor. He shared a traditional Japanese story of losing one precious thing to find something better. In this loosely autobiographical story he found a wife.

In 2002 his company worked with Cha Yang to create Hmong Tiger Tales, which was presented at the Weyerhaueser Auditorium, headquarters for the Minnesota Historical Society.

Shiomi co-wrote the play The Walleye Kid and it made it into production in 1999. Shiomi adapted it from a traditional Japanese fable titled Peach Boy. The original story tells of a Japanese child who is found inside a piece of fruit and adopted by the old couple that discovered him. In The Walleye Kid, Shiomi has moved the setting from the warmer climates of Japan to the icy winters of Minnesota as he explores what Asian, specifically Korean adoptees have experienced as they adapt to life in America.

Awards and honors

2001 - Award for Leadership and Excellence in the Arts from the State Council of Asian Pacific Minnesotans.
2008 - The Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision.

Bibliography

Theater productions

Multimedia credits

Story Editor and Staff Writer for Canadian television series ENG, which is produced by Alliance on CTV.

• Images of the First Hundred Years, Powell Street Revue, 1980 (documentary, 11 min.)
• Dance to Remember (as writer), CBC, Inside Stories, 1991 (30 min.)

Other

• Garrick Chu, Sean Gunn, Paul Yee, Ken Shikaze, Linda Uyehara Hoffman, Rick Shiomi, eds.; Inalienable Rice: A Chinese & Japanese Canadian Anthology Powell Street Revue & The Chinese Canadian Writers Workshop. 83 pp.
• Srikanth, Rajini and Esther Yae Iwanaga; Bold words: a century of Asian American writing, Rutgers University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8135-2966-2

References

1. Biography and Genealogy Master Index. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, Cengage Learning. 1980- 2009.
2. Lemanczyk, Sarah. (2009, January). Rick Shiomi: Carving a Space. American Theatre, 26(1), 68-71.
3. ^ An inventory of his papers in The Library of the University of British Columbia Special Collections Division.
4. ^ Royce, Graydon. "Theater Mu fishes for bigger things; 'The Walleye Kid' represents a watershed moment for an Asian-American troupe that is growing in size and influence.(ENTERTAINMENT)." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) (Jan 13, 2008): 01F. General Reference Center Gold. Gale.
5. ^ Lin, Lynda. “Rick Shiomi helms the fourth largest APA theater company in the U.S. in a state where ice fishing is a favorite pastime. Pacific Citizen. February 1, 2008.
6. Preston, Rohan. "Ovation; MU CRANE." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) (Oct 22, 1999): 21. General Reference Center Gold. Gale. Hennepin County Library. 27 May 2009
7. Boyd, Melissa D. "DIVERSIONS; TIGER TALES: OH MY!." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) (April 7, 2002): 11F. General Reference Center Gold. Gale.

External links

• http://www.muperformingarts.org/
• Chang, Lia.

[http://liachang.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/lia-chang-up-close-and-personal-with-rick-shiomi-award-winning-playwright-artistic-director-of-mu-performing-arts/

“Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts”], “Backstage Pass with Lia Chang”, September 6, 2011.

• Chang, Lia.

”On the Town with Rick Shiomi, Co-Editor of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, in Washington D.C. and New York”, “Backstage Pass with Lia Chang”, August 2, 2011.

• Chang, Lia.

”Rick Shiomi Checks out Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection of Library of Congress, “Backstage Pass with Lia Chang”, July 29, 2011.

Template:Works of R A Shiomi

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• Canadian dramatists and playwrights
• Canadian people of Japanese descent
• 1947 births
• Living people
• Canadian writers of Asian descent