Snow Falling on Cedars -2024

“CATS is excited to celebrate its 30^th year in 2024 with the return of Snow Falling on Cedars, written by David Guterson, at the Nevada Theatre in Nevada City from April 26 – May 18, 2024.  This national best-selling novel was a PEN/Faulkner Award Winner.  Kevin McKeon adapted it to the stage in 2007 and directed it for CATS in 2010; he will reprise his role as our director. We will feature a new cast, new staging, and an original score. Snow Falling on Cedars utilizes the Book-It’s Style of acting in adapting books to the stage.

CATS’ 2010 production was nominated for seven Elly awards by SARTA (Sacramento Area Region Theatre Alliance), in which CATS won three, including for Best Overall Production.  The book was selected by the Nevada County Reads and the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools in 2010, and it was made into a movie in 1999, starring Ethan Hawke, Yuki Kudo, and Max von Sydow.

The play takes place on San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, in coastal Washington, a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies.  In 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese-American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. Snow Falling on Cedars opens in a courtroom as the trial begins.

In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man’s guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries—memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo’s wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community of strawberry farmers was sent into exile while its neighbors watched.

Snow Falling on Cedars explores the notions of love and loss as they relate to racism, responsibility, and injustice. Every character in the novel is both directly and indirectly affected by what happens during World War II.  Suspense and eternal love reign over Snow Falling on Cedars.  CATS is offering a discounted student matinee for seventh to twelfth graders on Friday, May 3, at 10am at the Nevada Theatre.  The play is a wonderful opportunity for educators to teach about the plight of the Japanese during World War II, their incarceration in concentration camps, and their lives afterwards.  CATS will offer a study guide to support educators in preparing their students for the play.  To register, please contact Jeannie Wood at info@catsweb.org.  First-come, first-served.”