Snow Falling on Cedars – 2010

Written by David Guterson

Adapted to the Stage and Directed by Kevin McKeon

The body of a local fisherman is found tangled in his net, and a Japanese-American fisherman is arrested for his murder. For the residents of an island in the Pacific Northwest, the wartime internment of the Japanese has left a bitter legacy, and the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto polarizes the community even further.

A white newspaperman may hold the key to the accused man’s guilt or innocence. But Ishmael Chambers’ sense of right and wrong is clouded by his enduring love for Kabuo’s wife, Hatsue. Their biracial romance as children had been destroyed by fear and cultural prejudices. Still wounded, Ishmael must conquer his feelings before simmering pressures from all sides upend the scales of justice and tear the community apart.

Based on the 1994 best-selling novel by David Guterson, and winner of the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, “Snow Falling on Cedars” was adapted to the stage by Kevin McKeon in 2007. It premiered at Book-it Repertory Theatre in Seattle in the same year. Prior to the stage adaptation, it was made into a movie in 1999, which was directed by Scott Hicks and starred Ethan Hawke and Youki Kudoh. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. CATS is proud to be the first theatre company in California to produce this show and to have Mr. McKeon as its director.

Our cast includes Tucker Braga, Lyra Dominguez, Vann Dart, Ron Sasaki, Jed Dixon, Scott Young, Darryl Stines, Andrew Kerr, Diane Fetterly, Lisa Moon, Kerri Fulton, Allison Chan, Jez Freeman, John Bush, and Virgil Wong.