PHOTO: Japanese American National Museum | The South Pasadenan | The Democracy Center presents “Breaking the Frame: Two Solo Shows on Art and Identity”
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Media Release | Japanese National Museum (JANM)
The Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center) at the Japanese National Museum (JANM) presents Breaking the Frame: Two Solo Shows on Art and Identity from Thursday, August 21, through Saturday, August 23, 2025, in the Tateuchi Democracy Forum. A post-show Q&A panel with the artists will follow the matinee performance on August 23. Tickets are $20 and are available here.
PHOTO Japanese American National Museum | The South Pasadenan | The Democracy Center presents Breaking the Frame Two Solo Shows on Art and Identity
Breaking the Frame: Two Solo Shows on Art and Identity explores what happens when two Asian American solo performers fall deeply in love with Western mediums—movies and opera—only to discover that they both may be in too deep. In the wake of recent “yellowface” accusations on Broadway, Hmong-American actor Bee Vang of Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino and local-born actor and opera singer Kurt Kanazawa deliver emotionally charged and satirical indictments of two Western art forms that continue to harm Asian Americans and BIPOCs, today. The performance is directed by Jeff Liu (East West Players) and co-directed by Kalina Ko (Hedgerow Theatre Company), with lighting design and assistant direction by Josh Bennett.
Opening the program is Vang’s solo show, Your Movie Guide to Life (2025), where the actor and lifelong cinephile delves into the shaping power of cinema, Hmong history, his anti-war activism, and his leading role in Gran Torino. This forty-five-minute solo performance weaves together existential horror in films with Bee’s inherited histories—both personal and geopolitical.
Closing the program is Kanazawa’s solo show, L’OPERA! (2024), about a fun-loving, Japanese and Filipino-American opera singer who gets into The Juilliard School…then loses his voice. A funny, multilingual fifty-two-minute solo performance that travels through the streets of New York City, Southern Italy, Hollywood, and Beijing and features live performances of songs, including originals, L’OPERA! is anything but Euro-centric classical.