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Director Steven Fenley (right) instructs actors in a scene for Hair Like the Sun.[/caption]
Houstonian playwright Charles B. French captures the experience of a World War II period rife with fear of the Japanese in his world-premiere play, “Hair Like the Sun,” based on a true story.
The play is the story of a white American teenage girl named Ruth Mix who joins her English-teaching mother at a Japanese internment camp. Ruth serves as a hospital volunteer where she befriends the Japanese American girls. Her red hair earns her the name “taiyo mitaina kaminoke,” which means “girl with hair like the sun.”
With its themes of distrust, hatred and xenophobia, “Hair Like the Sun” resonates in the current political climate, French said.
“Not only is it dealing with issues that we’re dealing with today, the fear of ‘the other’—it’s so easy to let our fears mistreat our fellow citizens—it’s a story of someone thrust into a seemingly impossible situation and finding that she’s actually strong enough and capable of dealing with it,” he said.
