Emeriti

A revival production of Philip Gotanda’s Yankee Dawg You Die

August 1, 2025

East West Players presents a timely revival of Philip Kan Gotanda's Yankee Dawg You Die. This groundbreaking play, returning to the stage in July 2025, illustrates the complex, often fraught journey of Asian American actors in Hollywood. Through the lens of an unlikely friendship between two artists, Vincent Chang and Bradley Yamashita, at different stages of their careers, Gotanda's masterful storytelling exposes the painful compromises actors make to succeed in the industry.

Premiering in 1988 and first performed at EWP in 2001, Yankee Dawg You Die...

https://www.eastwestplayers.org/ydyd

In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Mel Gordon, 1947–2018

March 27, 2018

Melvin Irwin Gordon, who was a member of the University of California, Berkeley, faculty from 1990 until his retirement in 2017, died on March 22, 2018, at his home in Richmond, California, as a result of complications due to renal failure. He was a versatile, maverick historian of drama and performance, whose many publications and lively teaching covered a remarkable range of world theater and performance forms.

Mel (as he was always known to his family, colleagues, friends, and students) was born on February 18, 1947, in Detroit, Michigan. He said that his leftwing parents ("half-...