Re-imagined Tea, Cold War Musical Chess Part of East West Players Season

East West Players has announced the productions for its 47th anniversary season, which has the theme, Spirited Away. All performances will be staged at the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts.

Prior to the start of the season will be a return engagement of Three Year Swim Club (July 27-August 19), directed and choreographed by Keo Woolford. The play is inspired by the true life story of Soichi Sakamoto, who trained the youth of Maui to swim in the plantation irrigation ditches on their path to becoming Olympic champions.

The 2012-2013 season will officially begin with S.M. Raju and Aparna Sindhoor’s Encounter (September 6-October 7), presented in association with Navarasa Dance Theater in Massachusetts. Directed and choreographed by Sindhoor and Anil Natyaveda, it is inspired by a short story by Mahasweta Devi.

Next up is a newly-reimagined version of Velina Hasu Houston’s Tea (November 8-December 9), as Houston pens lyrics and adds original music to this classic play about Japanese war brides from World War II now living in Kansas.

The world premiere of Christmas in Hanoi (February 7-March 10) by Eddie Borey will be directed by Jeff Liu. It is about a mixed-race family who returns to Vietnam for the first time since the war.

The season will conclude with the Broadway musical Chess, featuring music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus Ulvaeus & lyrics by Tim Rice. Set within the context of the Cold War, the story involves a romantic triangle between two top chess players – an American and a Russian – and the woman who manages one and falls in love with the other.

Click here for more information and East West Players tickets.