MARYSVILLE – Two University of Washington students who went to different high schools in Marysville are part of a socially charged production on the Seattle campus the next two weeks called “Yellow Face.”
Megan Brewer is an assistant director and Mikko Juan is one of the actors. “Yellow Face” is a comedic, semi-autobiographical play about racism, identity and our modern concepts of “face,” Brewer said.
Juan was heavily involved with the Marysville-Pilchuck Drama Club. He was in “Legally Blonde: The Musical” in 2013. He also was involved in: “Night of the Living Dead,” “Wizard of Oz,” “The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
Brewer went to Marysville Getchell, which did not have a drama club. She was in the video club and acted in their first feature-length movie “Freshmeat.” The next year, she co-screenwrote “The Transfer.” She later got involved with putting on interactive murder-mystery nights.
Brewer went on to Everett Community College, was president of the drama club and acted in “The Seagull.”
Juan went to University of Washington Bothell in electrical engineering, but as a sophomore switched to UW Seattle when it started to offer a degree in musical theater, his new major.
“I knew that performing was my true calling,” he said.
Brewer also transferred to UW Seattle because it’s close and, “My mom just recently graduated with her BA in Linguistics, so I was already familiar with the campus.”
Brewer, 19, is majoring in creative writing and drama.
Both are excited about being involved in “Yellow Face.”
“I absolutely loved the researching that we’ve done. This show pushed me to the limit, as I have never had to delve so deep into character research before,” Juan said.
Brewer said she loves working with the people in plays.
“Like most productions, the people are what truly make it a worthwhile experience,” she said. “I love coming into rehearsal and just soaking up the atmosphere of camaraderie that seems to be ever present in the room.”
The play, at 7:30 p.m., runs through Jan. 25, then goes again from Jan 28 to Feb. 1. Tickets range from $5 to $10 at the door, where at least 15 tickets are available each night. To get tickets in advance, go online to brownpaperticket.com. A service fee of about $1.25 is charged.
The play is at Cabaret Theater, a black box theater in Hutchinson Hall, the university’s drama building.
In the play, Tony-award winning playwright David Henry Hwang protests the casting of a white actor as the lead Asian character in the musical “Miss Saigon.” Hwang then becomes a poster boy for Asian American rights in the 1990s. But in an ironic and comical twist of fate, Hwang later casts a white actor in one of Hwang’s plays. Hwang tries to pass off his actor as a Siberian Jew. As he battles with his own hypocrisy, Hwang is forced to question the constitutions of race, identity and nationality in a fun mockumentary of the playwright’s life.
