Hang A Tale Theater Company (Producers Kim Martin-Cotten, Michael Arden Larson, and Jesse Liebman) will present a special engagement of Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths, a solo play inspired by the life of Gordon Hirabayashi, directed by Lisa Rothe (Science Fair: An Opera with Experiments at HERE), at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street at the corner of Elizabeth Street), December 3-20 with performances on Mon 12/4, Wed 12/6, Thu 12/7, Fri 12/8, Tue 12/12, Wed 12/13, Thu 12/14, Fri 12/15, Mon 12/18, Tue 12/19, and Wed 12/20 at 7:30pm; Sun 12/3, Sat 12/9, and Sat 12/16 at 2pm & 7:30pm; Sun 12/10 and Sun 12/17 at 2pm. Tickets (20 seats at $29; 50 seats at $49; 10 seats at $59) are available for advance purchase at https://sheencenter.org/shows/holdthesetruths/ or by calling (212) 925-2812. The performance will run approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.

During WWII in Seattle, University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi fights the US government’s orders to forcibly remove and mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. As he struggles to reconcile his country’s betrayal with his passionate belief in the US Constitution, Gordon begins a 50-year journey toward a greater understanding of America’s triumphs—and a confrontation with its failures.

Hold These Truths is inspired by this true story from a little-known chapter of American history, when civil liberties were under attack, constitutional rights violated, and issues of race hotly debated by a divided country. Joel de la Fuente* (Inspector Kido on Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle) stars as civil rights pioneer and 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Gordon Hirabayashi.

Hold These Truths originally received its New York Premiere with Epic Theatre Ensemble in 2012 and was nominated for the 2013 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.

Right in time for the holiday season, right as were all in desperate need for some meaningful American male role models, Hold These Truths, written by Jeanne Sakata, a solo show up at the Sheen Center, gifts one in Gordon Hirabayashi. Gordon fought back against the American government when they called for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Despite the immoral, and ultimately documented and established unlawful, actions taken against Gordon, his family, and his community, he never wavered in his faith in American principles and the Constitution, and never let his spirit break. It is a wonderful documentary of an American hero. The work is professionally performed and rendered, which allows for this great American story to be fully told. As Gordon, Joel de la Fuente’s performance is remarkably efficient, buoyant, and specific with some of the best elocution I’ve encountered recently to buttress wonderful storytelling — and the story is genuinely pretty crazy. At one point, Gordon hitchhikes to prison 1,600 miles away. De la Fuente told the story so clearly that I swear-to-god I could probably recall every detail to you now. There was never a wasted movement, n …Read more