CORNER OF BITTER & SWEET To Get Industry Reading

The 5th Avenue Theatre and the Abingdon Theatre Company, will present a 29 Hour reading of a beautiful new musical, Corner of Bitter & Sweet, book by Lainie Sakakura, music & lyrics by Paul Fujimoto on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 at 2:30pm Theatre 71 | 152 West 71st Street, NYC.

Based on the New York Times bestseller, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, tells a stunning multigenerational story about families, racism, jazz, and unbreakable bonds. The Seattle Times called it "A Chinese-Japanese variation on Romeo and Juliet, (that is) so revealing and so well rendered."

The play will be read by: Jane Bernhard, Darius de Haas, Carly Gendell, Rick Faugno, Kenny Ingram, Sala Iwamatsu, Spencer Jones, Kathleen Kwan, Jonny Lee Jr, Fenton Li, Jason Ma, Zach Mackiewicz, Marc Oka, Mary Beth Purdy, Alex Sanchez, Avelina Sanchez, Isabela Sanchez, Ian Saraceni, Virginia Woodruff, and Timothy Yang.

Directed by Lainie Sakakura, Cantonese Consultant Fenton Li, Music Supervisor and Dance Arrangements by Sam Davis. Evan Alparone, Music Director, Anita Shastri & Nicole Marconi Stage Management.

Attendance is limited to industry only. For further information, please contact James A. Rocco, Associate Producer, The 5th Avenue Theatre, JRocco@5thavenue.org

Lainie Sakakura (Book) is a Japanese America writer/director/choreographer. Recipient of the 2015 Joe A. Callaway Award Outstanding Choreography and 2002 Joseph Jefferson Award Best Choreography. Daughter of Japanese American WWII concentration camp survivor, William Norio Sakakura, and granddaughter to his mother, Kiyome who did not survive the medical conditions caused by her imprisonment there.

Paul Fujimoto (Music and Lyrics) is a composer/lyricist, 4th-generation Japanese-American, born and raised in Seattle, now based in NYC. His songs have been recorded by Tony-winners and nominees and have been showcased in many concert venues and student showcases around the world. Paul also dabbles in jazz composition and is an award-winning trumpet player. He would like to dedicate this show to his grandfather, Tak Akiyama, who was interned in Minidoka.

Training: University of Washington, BMI Musical Theatre Workshop www.paulfujimoto.bandcamp.com

Abingdon Theatre Company (Chad Austin, Artistic Director) is dedicated to developing and producing brave, new American work by emerging and established artists. The company provides a safe home where playwrights, directors and actors can collaborate within a supportive and nurturing environment. We search for stories about the human experience that reflect our social, political, historical and cultural diversity. We are acutely aware of the theatre's power to unite disparate population groups through stories about common human interests, and we strive to shed light on a variety of perspectives.

The 5th Avenue Theatre (Bill Berry, Producing Artistic Director; Bernie Griffin, Managing Director) is one of America's leading musical theater companies. We enrich the community we love with the art form we love-giving the Pacific Northwest a front-row seat to original powerhouse productions that go on to light up marquees and audiences all the way to Broadway. From the page to the stage, we bring passion and epic scale to every musical we create. With big talent. Bigger-than-life productions. And did we mention dazzle? As a nonprofit theater company and our region's largest performing arts employer, we spread the joy of great musicals with people of all ages across our region and state. Each year, we reach more than 75,000 young people through our nationally acclaimed education programs. Programs designed to develop new musicals ensure that the next generation of great musicals will be there to tell the stories that captivate tomorrow's audiences. On the national stage, we are a leading voice for the power of this American art form to lift the human spirit.

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