Introducing the Company of FIRE IN THE NEW WORLD!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACTS: Quinci Bachman and Emily Halstead 

Press@fullcircletheatermn.org | 612-799-0641

halstead@parksquaretheatre.org

fullcircletheatermn.org

 

Park Square Theatre Presents A Full Circle World Premiere Production of

Fire in the New World

Written and Directed by Rick Shiomi

at Park Square Theatre in the Historic Hamm Building in Downtown Saint Paul

October 19 – November 6, 2022

A world premiere detective comedy with plenty of sly intrigue and a dash of social commentary.

Full Circle Theater’s first mainstage production of the season will be the World Premiere of Fire in the New World, written and directed by Full Circle Co-Artistic Director Rick Shiomi. Fire in the New World will run from October 19 – November 6, 2022 as part of Park Square Theatre’s 2022-23 Season.

To reserve complimentary press tickets contact: press@fullcircletheatermn.org | 712-830-7826

Ticket information and general audience safety protocols are available on Park Square’s website.

About Fire in the New World:  Written and directed by Rick Shiomi, this World Premiere is the third installment of Shiomi’s noir-style detective comedies featuring Sam Shikaze, the hard-boiled private eye who fights crime in Vancouver’s Japantown and beyond in the years after WWII. This time, Sam is up against a big time developer intent on bulldozing his community. But Sam is also hired to find the developer’s missing Japanese American wife. The play is a smart and fun detective comedy chock full of social commentary and sly intrigue.

The award-winning Yellow Fever was the first play in Shiomi’s trilogy featuring Sam Shikaze. It has been produced Off-Broadway, across North America, and in Japan. The New York production received a rave review in the New York Times:

“As a playwright, Mr. Shiomi is his own crafty private investigator, making his points through indirection and with droll humor. . .Mr. Shiomi’s Yellow Fever is so captivating that it makes one eager for further adventures of the inimitable Sam Shikaze.” -Mel Gussow, The New York Times.

Fire in the New World is recommended for ages 12 and up. If it were a movie, we would rate it PG-13. This hard-boiled detective caper contains gunshots and frank talk about anti-Asian racism. Imagine if Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade (of The Maltese Falcon) had lived through the Japanese internment camps of WWII and was fighting crime in the 1960s. That’s the world of Sam Shikaze, private eye!

Fire in the New World Cast

Come see it October 19 – November 6, 2022 at Park Square Theatre’s Proscenium Stage.

About Playwright/Director R.A. Shiomi: Rick Shiomi has been a leader in Asian American theater for over thirty-five years as a playwright, director and artistic director and has written over twenty plays, including the award-winning ​Yellow Fever​, ​Rosie’s Cafe, and Mask Dance​. In 2019 he directed the hit production of Christopher Chen’s Caught for Full Circle at the Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio.

For Theater Mu he has directed many plays including ​Into The Woods​ set in Asia, ​The Mikado​ set in Edwardian England (with Skylark Opera), and ​Yellow Face​ at the Dowling Studio. He was a co-founder of Theater Mu and Artistic Director there from 1993 to 2013.

He also directed Chen’s play ​Caught​ and ​Mia Chung’s You For Me For You for InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia, which both received Barrymore Award Nominations and Awards .

He has received the Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision, the Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award.

https://rickshiomi.com/

About Full Circle Theater Company: Founded in 2014, Full Circle Theater is led by a  Core Artist Leadership Group made up of Co-Artistic Directors Rick Shiomi and Martha B. Johnson and Core Artists Stephanie Lein Walseth, Lara Trujillo, and Siddeeqah Shabazz (Full Circle’s 2022-2023 Resident Core Artist.)

The MISSION of Full Circle Theater is to produce heartfelt, groundbreaking theater that artfully addresses issues of diversity and social justice for 21st century audiences.

 

Full Circle Theater expresses its gratitude to The McKnight Foundation for its general operational support of our company. 

This project is supported by the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and by the F. R. Bigelow Foundation.

This activity is funded, in part, by an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the State’s general fund.

 

 

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Tickets

The box office is currently closed. Please email tickets@parksquaretheatre.org with any questions.

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