a jazz-infused drama set in post-war san francisco japan town in 1948 which chronicles the return of japanese americans into the internment -- from the internment camp. sharing this evening is chloe veltman. chloe was born in london and received a master's degree with distinction in conjunction with harvard university and the moscow art theater school. she has worked as a staff reporter for the daily telegraph and is a freelance writer, her articles appearing on both sides of the atlantic. she is the chief theater critic for the san francisco weekly, theater commentator for klaw. chloe worked for several years in u.s. and uk theater companies and is the recipient of the allen wright award for arts journalism, the sundance institute arts fellowship and the nea fellowship of journalism. in 2006, she received a best columnist nomination at the annual san francisco media excellence awards and her first book on acting was published by farber and farber in the uk and farber, inc., in the united states. let's welcome phillip and chloe >> hi there, phillip. >> hi, chloe >> so, this play, it'

i am on the board in san francisco japan town. we are concerned because the deior does not address or recognize japantown as a cultural resource, and they are only three blocks away. it serves as a cultural resource for many japanese- americans who live throughout the bay area. public transit is not a good option for many of them. they could come and visit and support merchants, and they would be threatened. this in effect will have almost the same kind of impact as the plan to build 400 condos on the center. that would demolish the garage for to the wheel up to five years. this would be somewhat similar unless cpmc has adequate and satisfactory medications under the parking issues. one of the medications was to reserve 400 spaces in the japan center. well, they already have 400 spaces in japan center. that is for staff personally. so i do not quite understand how they could have another 400 unless they have plans to redirect their workers there, the staff to another site. that has not been explained and needs to be. the deir does

i am on the board in san francisco japan town. we are concerned because the deior does not address or recognize japantown as a cultural resource, and they are only three blocks away. it serves as a cultural resource for

ex-jazz musician, who spent his adult years playing with black groups, he comes back to san francisco at a time when japan town is still sort of unraveling from this sort of who lives here, who doesn't live here, and he wants to find japan town again, find his own sort of home while at the same time around him his own community is looking at him as if he is a traitor. so as he says and used to say in the play, i'm on the outside of the outside. my country thinks i'm a criminal, my own community thinks i'm a traitor. how does he sort of find home for himself in america given that kind of a set up? so that's where the stories all kind of converged and my central character, where he came from and his journey and his -- his journey, what he has to go through during the course of the play. >> this central character, chet, is a very interesting one. i gather during the process there were some events that happened in contemporary news concerning a certain japanese american left tenant or aaron wataga >> yeah, lieutenant aaron wataga >> could you talk about how that story influenced your process and your writing of th

japan town as a vibrant and thriving community. as commissioner miguel mentioned earlier, we met with the san francisco heritage. through their partners in the field program, we have also been identified and they will be focusing their attention in that partners in the field program. i have been able to work with one of the cochairs of the economic development in japan center committee reviewing the plan. we have been successful in obtaining additional student help. we have a project timeline which is a tasked to the end of the memo. there are established by laws for them to change, modify, to add to the better neighborhoods plan. i basically went to the members of the community and said that my paranormal abilities are very limited. we are in the process of both trying to greengage with the traditional steering committee and adding to that so it broadens its base in terms of community representation and to give them a basis for giving the planning department clear and explicit directions on how to add, modify, or change the better neighborhood plan that was presented to you just over a year ago. there are four