Award-Winning Joel dela Fuente plays activist Gordon Hirabayashi in Hold These Truths . (Twitter)
The actor who loves ‘Crispy Pata’
By Ted Alcuitas
The Umami Fund (Daniel Blinkoff and Tamlyn Tomita) is presenting the International/Canadian debut of Jeanne Sakata’s award-winning play, Hold These Truths at the Cultch Historic Theatre, 1895 Venables Street in Vancouver, which began previews on October 18 , with performances continuing through Saturday, November 2.
Unsung American hero Gordon Hirabayashi fights passionately for the Constitution against an unexpected adversary: his own country. During World War II, he defies the US government’s orders to forcibly remove and mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry, launching a 50-year journey from college to courtroom and eventually to a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He became famous for his role in ‘Space: Above and Beyond’, an American television show where he met his wife Melissa Bowen. The couple have two daughters.
Joel de la Fuente (Gordon Hirabayashi) received a Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Principal Performance for the run ofHold These Truths at Theatreworks SV and garnered a Drama Desk Nomination in New York City for Outstanding Solo Performance when it debuted in 2012. On television, Joel plays Chief Inspector Kido on “The Man in the High Castle,” one of Amazon Studios’ most watched original series. He also portrays Dr. Johann Pryce on Netflix’s second original series, “Hemlock Grove,” and can be seen in perpetual reruns on “Law & Order: SVU,” where he played TARU Tech Ruben Morales for 10 seasons. Currently, he appears as President Datu Andrada on “Madam Secretary” for CBS. Joel has performed in theaters all over the world, as both an avid classical theater actor and as a developer of new work.
In this solo play inspired by the life of Gordon Hirabayashi, he portrays more than thirty characters.
Saturday, NOV 2 , 2019 at 2 PM and 8 PM.
Proceeds of the performances of Hold These Truths will be donated to three Vancouver organizations: the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, the University of British Columbia Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies, and the Kokoro Dance Theatre Society.