Famed playwright, director and producer Luis Valdez's has written a sweeping epic and love story, Valley of the Heart, deeply rooted in the fertile Santa Clara Valley of 1941. It illustrates the ironic divide between America's ideals and its actions in what the San Jose Mercury News says is a "multicultural touchstone," and of which the Los Angeles Times says, "We need memory plays as powerful as this one... a quintessentially California play, written by a master of the genre."

Opening in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor, the Yamaguchis and the Montanos are two immigrant families struggling to provide a future for their American-born children after the Great Depression. After the families' oldest children, Benjamin and Teruko, fall in love, the emotional stakes are further heightened when the Japanese attack Hawaii on December 7, 1941, throwing both families into uncertainty. The plot thickens after 100,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in desolated camps away from the coast by the U.S. government. Issues of loyalty and patriotism provoke both rebellion and heroism among young, imprisoned Japanese Americans while both Benjamin and Teruko fight to maintain their dignity, identity, family, and love in the face of war, fear, and separation.


The CATS/JAMsj/JACL Matinee and Q&A on February 20th Play is SOLD OUT . Tickets can be purchased for other showings by visiting the San Jose Stage website:  https://sjstage.vbotickets.com/events