hansilowang:

George Takei Takes Story Of Internment To The Stage

I produced this host interview with George Takei about performing in Allegiance — a new musical inspired by his childhood in Japanese-American internment camps during World War II — for NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday (Aug. 29, 2012).

Takei on how his performance in Allegiance fits into his career:

“I see Allegiance as my legacy project. The story is very important to me and it’s been my mission in life to raise Americans’ awareness of that shameful chapter of American history. I think we learn more from those times in our history where we stumbled as a democracy than we learn from the glorious chapters. We have the history of slavery or inequality to women, and now the civil rights movement of the 21st century is the struggle for equality for the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. And I think it’s important for Americans to know about the times that we failed, and Allegiance tells that story.”