Lane Nishikawa
Lane Nishikawa
Lane Nishikawa is a Japanese American actor, filmmaker, playwright and performance artist who was born in Wahiawa, Hawaii, and is Sansei. His work often deals with Asian American history and identity issues. He is widely known for many one-man shows, including Life in the Fast Lane, I'm on a Mission From Buddha, Mifune and Me and others. In 2005 he directed and played the lead role for the indepen
"I would always approach a show from the perspective of what I wanted to say historically, politically and socially. I examine the Asian American experience through my eyes and my perceptions. One thing I can tell you is that people who come to one of my shows, will leave the theater with a totally different perspective of the Asian American male…"
"Much of the time, we’re still looked at as foreigners, despite being here for four or five generations. This gives an overview of our experiences, how varied they are. Really, I want Asian Americans to look at ourselves, to be proud of our heritage. For non-Asians, I just want to inform. . . . Of course, I hope everybody is entertained along the way."
"I try to get everybody to enter my world real quickly. I think the audience starts to see that it’s a person going through a struggle, (and) with each performance piece, the exchange just keeps growing."
"I never interviewed someone so that I could put his story in the film. There is no specific person that I had in mind when I was writing the script. It just seemed that when I was ready to put it together, my head was filled with so many stories and people that it just flowed out. I almost didn’t have to think, just feel."
