FRIENDS ACROSS THE WIRES is an original, full-length play, written and directed by Laura Ferri and produced by Tamara Bunnell, exploring the impact of the American Incarceration of the Japanese during WWII through the lens of young people in Seattle. Based on first person accounts, interviews, and additional primary source research, the play offers an intimate exploration of friendship while examining historical patterns of racism. The project was originally intended to be a live, touring production, but Covid-19 rendered this impossible. The play was then filmed at the Erickson Theatre by Seattle Colleges Cable Television (SCCtv) and edited with sound design, photos and period music. 

You can view the video of the play below.

FRIENDS ACROSS THE WIRES, copyright Seattle Historical Theatre Project, is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license. The FRIENDS ACROSS THE WIRES video and curriculum guide were generously supported by the Kip Tokuda Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program through a grant from the Washington State Legislature (RCW 28A.300.410) administered by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

This project was supported, in part, by 4Culture/King County Lodging Tax.

The main characters of the play are based on Louise Kashino and Patsy Love, two women interviewed in the SCCtv produced documentary Broadway Pride, a film focused on the first dedicated high school in Seattle, Broadway High School.  For more information about Broadway High School and to see the documentary Broadway Pride, visit http://broadwayhighschool.org/