Making Tracks, a new musical from Second Generation Productions, gives voice to this past. The stories are channeled through Virginia Wang, in the role of the Grandmother. As she tells story after story to her granddaughter (played by Kiki Moritsugu), she claims to have lived as a Chinese immigrant railroad worker in 1865, a Japanese picture bride in 1918, a newly arrived Chinese immigrant at Angel Island in 1922, and more. Members of the ensemble take on these, and other, roles. "Tell the tale," all these voices urge the granddaughter, who plans to build a website about her grandmother's stories.

The script is far stronger than the workshop version, which I saw performed at Pace University last January. The characters are more fully developed, and the passing of stories from Grandmother to Granddaughter makes for a more cohesive framework than the one which existed previously. Two of the strongest songs from the workshop production -- "Picture Perfect" and the title song, "Making Tracks" -- remain. In addition there are several new songs, including the hauntingly beautiful "Voices of Angels," which forms part of the Angel Island immigration sequence, and "The Lucky One," a heartwrenching solo sung by Welly Yang about a Japanese American G.I. who lost a leg fighting in World War II, and is greeted by suspicion and prejudice upon his return to America. The music, composed by Woody Pak with lyrics by Brian Yorkey and C. Matt Eddy, forms the heart of the show.

Making Tracks is also blessed with a number of exceptional performances. Aiko Nakasone plays a bright and hopeful picture bride. The role is complemented by Thomas Kouo, as her serious, and never-smiling husband. The two work well off each other, and their scenes are seasoned with bits of humor. After Nakasone's character witnesses other picture brides being carried off by husbands who deceived their new wives about their appearance and wealth, she exclaims, "You look very much like your picture" to Kouo who replies deadpan, "That is because it is a picture of me."

Welly Yang brings a playful exuberance to his role as "Lucky Chuck," named as such because the Immigration officer at Angel Island cannot pronounce Lucky's actual name. This same scene features an uproarious performance by Cindy Cheung as the Translator. The humor in both the script and the performances provides a refreshingly original twist to what has become a stock scene in many Asian American history plays: the interrogation of immigrants prior to their admittance into the U.S...

...I was also happy to see that although the major scenes revolved solely around the Chinese and Japanese American experience, the final song allowed for the inclusion of other Asian ethnicities. The website the granddaughter creates gets scores of hits from numerous Asian Americans eager to discover their lost history and add their own. Among those represented in the closing number are a Vietnamese American flower child and a Filipino American gymnast. On the night I attended the show, the sold-out and predominantly Asian American house greeted the cast with loud and sustained applause. Making Tracks is the first major production by this fledgling Asian American theatre company, and in the years to come, it looks like we can expect even bigger and better things from Second Generation Productions.