A smart, contemporary, and wickedly funny play about five young Asian Canadian men wrestling with issues of race, identity, and the death of a friend. Banana Boys is one story, fragmented into five and reconstructed throughout the course of the lives of the five young men it follows. Adapted from the novel by Terry Woo, Banana Boys is a “meditation for the restless” and a call to anyone who has felt out of place in the world.

Leon Aureus is an actor, playwright, and producer. He is the founding artistic director of The Gum San Theatre Company which blossomed into the fu-GEN Theatre Company in 2002. Banana Boys is his first play and was also fu-GENâ??s first full production. The playâ??s development paralleled the exciting growth of the company, neither of which would have been possible without the vision, dedication, hard work, and brilliance of his fellow â??fu-GENâ??ers Nina Lee Aquino, Richard Lee, and David Yee. He thanks and cherishes them for being on that journey with him. He also wrote and directed the short film Friends Like These and co-wrote the play People Power (for the Carlos Bulosan Theatre Company). Born in Quezon City, Philippines, he immigrated to Canada at a very young age, growing up in Torontoâ??s East End (a few blocks away from the kids of Degrassi), and the â??burbs of Mississaugaâ??but never forgetting his roots. Well maybe a littleâ?¦ or even a lot. But itâ??s that continuing path of searching and discovery that keeps him writing and creating. He currently lives in Torontoâ??s Annex neighbourhood where the rowdy drunken college kids also keep him (up) writing and creating.

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Terry Watada is a well-published author living in Toronto, Ontario. He has three novels, five poetry books, and a short story collection in print. Hiroshima Bomb Money, his fourth novel, is the culmination of his exploration of the Japanese and Japanese Canadian experience. Hiroshima Bomb Money comes from the heart, more so than any other, since at its core, the novel encompasses the Japanese experience during World War II. The book illuminates the events, incidents and atrocities of the Hiroshima bomb, the invasion of China and the Canadian Internment.

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