Asian American theatre

Background

Asian American theatre emerged in the 1960s and the 1970s with the foundation of four theatre companies: East West Players in Los Angeles, Asian American Theatre Workshop (later renamed Asian American Theatre Company) in San Francisco, Theatrical Ensemble of Asians (later renamed Northwest Asian American Theatre) in Seattle, and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York City. The four companies have provided the resources and opportunities to actors, writers, directors, designers, and producers to pursue and define Asian American theatre for almost four decades. By the end of the 1990s, the number of Asian American theatre companies and performance groups grew to about forty. Asian American plays have appeared on Broadway and regional theatres and have received major awards both nationally and internationally. Asian American actors have used Asian American theatre companies as their artistic bases while pursuing careers in the mainstream theatre, film, and television. Alternative forms of theatre and performance such as multimedia performance, solo performance, and spoken word have also shaped Asian American theatre. In the beginning, participants of Asian American theatre were mostly of East Asian descent, but in the 1990s and the 21st century, more artists of Southeast Asian and South Asian backgrounds have joined the community and have made Asian American theatre one of the fastest growing and changing sectors in American theatre.

Asian American theatre companies

East West Players (EWP) was founded in 1965 by a group of actors who wanted to fight racism in the entertainment industry by creating non-stereotypical roles for Asian Americans. Led by the Japanese American actor Mako, the actors at EWP first saw theatre as a venue to showcase their talent for television and film producers and directors, but by the early 1970s, the EWP began to actively sponsor original plays by Asian Americans. Frank Chin, who founded the Asian American Theatre Workshop, argued that Asian American actors needed Asian American playwrights to create believable roles and to end dependence on the mainstream acting industry. Theatrical Ensemble of Asians (TEA) began in 1974 on the campus of the University of Washington and later became Northwest Asian American Theatre (NWAAT). In addition to acting and playwriting, TEA emphasized community activism and became a cultural center for Asian Americans in Seattle. Pan Asian Rep, on the other hand, emerged as part of Off-Off Broadway theatre in 1978. Founded by Tisa Chang, Pan Asian Rep became the representative Asian American theatre company in New York City and introduced Asian American plays to the East Coast audiences. In the 1980s and 1990s, Asian American theatre companies were founded with more diverse purposes and styles. Many companies such as Ma-Yi Theater Company (New York City) and Lodestone Theatre Ensemble (Los Angeles) focus on producing new, original plays. Others companies' agendas departed greatly from the original four: National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) in New York City, for instance, stages canonized Western plays with all Asian cast, and Mu Performing Arts in Minneapolis incorporates Asian theatrical styles to specifically cater to local audiences...

Asian American actors

American theatre in the 1950s was dominated by popular Broadway shows that featured Asian characters and settings, and shows such as "The King and I" and "Flower Drum Song" provided employment to a number of "Oriental" actors. However, such roles were blatantly stereotypical and racist. Moreover, all major roles were cast with white actors with facial makeup resembling an "Oriental," otherwise known as Yellowface makeup. The popularity of Asian themes in Broadway shows did not continue through the 1960s, and "Oriental" actors found themselves unemployed in large numbers. While they were out of work, they observed white actors in yellowface makeup getting cast in Asian roles. "Oriental" actors began to protest yellowface practices by creating activist organizations and creating work for themselves. The term Asian American actor emerged in the late 1960s when the Asian American Movement challenged the racist history of the label "Oriental." By the 1970s, Asian American actors were well organized in their fight for jobs and positive images for Asians. In New York, an activist group called Oriental Actors of America regularly protested openings of shows with yellowface. In Los Angeles, East West Players became the most visible venue for Asian American actors to find acting employment and to participate in activism. The company's proximity to Hollywood attracted many ambitious and talented Asian American actors to Los Angeles. By the mid-1990s, over 75% of all Asian American actors had acted on the stage of EWP.

In the early 1990s, the controversy over the musical "Miss Saigon" surfaced when Asian American actors protested the casting of the British actor Jonathan Pryce for the role of the half-Vietnamese Engineer in the Broadway production of the musical. The protest was led by many prominent Asian American theatre artists, including actor B. D. Wong, the artistic director of Pan Asian Rep, Tisa Chang, and the playwright David Henry Hwang. They argued that while Blackface is unquestionably prohibited in American theatre, Yellowface was prominently featured in the musical. Asian American actors initially lost their fight when the musical opened on Broadway with Pryce, but in the long run, the controversy generated many positive aftereffects for Asian American actors. The musical's ten-year run on Broadway employed an unprecedented number of Asian American actors, and the role of the Engineer was subsequently cast with Asian American actors. While some have lauded such accomplishment, others have criticized Asian American actors for winning only half of the fight. Namely, they won the fight for employment, but they failed the fight for positive and believable images of Asians. The majority of roles in mainstream theatre, film, and television continue to feature recycled versions of Asian stereotypes, and Asian American actors are still caught in the dilemma of having to choose between employment and activism. Many Asian American actors balance the dilemma by acting stereotypical roles for financial support while finding artistic and political satisfaction in acting in productions of Asian American plays.

Asian American playwrights

Before the 1960s, Asian American plays were virtually non-existent, but various initiatives, including East West Players' playwriting contest, encouraged Asian American writers to adapt their short stories and novels into plays and to write original plays. The first wave of Asian American playwrights included Wakako Yamauchi, Momoko Iko, Edward Sakamoto, Hiroshi Kashiwagi and Frank Chin. Common themes in plays by first wave writers were Asian American history, generational conflict, cultural identity, cultural nationalism, and family history. In 1972, Frank Chin's Chickencoop Chinaman became the first Asian American play to be produced in New York City, and since then, Chin has become a major spokesperson for Asian American playwriting. He founded the Asian American Theatre Workshop in San Francisco to promote original playwriting by Asian Americans. The most commercially successful Asian American play was David Henry Hwang's play "M. Butterfly", which became the first Asian American play to be produced on Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1988. The success of "M. Butterfly" created a national interest in Asian American plays, and regional theatre companies around the country began to produce plays by Hwang and other second wave Asian American writers such as Philip Kan Gotanda and Velina Hasu Houston. Such interest also promoted the publication of first anthologies of Asian American plays in the early 1990s. The mainstreaming of Asian American plays increased with works by third wave writers such as Diana Son, Sung Rno, Han Ong, Chay Yew, and Ralph Peña. These third wave writers felt that race and ethnicity were mere jumping off point in addressing multifaceted experiences of being an Asian American and wrote about any topic that interested them. All three waves of Asian American playwrights continue to produce works that define not only Asian American theatre, but also American theatre and global theatre.

Alternative theatre and performance

One of the pioneers of Asian American alternative theatre is Ping Chong, a Chinese American multimedia artist who has created avant-garde theatre since the early 1970s. He has used visual effects, sound control, dance, mime, spectacle, and other methods based on the sensibilities of Cantonese opera. Another form of alternative theatre is solo performance. Often written, directed, and acted by one performer, solo performance has provided many Asian American artists with the opportunity to voice their experiences. Solo performers, such as Dan Kwong, Denise Uyehara, Jude Narita, and Lane Nishikawa, have toured with their shows and have introduced Asian American theatre to audiences in all parts of the country. Group performances have also toured, especially to colleges and universities. Often comedic, group performances, such as Slant Performance Group and the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, have been popular amongst college students, many of who saw Asian American performers onstage for the first time. Recently, spoken word groups have become the newest form of Asian American theatre and performance.

Asian American Theatre Conference and Festival

In June 2006, "Next Big Bang:" The First Asian American Theater Conference was held in Los Angeles, spearheaded by East West Players. [ [http://www.imdiversity.com/Villages/Asian/arts_culture_media/quill_naatf_review_2007.asp Festival a Milestone for Asian American Theater ] ] It was followed in June 2007 with the first ever National Asian American Theatre Festival, held in New York City. The two-week festival was co-organized by Pan Asian Rep, Ma-Yi Theater and NAATCO. [ [http://www.playbill.com/news/article/106432.html Playbill News: National Asian American Theater Festival Planned ] ] From June 11-24, work from more than 35 emerging and established artists and groups from across the nation was presented in over 13 venues around New York City and outer-boroughs."Shaping Our Voice & Vision": the 2nd National Asian American Theater Conference took place June 5–7, 2008, in Minneapolis, co-hosted by Mu Performing Arts and Pangea World Theater. [ [http://www.aapress.com/artsnews.php?subaction=showfull&id=1199410728&archive=&start_from=&ucat=6& Mu Receives Festival Grant on AA Press - 12/21/07] ]

ee also

*List of Asian American theatre companies
*Asian Americans in arts and entertainment

Additional reading

*Eng, Alvin, ed. "Tokens?: Asian American Experience on Stage." New York: The Asian American Writerss Workshop, 1999.
*Kondo, Dorinne. "About Face: Performing Race in Fashion and Theater." New York: Routledge, 1997.
*Kurahashi, Yuko. "Asian American Culture on Stage: The History of the East West Players." New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999.
*Lee, Esther Kim. "A History of Asian American Theatre." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2006.
*Lee, Josephine. "Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage." Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997.
*Liu, Miles Xian, ed. "Asian American Playwrights: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook." Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
*Shimakawa, Karen. "National Abjection: The Asian American Body Onstage." Durham, Duke University Press, 2002.

References

External links

;Information
* [http://www.aatrevue.com Asian American Theatre Revue]
* [http://www.naatf.org/ National Asian American Theater Festival]
* [http://www.nextbigbang.org/nbbhome.htm 2006 conference "Next Big Bang" website]
* [http://aatheaterconference.org/ 2008 conference "Shaping Our Voice & Vision" website]
* [http://www.asian-nation.org/artists.shtml Asian-Nation] Sociological Overview of Asian American Writers, Artists, and Entertainers

;Theatre companies
* [http://www.asianamericantheater.org/ Asian American Theatre Co. website]
* [http://www.asiantheater.org/cats/ Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS) website]
* [http://www.eastwestplayers.org East West Players website]
* [http://www.lodestonetheatre.org Lodestone Theatre Ensemble website]
* [http://www.ma-yitheatre.org/intro.html Ma-Yi Theatre Co. website]
* [http://www.muperformingarts.org/ Mu Performing Arts website]
* [http://www.naatco.org/ National Asian American Theatre Co. (NAATCO) website]
* [http://www.panasianrep.org/ Pan Asian Rep website]