A Star-struck Evening

Asian Pacific Americans in New York Theater

By Terry Hong
Special to AsianWeek

Public speaking gives me the willies. But when I got a call to moderate a historical panel on Asian Pacific American theater in New York with Tisa Chang (founder and artistic/producing director of Pan Asian Repertory Theatre), Ping Chong (founder and artistic director of Ping Chong & Company), David Henry Hwang (currently represented on Broadway with the all-new Flower Drum Song), Mia Katigbak (co-founder and artistic/producing director of the National Asian American Theatre Company), Chiori Miyagawa (co-founder and co-artistic director of Crossing Jamaica Avenue), Jon Nakagawa (producer of contemporary programming at Lincoln Center and former managing director of Vineyard Theatre), Diane Paulus (co-founder of Project 400 and creator of The Donkey Show), Ralph Peña (artistic director of Ma-Yi Theater Company) and Welly Yang (founder and artistic director of Second Generation) — my groupie-mentality went into auto-drive and I suddenly became “a girl who cain’t say ‘no.’ ”

So on Monday, Oct. 7, I made my Lincoln Center debut in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse of the Rose Building, sharing the podium with some of the biggest names in APA theater, as part of “I Am Going to Like It Here: Asian Americans in New York Theater.”

Sponsored by the Lincoln Center Audience Development Initiative and the Asian American Arts Alliance, the panel was a first of its kind — imagine gathering such luminaries in the same room! Okay, so hours before the event Tisa Chang bowed out, but she sent Pan Asian’s artistic associate Ron Nakahara, an effective replacement.

We began with a quickie overview of APA theater to get everyone on the same page: that APA theater began as a grassroots movement over 35 years ago; that it provided an antidote to the degrading stereotypes of APAs we’ve all seen; that we’ve definitely made major progress, although there is always room for improvement.

Then each of the panelists had five minutes to speak. Ping Chong pointed out that after 30 years of “making art,” we’re still being represented by other people.

David Henry Hwang said that while we’ve made progress artistically, APA theater is still not particularly commercially viable. Let’s hope Flower Drum Song proves otherwise.

Mia Katigbak balled her hand up to form a small opening and talked about the frustrations APA theater artists faced being pigeonholed into that small space.

Chiori Miyagawa talked about her new company which is an artistic blend of contemporary American reality infused with Asian sensibility, a radical blend of east/west aesthetics.

Jon Nakagawa noted that he was the only non-theater artist on the panel, so he talked about the commercial part of his Lincoln Center job and then about how being an APA in a mainstream organization, he can sometimes use the model minority stereotype to his advantage, as when he started the Space Fund at the Vineyard which gave free space for ethnic-specific organizations such as Ma-Yi.

Ron Nakahara made apologies for Tisa’s absence, then lauded Pan Asian’s ability to have survived for decades as a viable equity theater in spite of a challenging market.

kiane Paulus began with a story about how, when her photos were ready for an article I had done on her for aMagazine: Inside Asian America, my editor had called in a panic to ask, “Is she even Asian? She’s got green eyes!” Diane is hapa (her mother is Japanese). She described her relationship with her APA-ness, about trying to figure out what “authentic enough” would mean in the work she creates with her company.

Then Ralph Peña had to announce he was drunk — Jon had kindly invited us for wine and cheese before the panel. Ralph wanted to be able to make grand sweeping statements about how in five years, every neon marquee in New York would feature an APA, or that APA theater would be dead and there would only be Lucy Liu. BUT … he wasn’t drunk enough, he admitted. He addressed criticism that Ma-Yi was now so establishment as to be exclusive, and admitted they were really a coven of witches from Manila but hopeful actors should keep auditioning because they need new blood.

And last but not least, Welly Yang talked about how so many of the panel members had mentored him at some point or another, about how Second Generation was an homage to these great artists. He expressed gratitude to the network of APA theater artists and the support of the community that made his work possible.

Then the roundtable questions. We talked about why APA theater in New York thrives where elsewhere it’s teetering or failing: because APA theater is part of American theater in New York (David); because APA generations are older in New York (Ping); because New York has a walth of talented performers (Welly); and because there is wealth, period, in New York (Jon). We talked about labels — “Asian American” theater, “Asian American” actors, “Asian American” playwrights — and Ping said we need to think as broadly and inclusively as possible. Ron said we had gone past those labels and Chiori said labels were both an asset and a liability. As for telling our stories in mainstream theaters, the general consensus seemed to be that there was a need to reach as many audiences as possible while keeping the writing true to itself. And as to whether making theater was getting easier or harder in the last decade, the answers seemed to be the latter — that life in APA theater is more difficult now, with a whole new set of challenges from a decade ago. Welly did note, however, that he has had to do accents less frequently.

Then came the audience’s questions. The opening was a doozy. An irate woman claiming to be a Southeast Asian actress wanted to know why the panel was so “yuppified,” and not inclusive of Southeast Asian and other non-Chinese, non-Japanese, non-Filipino panelists. While she had a point, she put on quite a show. [Rumor has it that she’s actually not even Asian. She’s a Jewish wanna-be from the boroughs. Go figure.] More questions followed, about getting productions up, about auditioning, about writing.

With the arrival of the reception food, we went informal and continued our conversations off the podium. We eventually got kicked out about 9 p.m., with so much more to talk about. But then that’s the beauty of theater — the journey is never-ending.