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Journal of Asian American Studies 3.3 (2000) 382-384



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Book Review

Tokens?: The NYC Asian American Experience on Stage


Tokens?: The NYC Asian American Experience on Stage. Edited by Alvin Eng. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999.

While New York City is the capital of American theatre, Asian American theatre has been most active on the "other" coast, the West Coast, mainly in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. NYC has been an ambiguous locale for Asian American theatre because of its geographical and cultural separation from the West Coast, the higher artistic expectations, and the vague relationship between New York artists and the Asian American community. Asian American theatre in NYC has developed its own history and unique artistic sensibility. Tokens? The NYC Asian American Experience on Stage, edited by Alvin Eng, captures this history and unique sensibility with ten plays and a "Verbal Mural," a collection of interview excerpts organized in a dramatic structure of three acts, prologue, entr'acte, and epilogue. It is one of about ten anthologies of Asian American plays and the first about Asian American theatre in NYC. The "Verbal Mural" provides a forum in which artists articulate their views on Asian American theatre and New York City.

A theme in Eng's anthology is tokenism. Eng asks, "Will a token become a rite of passage to a new, diverse, super cyber highway or will it remain a rite of way down that same ol' grimy, pot-hole-laden dead end street?" (ix) That old way is all too familiar to Asian American theatre artists not only in New York City but also in other parts of the country. The first Asian American theatre company, the East West Players (Los Angeles), was founded in 1965 by a group of actors who grew impatient with the stereotypical roles offered by Hollywood. In 1973, Frank Chin founded the Asian American Theatre Company (San Francisco), which focused on developing new Asian American plays. And in Seattle, a group of community activists and drama students started a program that led to the [End Page 382] foundation of the Northwest Asian American Theatre in 1974. Since then, the history of Asian American theatre has been one vast struggle for fair representation, equal opportunity, political advocacy, and self-identification.

Asian American actors began to appear on Broadway as early as the 1910s, and the history of Asian American theatre in NYC is arguably the longest in the country. Currently, at least four active Asian American companies, several performance troupes, and numerous independent theatre artists exist in NYC. According to Eng's "Verbal Mural," Asian American theatre began in NYC in 1970 with the foundation of La Mama Chinatown by world-renown Ellen Stewart, an African American woman and founder of La Mama Experimental Theatre Club (ETC). La Mama Chinatown was one of many theatre programs supported by Stewart. In 1978, it was renamed the Pan Asian Repertory Theater by Tisa Chang who has since been the independent artistic director. In 1972, Frank Chin's Chickencoop Chinaman premiered at the American Place Theatre and Ping Chong presented his first multimedia performance piece. In the prologue of the "Verbal Mural," Eng provides a vivid picture of these first years of the 1970s by juxtaposing "straight talks" by Ellen Stewart, Frank Chin, Ping Chong, Tisa Chang, Wynn Handman, and Daryl Chin.

Act I of the "Verbal Mural" mentions the most famous Asian American playwright, David Henry Hwang and his play, M. Butterfly, the first Asian American play to premiere on Broadway and win the Tony Award for best play. Eng shapes the section with a discussion of commercialism and success in Asian American theatre. Jessica Hagedorn, David Henry Hwang, Gary San Angel, Diana Son, Ralph B. Peña, Aasif Mandvi, Muna Tseng, Han Ong, Chiori Miyagawa, Wayland Quintero, Rick Ebihara, and Perry Yung answer questions about definitions of Asian American theatre. Act II asks questions about the significance of New York City, especially in the context of other "artists of color," Asian American communities, and the Miss Saigon controversy. In...

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