Diverse Theatre Movement - Asian-American Theatre - Research Paper Example

These theater companies provided opportunities to different actors, writers and directors to pursue different genres of the Asian theater in America and they defined the Asian American theater for almost four decades, till now. By 1990s the number of Asian American theater companies grew up, with producers and directors experimenting with different artistic creations. Asian Americans have established their mark on the general American theater arena and are now appearing in roadway and regional theaters and also winning awards nationally and internationally.

In the beginning most of the participants of the Asian American Theater were prominently from the East Asian descent, but in the 90’s and 2000’s many artists originating from South Asia and South East Asia started joining the community and making Asian American theater one of the most readily evolving and pioneering sectors in the American Theater. In today’s age of theater, Asian American theater companies are moving rapidly past stories, exploring the themes of generation gaps and cultural differences, and finding identity.

These topics dominated the theater of the Asian American Community and pioneers like David Henry Hwang and Philip Kan Gotanda made these topics the principle theme of their plays during the 80’s and 90’s. In Hwang’s first play, F.O.B., a conflict between a Chinese immigrant and a Chinese American from the viewpoint of culture is explored, while another of his play shows the conflict between the ideologies of the East and the West between three generations of a Chinese American Family. Modern Asian American Theater is exploring different aspects of Asian American life, and expanding the horizon and definition of the Asian American life.

According to the Asian American Theatre Revue website, as of today, there are more than 80 companies affiliated with the Asian American Theater across the United States of America. Many groups from these companies were experimenting with different genres such as comedy and improving, which were unheard of 30 years ago because of their commercial practicability. As Asian American artists became fascinated with different non-traditional genres and venues, many rebellious movements came into being and defied traditional themes such as drama occurring in the Asian American theater.

According to Darryl Chiang, an interim executive director of the Asian American Theater Company: "The original way Asian American theater manifested itself was through very political pieces that explored what it means to be Asian American, specifically addressing identity, which today is not the most important issue” (Lau, 2) Lauren Yee, the author of Ching Chong has said that even though Asian Americans are looking at the past work, such as Shakespearean literature, because they feel as if the audience is familiar with Shakespeare and his plays.

She comments that: "That's the only place authences are OK with a multicultural cast, like seeing an Asian daughter with a white father" (Lau, 2) Asian American Theater has been approached in a completely different way by some of the Asian American companies, one of which is the National Asian American Theatre Company. They are unique in a sense that all of their topics