Keeping Alive Diversity within the Theatre
By Matthew Noerper
Business Manager

Last week I addressed the positive trend towards a more diverse representation of cultural experiences within 5C theater. As valuable as a wide range of theater experiences can be, undertaking an ambitiously diverse lineup of selections each semester requires a degree of calculated risk. Furthermore, this trend can only continue with the support of enthusiasm within the student body, the theatre department, and the community.

This ingrained resistance is not necessarily intentional, but the result of a tradition of distrust between the establishment and minority cultures. Just look at contemporary playscripts that illustrate Asian and Asian-American interactions with Western hegemonic influences. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, based on the largely glamorized and intentionally misleading accounts of Anna Leonowens, has long been an American favorite and was recently re-created in movie form. The portrayal of the cruel barbarian King who is brought to understand western morality perpetuates inaccurate stereotypes. Case in point: the dungeons that Anna refers to tells of her experiences with the Siamese King were entirely fictitious, as the land composition of the country does not allow for such construction. The factual inaccuracies and grossly insulting portrayal of Thai society led to Thailand’s ban of the most recent filmic adaptation, starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat.

Arguably more controversial are popular plays such as Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon. Both perpetuate exotic images of Asian women, and imply their dependence on Western men due to the perceived inferiority of their own cultures. The entertainment and performance industry must now contend with a history has bred distrust among Asian-Americans. But the establishment must also be wary of the historical use of yellowface, the use of non-Asian actors in an Asian role, usually done in a stereotypically exaggerated way. Hollywood’s most famous yellowface actor was perhaps Peter Ustinov in the role of “Charlie Chan,” a Chinese-American detective. And who could forget Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of a buck-toothed Japanese man in Breakfast at Tiffany’s? These blatantly inaccurate portrayals of Asians on the stage and the silver screen have generated a good degree of Asian-American distrust that the theater department must be aware of, especially in light of the risks that I will address.

In undertaking a production that portrays minority experiences, the department risks not being able to find enough cast members. During the production of David Henry Hwang’s Madame Butterfly the department considered utilizing yellowface given the shortage of willing and able Asian-American actors and actresses, which resulted in protests from members of the Asian-American community and numerous on-campus groups and threatened to exacerbate distrust.

Audience response must also be considered. If there is no interest in the production, or if the production lacks artistic merit, then the entire genre could be compromised– audiences tend to generalize the shortcomings of a particularly bad production to an entire genre.

Recently an exploration into Asian-American theater has brought these risks to the forefront. The production of Prince Gomovilas The Theory of Everything’during fall 2003 called for an all-Asian-American cast. Concerns ranged from being able to find enough talent and interest in the Asian-American community to whether or not students and members of the community would spend the time and money to go. The success of the production (two sold-out nights) affirmed that Asian-American theater could not only match other genres in artistic merit, but that sufficient talent and interest was present. In the end, the common human experience shared by characters in The Theory of Everything, as well as its focus on the particular issues with which Asian-Americans contend, made taking these risks well worth it.