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Pan Asian Repertory - www.panasianrep.org
 

   

     
   		  

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 By MEL GUSSOW
Published: April 22, 1997

When Tisa Chang's father, Ping-Hsun Chang, was a young man in China, he and Chou En-lai went to Nankai University in Tianjin and acted together in school plays. Often they did Ibsen, Ms. Chang said in an interview. Her father played male roles while the future Communist leader specialized in female roles. This favorite family story may have been the start of Ms. Chang's fascination with theater and with her campaign to end stereotypical casting. As the founder and artistic director of the Pan Asian Repertory Theater in Manhattan, she has weathered many theatrical storms, but in the 20 years since she began the company she has not veered from her first principle: ''to promote opportunities for Asian-American actors to be seen in context of who we really are and what we are capable of achieving as artists.''

The key to Ms. Chang's goal is in the company's name, which, she said, is intended to be ''inclusive of all Asia,'' and all Asians in America. In practice, this means she has presented works by a galaxy of hyphenates: Chinese-American, Japanese-Canadian, Filipino-American, Japanese-Cambodian. ''I'm very interested in theater works that draw on indigenous forms of music, movement, oral history and puppetry,'' Ms. Chang said. ''I'm less interested in writers writing in the Western fashion.''

At the same time, she has enlarged her canvas by offering Asian perspectives on Shakespeare and other classics. ''A Doll's House'' was transplanted to Long Island: Nora Hwang slammed the door on her self-involved husband, the manager of a suburban bank. Although the quality of the work has varied, the purpose has never been in doubt, and there have been many high points, including the dynamic ''Shogun Macbeth'' and R. A. Shiomi's shaggy private eye spoof, ''Yellow Fever,'' a paradigm of how a Hollywood genre can be reinterpreted in Asian-American terms.

At first the focus was on domestic plays that dealt with ''family angst.'' That was followed by works that confronted political questions, including the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the student uprising in Tiananmen Square. In recent years there has been a turn toward the fanciful and away from the naturalistic. Beginning tomorrow, Ms. Chang will present ''Shanghai Lil's,'' a musical by Lilah Kan and Louis Stewart set in a nightclub in San Francisco's Chinatown during World War II, at St. Clement's on West 46th Street.

Before there was a Pan Asian company, Asian-Americans had severely limited opportunities in the theater, usually, she said, to play ''beautiful, exotic Oriental women or Asian houseboys.'' Mako's East West Players had opened doors in Los Angeles in the mid-1960's, but New York was still a difficult place for Asian-Americans to find roles. Ms. Chang was born in Chongqing and grew up in New York, where her father was consul general for Nationalist China. She began her career as a dancer in the chorus of musicals and then acted on Broadway in ''The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel.'' In its earliest form, the Pan Asian Repertory Theater was in residence at La Mama as the Chinese Theater Group. Using her own money, Ms. Chang expanded her company, and eventually moved it to St. Clement's. Many of her actors have been with her since the beginning. ''We were all in the same boat,'' she said. ''They bought into my dream very readily.'' In typical Off Off Broadway fashion, actors split the box office income. ''We would go into debt and have to take extreme measures,'' she said. ''I can't tell you how many summers I would go on unemployment.''

Gradually grants began to come in, beginning with $5,000 from the New York State Council on the Arts. ''Yellow Fever'' in 1982 was an artistic breakthrough, but when the company moved the play for an Off Broadway run, it lost money. Ms. Chang sold a diamond ring, a family heirloom, to keep the work going.

That play, however, gave the company certification. As other small theaters foundered, Pan Asian grew, offering center stage to actors like Donald Li, Lucy Alexis Liu, Ron Nakahara and Freda Foh Shen. Ms. Chang also welcomed such playwrights as Philip Kan Gotanda, Mr. Shiomi and Mr. Hwang, old friends who once played together in a rock band.

Just as she credits her father with awakening her interest in theater, she credits her mother with encouraging her interest in bookkeeping and problem solving. ''Most artistic directors are not financial wizards, or even like the financial aspects of running a company,'' Ms. Chang said. ''I'm Chinese, so I love math and numbers.''

Pan Asian now has an annual budget of $500,000 but still operates with a small staff. In recent years the troupe has toured in Egypt and South Africa. Heartened by Ms. Chang's example, similar companies have meanwhile sprung up around the United States, including Mr. Shiomi's Theater Mu in Minneapolis.

The most discouraging period for her was in the early 1990's, when Ms. Chang broke up with her husband, Ernest Abuba, one of Pan Asian's stalwarts as actor, playwright and director. They have since divorced but are now amicable.

In 1992, Ms. Chang angrily protested the casting of non-Asians in Asian roles in the Broadway production of ''Miss Saigon,'' accusing the producer, Cameron Mackintosh, of ''insensitivity and arrogance.'' As a result, she said, ''people in the commercial theater considered me self-serving or incendiary.'' But later several of her actors did appear in ''Miss Saigon,'' notably Raul Aranas, who took over the leading role of the Engineer. Until recently Mr. Aranas was the standby to Lou Diamond Phillips in ''The King and I.'' Despite occasional setbacks, Ms. Chang is sanguine about her future. ''There's been a tenacity and some would say a stubbornness on my part,'' she said. ''I used to think that life was hills and valleys. Now I think of it as an ongoing spiral. The momentum is to forge forward and upward.'' With ''Shanghai Lil's'' she is on her ''third spiral.''  

   

Chang and Pan Asian Rep
'A Winning Combination' 

  
   
    It does my heart good when I hear about theatre companies that have endured the test of time and the economy. So, it is no wonder that I get to write about one of these companies in New York that specializes in diverse types of theatre.

Founded in 1977, the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre is the largest producer of Asian American theatre with regular international and national touring and residencies. For 32 years, Pan Asian Rep has celebrated the artistic expressiveness of Asian and American theatre artists with the highest standards of professional theatre. The company encourages production of new plays with contemporary Asian American themes, explores new forms by drawing upon the unique heritage of Asian American style, music and movement and nurtures emerging Asian-American talent.

Under the direction of Tisa Chang, Pan Asian Rep continues to bring Asian American Theatre to diverse audiences and deepen their appreciation and understanding of the Asian American cultural heritage. Recently, I interviewed Chang about life in the theatre and working with Pan Asian Rep. TJ: Tisa, when did you first decide that theatre was what you wanted to do with your life? CHANG: All my life. I came to America /New York at age 5 or 6 and was given piano and dance lessons and my mother took me to opera and theatre. At age 10, I acted, directed and produced Cinderella in my kitchen and charged 5 cents admission. Nobody came except my Amah/Nanny. (I guess they thought it was a "vanity production.")

TJ: You started out as an actor and then segued to a career in directing. What is it about directing that piqued your interest?

CHANG: It was a chance to work on projects that resonate deeply and personally and highlighted my world...of coming from a divided China that was still in the throes of revolution but steeped in culture and history. As a director, I had more autonomy in choosing projects, and felt I was contributing to American theatre with stories drawn from China's vast literary legacy.

I had been acting and dancing professionally for 10 years on and off-Broadway, so I had a very good immersion into mainstream theatre. With directing, I can help shape what the audience experiences and walks away with.

TJ: Has it been a hard path that you have chosen?

CHANG: Incredibly, undescribably hard. To choose to be an artist - is an act of courage or folly depending on how one views it. Practically speaking and having to earn a decent living it is a formidable challenge - but to be a diplomat's daughter - guess I risked bringing shame to my family because well brought up Mandarin girls do not go into the entertainment world seriously.

My first film Ambush Bay, starring Hugh O'Brien and Jim Mitchum, was filmed in the Philippines and there was suppose to be a night time pool scene where I would be bathing nude and Mitch would be skulking around. I thought it was an irrelevant scene given that this was a WWII film and I was the spy sent to save the Americans (serious business). The scene was cut finally but I wonder what my parents and their friends would have thought if it had not been. But this was late 60's . Values were different.

TJ: When did you first become involved with Pan Asian Rep?

CHANG: I started directing for Ellen Stewart at LaMama in 1973 directing her Chinese Theatre Group exploring bi-lingual productions of Asian and western classics. I directed Midsummer Night's Dream (Ernest Abuba as Lysander; Lu Yu as Oberon ) using Mandarin and English and Goldoni's A Servant Of Two Masters where the characters spoke the aides in their native language. i.e. Truffaldino (Raul Aranas) gave his asides in Tagalog as did the Chinese, Japanese and Hawaiian actors in their dialects. And many other shows.

The extraordinary talent and dedication of the actors - I mentioned three - inspired me to formalize the group into Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. All three were at one time "senior artists" and worked in many shows as actors, directors and playwrights. Thus Pan Asian Rep's reputation and track record owes more than I can express to all of the actors in the founding years. Pan Asian Rep was founded in 1977 with my earnings when I was on Broadway in The Basic Training Of Pavlo Hummel by David Rabe, starring Al Pacino. So I owe Al and David Rabe a load of gratitude also.

TJ: What are some of the biggest successes to come out of Pan Asian Rep?

CHANG: Ghashiram Kotwal by Vijay Tendulkar with Marathi music and movement in 1985, Cambodia Agonistes with music about Cambodia 1992-95 and THE Joy Luck Club in 1999 and 2007. Of course it was Yellow Fever by R.A Shiom in 1982 that made us known nationally and internationally.

TJ: Tell me about the upcoming NEWWORKS 09. What can the audiences expect to see?

CHANG: A mosaic and explosion of talent and new modes of communication including World Premieres of Lan Tran's comedy solo Smart Ass and The Secret Of Osono, a ghost love story by Elsa Okon Rael; 3 different music nights of Christine Toy Johnson's love songs/ Helen Sung's jazz piano and Andy Akiho's new age steel pan. Emerging artists Mitsu Salmon and Lucas Kwong are 20-somethings experimenting with words/movement /guitar; and guest artists Paola Irun from Paraguay in the chilling Ramona and Juyoung Hong's aural/video riff on Wozzeck, is from Korea. Once again, Pan Asian Rep is on the cutting edge of discovery and magic (...and do we need that now!)

TJ: How do you decide about which new works to feature in this event?

CHANG: I think of balance and uniqueness of the theme, of the artist, and how fully realized the work is. i.e. experimental work still needs a cohesive arc and disciplined articulation. I wanted a mix of artists we have nurtured and worked with, along with new artists and new genres. Thus Music Nights is an expansion and so is Paraguay but Paolo Irun has a compelling story and is performed in English and Quarani (an indigenous language of Paraguay now the 2nd official language)

TJ: Tisa, tell me a little bit about the incarnation and history of the NEWWORKS series.

CHANG: Pan Asian Rep has three decades of experience and in the last several years we realized how the 21 century world is changing as well as the way artists express, create, and articulate their energies. In tandem with our training programs and play development, Ernest Abuba has a writing and solo performance workshop, which allowed me to see how many younger artists are doing self created work or writing formats away from traditional playwriting. Thus we began a 2 + 2 nights emerging artists forum a few years ago which grew and grew, and mushroomed into this month long mosaic.

TJ: I am also very curious about the upcoming show, Imelda: A New Musical. Is this a musical comedy? Please give a little insight into this.

CHANG: Imelda, A New Musical, has book by Sachi Oyama, music by Nathan Wang and lyrics by Aaron Coleman and directed by Tim Dang who is AD at East West Players in L.A. It centers on Imelda Marcos against the background of recent Philippine history. It is inspired by certain factual events but it is a fictionalized and original story with songs and dances. We are proud to highlight the richness of Philippine history and culture and it will be FUN!! (...and do we need that!)

Imelda was a strong woman with great love for her country and as First Lady wanted to put the Philippines as a legitimate political player on the world stage. The songs are clever, poignant and the story is illuminating. People will be pleasantly surprised as most only have stereotypic remembrances of her.

We are still fundraising. It is fitting that the two oldest pioneers, East West Players in LA and Pan Asian Rep in NY, are building bridges to collaborate to bring this uplifting work to larger audiences.

TJ: What do you credit for the longevity of Pan Asian Rep?

CHANG: It is the dedication and tenacity of so many, and I credit the staff and board, as well as my own stubbornness, having remained in the driver's seat as artistic producing director. We have had to learn the ropes of running a serious non- profit the hard way. Some serious budget shortfalls in the early and middle years - but excellence, and quality of work, and the drive and integrity of operations gave us the reputation for being a responsible organization. I have to credit our government (NYSCA, DCA, NEA), foundation funders and our peers who sit on panels who have given us the respect and grant support over the years. This is a pivotal, synergistic partnership.

TJ: Has the current economy affected your company as it has affected theatre all around us?

CHANG: Yes, these are trying times. But was it Dickens who said "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." So, in adversity we have to find how to overcome and be stronger and more creative for it. Pan Asian in the last five months has lost earned income, donations and a major foundation grant and cutbacks in others. But we have so far been able to juggle and weather the erosion of our current budget without draconian measures. We are applying to new sources.

TJ: Any enticing words to leave us with about the upcoming season?

CHANG: Come to see our shows at the West End Theatre on w 86th for NewWorks 09 where we will raise a cheery toast and provide many surprises.

TJ: Thank you Tisa and all the best to you and the Pan Asian Rep!

CHANG: I so appreciate chatting with you, TJ, and it was quite a meaningful walk into memory lane in thinking about your keen questions.

You should definitely expand your horizons and delve into a new experience by seeing a show at the Pan Asian Rep located at the West End Theatre, 263 West 86th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue in the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew. You will have a great opportunity to see some amazing work in their upcoming NewWorks 09 which runs from March 16 through April 11. For tickets and more information about the upcoming shows, you can visit their website at www.panasianrep.org or call OvationTix at (212) 352-3101. For now, ciao and remember, theatre is my life!!!

TJ Fitzgerald has been around the New England Theatre scene both as a participant (acting and directing) as well being a theatre fanatic since birth. He had been a featured columnist on interviews and theatre features for New England Entertainment Digest since 1992 and is currently a board member of the New England Theatre Conference. His past interviews have included Tony Award winner Faith Prince, Tony Nominee Brad Oscar (The Producers), Maureen McGovern, (Little Women), Joanna Gleason (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Into The Woods), Gregory Jbara (Chicago, Into The Woods)and Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell). It's been quite a life thus far, folks and the best is yet to come 
  More Company Press 
   

The Geisha-and-Houseboy-Liberation Theater 
By STEVEN McELROY Published: May 20, 2007  Tisa Chang started the
Pan Asian Repertory Theater in part to expand opportunities for Asian-American actors
 
  NEW YORK is a graveyard of bankrupt theater companies and broken dreams. But Tisa Chang’s Pan Asian Repertory Theater, with an annual budget of less than $1 million, is improbably celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The company’s latest production, “Tea,” by Velina Hasu Houston, is to start previews Sunday at the West End Theater, and the first National Asian American Theater Festival, which Ms. Chang has been instrumental in creating, is coming soon. Old enough to consider retirement, she is instead busy remounting some of the company’s seminal works, creating international partnerships, educating younger generations and seeking something that proves unattainable to many of the city’s companies: a permanent home.

Part of Pan Asian’s mission is to widen the scope of opportunities available to Asian-American theater artists. Before the transformative 1970s, Ms. Chang said, options for Asian-American actors were generally limited to roles like geisha girls and exotic houseboys. Groups like Pan Asian and East West Players in Los Angeles, which started in 1965, have worked to level the playing field, but the struggle continues, and not only in the live theater.

“Whereas it’s gotten better for ethnic minorities in terms of general representation, what hasn’t really improved is the complexity of the roles that we’ve been given to play,” Daniel Dae Kim wrote in an email message. Mr. Dae Kim, who appears on the ABC series “Lost,” acted professionally for the first time with Pan Asian Rep in 1990. “Many of the parts I see Asians playing onstage, as well as on screen, are smaller supporting roles whose function is to provide exposition or support to the leads,” he wrote.

Thirty years ago starting a company seemed the best way to create opportunities for Asian-American performers, Ms. Chang said. But it was not easy. “I’ve always felt that we absolutely must put the best foot forward,” she said, “because I do think we have to prove a little bit more.”

Her stamina won admirers, though. “I remember when she first started, people were saying it’s hard enough to start a white theater, let alone an Asian- American one,” said Tina Chen, who is directing “Tea.” “Who’s going to come see you?” But people came. In the mid-1970s Ms. Chang was getting mainstream work as an actor and dancer, but her passion was in heading up the Chinese Theater Group at Ellen Stewart’s La MaMa in the East Village. Even shows as nontraditional as a bilingual Chinese/English adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” set in China in 1000 B.C. sold tickets.

“Because we were considered a curiosity or something very new and unique, people did come,” Ms. Chang said. “La MaMa would always attract the kind of offbeat attendee.”

In 1977 she set out on her own, and Pan Asian Repertory Theater, with Ms. Chang as the producing artistic director, was incorporated. Early successes Tisa Chang started the Pan Asian Repertory Theater in part to expand opportunities for Asian-American actors included a 1983 production of R. A. Shiomi’s “Yellow Fever,” directed by Raul Aranas, who went on to work extensively on Broadway, and a 1986 production of “Shogun Macbeth,” adapted and directed by John R. Briggs. New works by David Henry Hwang, Philip Kan Gotanda and others followed, along with works from what Ms. Chang calls “the canon of Asian-American classics.”

The company’s core principles have never changed, she said, adding: “Our mission has always been to provide meaningful professional opportunities and to introduce the Pan Asian world’s literary works to Americans in America and also to create intercultural projects that draw upon our own history,” Ms. Chang said. “We have done Cambodian genocide, Japanese internment, dislocation — basically the acmes and nadirs of Asian- Americans in America.”

Next up in this vein: war brides. “Tea,” set in postwar Kansas, is about a group of Japanese women, all married to American military men, meeting to memorialize one of their own who killed her abusive husband and then herself.

“Tea” was written in 1987 and produced that year at the Manhattan Theater Club, but Ms. Houston said the themes are still important. The play has been produced more than 50 times all over the world. “We’re not beyond race in this country,” she said. “We have a lot to learn about existing in a very colorful society.”

After “Tea” Ms. Chang expects to remount some of the company’s most important productions, including “The Joy Luck Club” this fall and “Shogun Macbeth” next year, which will play both in New York and at the Off Square Theater Company in Jackson, Wyo., where Mr. Briggs is the artistic director.

The reprises are celebratory, but there are deeper goals for the future, like forming stronger alliances with other theaters, Ms. Chang said, and the National Asian American Theater Festival is a move in that direction. A group effort by Pan Asian and two other New York troupes, Ma-Yi Theater and the National Asian American Theater Company, the festival grew out of discussions with similar companies around the country, including East West Players. More than two dozen companies and individuals will present work at the festival, which runs June 11 to 24.

Ms. Chang has other plans too, but producing is expensive. To survive in New York for three decades is a feat, but Pan Asian has not achieved a high level of mainstream success, and Ms. Chang partly blames herself. “I know a lot of people but just don’t know how to be very opportunistic,” she said.

Securing more financial backing is one way to guarantee a future, but it is also vital that young Asian-American artists believe in the importance of the company. “I get very angry when the younger generation of Asian-American students and artists do not pay enough attention,” Ms. Chang said.

One way to help establish that sense of importance would be to create a permanent home, but that goal has proved elusive. “That’s another reason why we’re not further ahead,” Ms. Chang said. The company has presented the past several seasons at the West End, and before that rented space at St. Clement’s Church, Playhouse 91 and other locations. “Something very regular or concrete,” though, would allow for more flexibility and offer opportunities to create partnerships with other Asian- American artists and companies, Ms. Chang said. “We have looked at space in Queens, but I really want to be in Manhattan, and I also really want to have an oriental garden.”

If the garden never comes, though, Ms. Chang’s track record suggests she will continue producing. “Tisa Chang is a pioneer and a warrior,” Mr. Dae Kim wrote. “In a time when many theater companies are struggling to survive for even a full season, it’s hard not to stand in admiration of Pan Asian’s achievements.”