The year in Asian American theater that was. . . and wasn't

It’s been about a month since the Ivey’s. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s the Twin Cities version of the Tony Awards. Each year I go to this event, I’m assured of something amazing and something horrifying. Not horrifying in a scary way, but in a more confusing and uncomfortable way. This year did not disappoint. I won’t go into any details, because that’s not the topic of this particular blog. What I’ve decided to muse about was the lack of Asian American representation on stage, not only in terms of awards, but also in terms of presenters and entertainment. It wasn’t completely void of Asian Americans. Isabella Dawis did perform in a very strange rendition of “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie, along with other young aspiring talent—the lone speck of yellow in a sea of red, white, and blue.

This usually wouldn’t bother me. I’m used to being in events that have little to no Asian American representation. But after a year where Asian Americans exploded on the Twin Cities theater scene, I couldn’t believe there was no recognition. Let me explain. Mu Performing Arts’ productions of The Romance of Magno Rubio and Yellow Face where both on critics’ ‘Best of the Year’ lists, including The Star Tribune. Music Lovers was also on critics’ "best of" lists with me in a leading role. The Guthrie basically had a David Henry Hwang festival by producing M. Butterfly and presenting Mu's Yellow Face in their studio space. Katie Bradley starred in Mulan at The Children’s Theatre a production that ran into controversy for their use of “yellow face.” Yellow Face and yellow face in the same year! David Mura and Laurine Price starred in The King and I at the Bloomington Center for the Arts, directed by Rick Shiomi. Laurine followed that by playing Belle in the Ordway’s production of Beauty and the Beast. Sun Mee Chomet played Lady Macduff in the Guthrie’s production of Macbeth. This would have been an amazing year for Asian American theater even in New York City! This kind of year may never ever happen again. Yet it was not good enough for any recognition at the Ivey’s in Minnesota. We did this in the Midwest! During a recession!

Let me try to put it is some perspective. Mu is usually the only company that produces Asian American plays in the Twin Cities—the way that Penumbra is the main producer of African American plays. David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly was the first time that an Asian American playwright has been produced on the Guthrie mainstage. Rick Shiomi and I were the first non-white directors in the history of the Bloomington Civic Theater. To have this kind of impact in the theater community is a testament to the growth of the Asian American talent pool in this town. This only exists because of 15 years of nurturing from Rick Shiomi and Mu. Yet, the larger population looks over these accomplishments. I believe it is because they have little knowledge of Asian American theater history, therefore cannot contextualize just what an amazing year it was. We did this in the Midwest! During a recession!

Does the fact that we do work that challenges the ideas of race in America, turn off evaluators that go to the theater just to be entertained? Maybe. Does the fact that the Asian American community isn’t assertive enough to demand to be heard allow the majority to ignore us? Maybe. Is it insane to give a theater award to one specific ethnic group? Maybe. But all I know is as I sat in that theater, listening to the wonderful Wendy Lehr accept her Lifetime Achievement Ivey award knowing that the event was coming to a close, I couldn’t help but feel. . . overlooked. Again.

by Randy Reyes

Photo: Randy Reyes as DHH in Yellow Face, (c) Michal Daniel, 2010

A week in the life of a taiko artist

I'm one of a small group of individuals in North America lucky enough to be employed full time as a taiko performer, composer, teacher and administrator. What's it like? Here's a glimpse:

Mon, Oct 18: The alarm rings at 5:30 am and I'm off to a 6:15 yoga class. I chant, "I really need to do this" as I force myself out of bed—the hardest part of yoga! Mu's St. Paul office is the next stop. There's always more than enough to keep me busy facilitating both Mu Daiko and our ever-growing taiko program. I take off for the Studio for a brief practice and then it's time to teach. Intro and Level 3 students do so well! Mu's Artistic Director Rick Shiomi and Theater Mu/Mu Daiko members arrive at 8:30; we're rehearsing for tomorrow's performance at the University of Wisconsin-Plattevillle, where Mu Daiko members will make their "Broadway" debut with Mu actor Katie Bradley. It's a hoot! We run through our taiko pieces and then head home at 10:15 pm to pack.

Tues, Oct 19: I meet Rick at 7:30 and we pick up the rental van. We load up and set off on our five-hour drive south to Platteville. Beautiful bluffs, cows and horses amidst rolling meadows slip by. A quick check-in at the local Country Inn and then it's off to the theater for tech. Accompanied by Mu actor/musician Brian McCormick, Katie and her chorus run through our “big number,” spike placements, and transitions. It's Domino's Pizza for dinner and then everyone gets into costume. We perform well before our small but appreciative audience, then load up and make our way back to the hotel. We finish the evening at the Cancun Fiesta across the street. It boasts the best (or is it the biggest?) margaritas in town. They are indeed VERY big and VERY potent!

Wed, Oct 20: We leave the hotel promptly at 9. At a rest area besides the Mississippi, we discuss a meal stop in Rochester and give Katie Leo a buzz to see if we can meet up for lunch. Katie is a wonderful writer of plays, poetry, and prose, and Mu's former Development Associate who just moved to Rochester. It's good to be able to reconnect over some good food the heart of downtown Rochester. We roll into the Studio parking lot mid-afternoon and unload the vans. Home! Naomi Guilbert and Hiroshi Koshiyama of Fubuki Daiko arrived at our house yesterday to stay for a few days while they visit friends and family. I jump on the treadmill for a quick 30-minute run (I really need to move after the day's long drive) and top it off with a great glass of wine with husband, Naomi, Hiroshi, and our dog Archie.

Th, Oct 21: Another early morning yoga class, and then it's catch-up time in the office. Quick fue practice and dinner at home and then it's on to the regular Mu Daiko evening rehearsal. I meet with a Mu Daiko member at 6 to talk about his new composition, then spend the first part of rehearsal delving into four brand-new pieces premiered at our recent Taiko Lab performances. We talk about ways to get to the heart of each composition through staging, expression, intent, technique, and kata (form). Rick comes in at 8 to rehearse the contingent that will be performing at the Burnsville Arts Center next Thursday. We're sharing the program with Ragamala Dance, the Twin Cities-based Bharatanatyam dance ensemble. Rick and Ranee Ramaswamy, Ragamala's founding Artistic Director, share a long history of collaboration and this concert will be a great reunion!

Fri, Oct 22: I say goodbye to Naomi and Hiroshi as they head back to Winnipeg and then make tracks to the office. I set up a couple of appointments to meet with college students who are writing papers about taiko, advise a potential student about her class placement, talk with Rick about upcoming programs, and reconnect with former Mu Daiko member Rachel Gorton about some shime stands she helped design. I head home early in the afternoon and hop on the treadmill for another run. And then I start working on this blog entry! It's 8:16 pm and I'm ready for that glass of wine and a screening of Princess Kaiulani, a movie about one of the last heirs to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawai'i. Anything about my home state always piques my interest. Maybe I'll review it for my next entry!

by Iris Shiraishi

Photo (c) Michal Daniel, 2009

A weekend in the life of Rick Shiomi

One of the advantages of being the Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts is traveling and sharing the experience of Asian American theater in other artistic communities. My latest three-day trip to California was a whirlwind of shows, workshops, and meetings that proved how vibrant Asian American theater is in that part of the country.

The first event was a Stories Program workshop sponsored by the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance. It was a small gathering, but with the assistance of LA-based actor Ryun Yu, I was able to run the workshop based upon the stories of the participants. It was a powerful experience, revealing very deeply emotional stories about their own lives. We finished up the workshop the next morning with Ryun directing a short presentation of one of the stories.

Then I was off to San Diego to see a production of David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face (a show that Mu produced last season) by Mo'olelo Theater. The artistic director, Seema Sueko, directed the production and though it was still a preview, I was very impressed by both her creative direction and the cast of the show. The lead, David Henry Hwang's alter-ego DHH, was played by Greg Watanabe. I know Greg from back in the 1990s when he was starting out in San Francisco as a member of the comedy troupe 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors (check out the terrific documentary on the group), so it was especially fun to see him in action again. The audience gave the performance a standing ovation and I knew they had a hit on their hands.

(On a side note, one other fun moment at Mo'olelo involved seeing an image of our own Eric Sumangil from his performance in their 2007 production of Cowboy Versus Samurai, which also happens to be Mu's next production. It's thrilling to see how Mu actors are making names for themselves around the country!)

On that same day, I met with Lauren Yee, the playwright for Ching Chong Chinaman and for a new commission by Mu (stay tuned!), Native Voices artistic director Randy Reinholz, Mo'olelo's Seema Sueko, and Greg Watanabe. It was a jam-packed day!

But there was still more to do. The next morning, I met with Farrell and Sandra Foreman of the new Bear Arts Foundation, which sponsored Colorfest, a multicultural theater festival and conference this past summer. They are trying to set up a new service network for theaters of color, with which Mu would be intimately involved. It's an exciting prospect that will be an invaluable way for our theaters to connect with one another.

After that meeting, I got back in the car and drove back to LA, where I'd started my trip, to do a video interview of Michael Golamco, the playwright for Cowboy Versus Samurai. It's a part of a series of behind-the-scenes interviews and footage that will be featured on Mu's YouTube channel, and is a great way for audiences to get extra insight into the show that they might not get just from their playbill.

My trip ended with the final performance of Mysterious Skin by Prince Gomolvilas at one of the country's largest Asian American theater companies, East West Players. It was quite a terrific performance. After the show the whole cast and crew gathered for their post-show reception and I had an extended discussion with Tim Dang, the artistic director at EWP. After all that, it was off to the airport to catch the red eye flight back home to Minneapolis.

All in a weekend's work.

by Rick Shiomi

Our pantries, ourselves

Remember last year when Americans were warned that our beloved canned pumpkin--the golden orange pie filling that brings us warm feelings of family and turkey with stuffing and hot apple cider and all things that get us through the cold winter--could disappear from grocery store shelves because heavy rains had wreaked havoc on the nations pumpkin patches? For months, Grandma's pantry staple was absent. Fortunately, it has made its triumphant return just in time for the holiday season. Imagine what Thanksgiving dinner would be like without a slice of pumpkin pie!

Now, imagine if you ate pumpkin pie not just at Thanksgiving, but at every meal, and that the cost of a can of pumpkin pie filling suddenly shot up from $2.50 to $14.

According to the New York Times, this is the story facing South Korea right now. As pumpkin pie is to Americans, kimchi is to South Koreans, and at this moment, a main component of the famously odorous side dish--Napa cabbage--is suffering the same fate as last year's pumpkins. A daily staple on Korean dinner tables, kimchi is quickly becoming a delicacy that fewer and fewer people are able to afford, or even get their hands on. Even restaurants, who typically offer it as a free side the way that American restaurant-goers receive a free bread basket, are starting to charge for it.

It has become such a "national tragedy," as one South Korean newspaper put it, that the government is getting involved. President Lee Myung-bak, who recognizes kimchi as "integral to daily life" in his country, is vowing to stick to cheaper and less desirable cabbage--the North American variety that you probably enjoy in your coleslaw--in a show of solidarity for those South Koreans who cannot afford the higher price of the good stuff.

While it may be easy to chuckle at how such a simple thing as a side dish can cause a national uproar, it nonetheless represents a humbling example of how much our cultural identities are defined by what we eat. As anyone who has ever lived in another country will tell you, there's nothing like a taste of home when you have been away, and it is sobering to realize how much we take those things for granted when we discover that they are not so readily available everywhere. Some of my extended family living in Hungary, for example, found it enough of an occasion when marshmallows first arrived in Budapest that they wrote home about it. My Japanese roommate in college received huge box of food from her mother--a square yard of little candies and canned goods and teas that cost who knows how much to send all the way to Minnesota, but which was priceless to her as she pulled out sundry goodies whenever she was feeling homesick. Something about my overseas family having the essential binding agent for Rice Krispies treats, and something about my roommate having everything she needed to make a good curry, made them feel closer to home. More American. More Japanese.

So is it a "national tragedy" that so many South Koreans are being deprived of their beloved kimchi? I would say so, and I am imagining the aroma of pumpkin pie as I do.

by Stacey Peterson

New AA Film Fest coming to Minneapolis

If you are looking for Asian film in the Twin Cities that goes beyond the latest Jet Li release, mark your calendars.

Minnesota Film Arts just this week announced its first Asian American Film Festival, "In Search of Asia," November 3 - 13 in Minneapolis. While details are still forthcoming, we know that there will be a lineup of 30 films, to be released on October 18, as well as events featuring filmmakers and panel discussions.

With this festival, Minneapolis joins a select group of cities that host Asian American film festivals, including San Francisco and New York. Such events, some of which have been going on for decades, are essential not only for encouraging Asian American voices in film, but for a general public that may not consider that Asian American filmmakers exist apart from Ang Lee and that the phrase "Asian film" doesn't have to mean "subtitles" or "kung fu."

Interested in seeing what's out there in Asian American film before the festival? Check out a few short films from the 2009 Asian American International Film Festival in New York City, available to view for free online.