AANHPI Heritage Month

In the late nineteenth century, Asian American drama made its debut with the spotlight firmly on the lives and struggles of Asians in North America, rather than on the cultures and traditions of the Asian homeland. Today, Asian American playwrights continue to challenge the limitations of established theatrical conventions and direct popular attention toward issues and experiences that might otherwise be ignored or marginalized. While Asian American literature came into full bloom in the last 25 years, Asian American drama has yet to receive the kind of critical attention it warrants.

Asian American plays provide an opportunity to think about how racial issues are engaged through theatrical performance, physical contact, bodily labour, and fleshly desire, as well as through the more standard elements of plot, setting, characterization, staging, music, and action. Each of these works engages directly and actively with Asian American themes through performance to provide an important starting point for building relationships, raising political awareness, and creating active communities that can foster a sense of connection or even rally individuals to collective action.

A collection of contemporary Asian-American plays. This volume contains: Nuit Blanch: A Select View of Earthlings by Ping Chong The Wash by Philip Kan Gotanda Tenement Lover: no palmtrees/in new york city by Jessica Hagedorn As the Crow Flies and The Sound of a Voice by David Henry Hwang And the Soul Shall Dance by Wakako Yamauchi Pay the Chinaman by Laurence Yep

A hard-hitting play about the Philippines in the Marcos era, adapted by Jessica Hagedorn from her own novel of the same name. Dogeaters was first performed at La Jolla Playhouse, California, in 1998. 'Fierce, funny and politically uncompromising, Dogeaters is a rarity: a dangerous play which actually achieves its great ambitions' José Rivera

The six plays of this anthology represent some of the best dramatic literature written by Asian American women since the 1970s. Each is a groundbreaking work and addresses in its own way the experiences of Asians in America. All six playwrights are American-born daughters of Asian immigrants, and their voices span the genres of naturalism, impressionism, ritual drama, postmodern collage, and media-influenced episodic drama.