Some Final Thoughts...

• Truly, the Asian American theatre community (and it is a community) is a fun and very nice place to hang around. The Revue is truly appreciative of the outpouring of support (both emotional and financial) that flowed over me at the conference. Thank you, folks. Thank you very much.
• Oanh Nguyen of Chance Theater (Anaheim Hills) and Dennis Yep of InterAct (Sacramento) are wickedly funny, funny people. Great people to hang out in bars with (Of course, the feeling may not be mutual). If they're in New York next year, share a drink with them.
• Robert Karimi is one kick-ass performer. If you ever have a chance to see one of his shows (he did an excerpt from self (the remix) for the showcase), do it. He does a lot of touring (he hits Alaska and Seattle among other cities), so it's not out of the question...
• Speaking of touring, there are an awful lot of individual performance artists with shows that are touring. It was suggested to the Revue that it would be a Good Thing to have a central database online on all these touring artists, to make it easier to plan tours, hook performers up with potential producers and so forth. It would be a Very Good Thing for someone to host this database, like, oh, for example, an Asian American theatre website....
  
  Hm.
  
  That would mean an upgrade in website hosting capabilites.
  
  Hm.
• Listening to Phil Gotanda's opening plenary session, I was struck by his recounting of the history of Asian American theatre, much of which I was also privy to. I was also thinking, "Gee, Phil, you make it sound like we're old, like it was ancient history." Then I realized...we are old, and it is ancient history to many of the attendees (before they were *choke* born).
• Nice to see other prominent Asian American theatre folks there like Tamlyn Tomita and Jeannie Sakata (who the Revue knew very well who she was, but was way too busy boring her to death, talking about web sites and emails. Too tongue-tied to mention all the peformances in LA, Seattle and SF that he enjoyed throughout the years. Ah well, typical performance....).
• There MUST be something about Asian American theatre people and karaoke; the karaoke bar in the Miyako was full every night until closing....and beyond. Lots of bleary eyes at those morning sessions...at least for those of us who managed to drag ourselves up in the morning.
• 
  
  Goin back to the Day 1 exercises, it's still striking to me the huge number of people who entered the Asian American theatre field in the 1990s and 2000s. The Washington Post, as you may recall, did a story on the "lush flowering" of Asian American theatre about that time, and I think it's no misnomer or PR fluff. About that time, the demographics of the Asian American population generated a sizable second and third generation of many groups, which allowed for more artists. And sheer numbers pretty much force the establishment of new groups, and multiple groups in the same geographic area--no one group can voice the multiple concerns and issues of the Asian American community. That's a healthy growth and a natural outcome as the Asian American theatre field grows and maturs. The Revue documented this growth, as we entered the 90s with a mere handful of groups in LA, SF, NY, Seattle and Honolulu....and left the 20th Century with dozens and dozens of groups, and just as many individual artists.
• Speaking of growth, the Revue will reiterated that it has had some thoughts (egged on by conference attendees) of linking with the database of Asian American women playwrights maintained by new WORLD Theatre, and to expand it into a full fledged database, searcheable by subject matter, ethnic groups dealt with, number of characters, genre and so forth.
  
  Hm. That would take expanded website hosting capabilities. And money.
  
  Hm.