La Jolla Playhouse's The Nightingale

The Prelude

In a series of events that seemed very reminiscient of the controversy over Miss Saigon, La Jolla Playhouse opened on July 10 a new musical version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Nightingale (possibly bound for Broadway), obviously set in China and featuring a cast of five white males, four African American women and two Asian American women (and NO Asian men). This is despite a demonstrated lack of Asian Americans cast in parts on Broadway (1.5% over the past five years and only in roles written to be Asian in the first place).

Actress Erin Quill originally broached the issue of lack of Asian actors in no uncertain terms, and the controversy quickly spread from various blogs to the mainstream media, stretching from coast to coast in various publications as Back Stage, the LA Times, and Playbill.

Stung by the criticism, La Jolla held a talkback session after the July 22 matinee, with representatives from the production's creative team, and with panelists from the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, Cindy Cheung and Christine Toy Johnson.

The Talkback

Unedited video here.

Discussion was vigorous and sometimes heated. A list of live tweets from the session can be found here.

The discussion included some real interesting nuggests of information and some face-palm moments. A sample of them include:

• Apparently the first question asked, from a white female audience member: "Is there a big enough talent pool of Asians to cast?" [No, lady, we have a nearly all Asian Miss Saigon and Flower Drum Song, but we can't do an all Asian Nightingale, even though the first workshop version in 2007 had an all Asian cast].
• Author of The Nightengale, Steven Sater: "We tried all Asian cast, we felt as the white creators we couldn't fully tell the story." [Which explains no Asians in cast? Meaning they were telling their version of Asian culture, so they didn't want any actual Asians to have any input??](or as David Henry Hwang tweeted: "We couldn't see the characters as fully human with an all Asian cast")
  
• La Jolla Playhouse: "We're sorry about our casting decision that caused so much racial tension"
  
• Cindy Cheung: "Had this been an African production you wouldn't have said 5 black actors turned it down, so this is what we have. There was a time in history that it was ok for white person to play black. Mythical Africa is now no longer acceptable."
• Director Moises Kaufman: "I think this conversation we are having today is perhaps one of the most important conversations we can be having in American theater. Both for issues of the presentation, issues of inclusion, but also for the health of the American theater.""
• Junko Goda tweeted: "Mediator is doing a good job. Themes from the Jeremy Lin SNL sketch is coming up..."
• "[Composter] Sheik didn't speak during the panel, but in a brief interview afterward the composer said the discussion had "affected my thinking of the show. My head is spinning." (LA Times).
• Also from Ms. Cheung: "We know it is not a finished product. That is why we are here – to influence. We don't want to see this happen anymore. " [And just a note from this old fart--while this approach may seem blunt and confrontational, history has taught us that theatre institutions and big names often won't notice anything less than the proberbial 2 x 4 to the head]

The Aftermath

Mass media coverage:

• FOX5: "Packed, but not for performance."
• "Harsh criticism at La Jolla Playhouse."
• LA Times had coverage.
• The LA Times arts blogger followed up with: "Real world concerns about a fantasy 'Nightingale'"
• Coverage from KPBS

Community observations:

• Erin Quill follows up from after the talkback with this observation.
• Essay from Jennifer Chang, founding member of Chalk Rep: "Could it be that you don't respect the Asian community enough to have considered that you could offend a group of people?"
• She followed up with this blog entry.
  
• Lots of takeaway points from Timothy Tau, author of Yellow Shakespeare, who reported on the talkback itself and is summarizing much of the online discussion.
• Author/playwright Han Ong writes an essay on the controversy on his Facebook page.
• Thoughts from Greg Watanabe (long timeAsian American actor) from his Facebook page.
• Thoughts from Kira Onodera, longtime actor.

More to come.