Asian American Theatre Timeline
The following timeline created was collaboratively by the attendees as a record of
events as part of Asian American theatre (both in general and to them personally) and performance history. (Note: dates are not verified)
| 1903 | Broadway production of Onoto Watanna's (Winnifred Eaton) A Japanese Nightingale, at Daly's Theater in 1903. First Asian American author produced on Broadway. |
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| 1918 | Sadakicu plays | |
| 1920's | Asian American student playwrights begin writing at the University of Hawaii | |
| 1924-31 | Winnifred Eaton [1875-1954], the first Asian American novelist and screenwriter, wrote hundreds of screenplays and treatments from 1924 to 1931": | She is also known as Onoto Watanna. Her IMDB listing is under a married name, "Winifred Reeve. Note: her sister Edith Maud Eaton [1865-1914], writing as "Sui Sin Far," is held to be "the first person of Chinese ancestry to write in defense of the Chinese in America, countered beliefs widely held at the time that the Chinese were unassimilable [sic], morally corrupt, and corrupting. Sui Sin Far demonstrated that the Chinese were human, like everyone else, but victimized by the laws of the land." Another sister, Grace (1867-1957), was the first Chinese-American female attorney in Chicago; she went to her law practice every day until her death at age 89": |
| 1920's-1930's | Ling-Ai Li & Wai Chee Chun Yee begin writing and become pioneering Asian American women playwrights in Hawaii | |
| 1920's-1930's | The Filipino Manongs came to California (Stockton, etc.) -- My dad immigrated to NYC (Nicky P) | |
| 1938-39 | Willand Wilson begins collecting student plays at the University of Hawaii Manoa (including Asian American plays) | |
| Early 20th Century | The Forbidden City thrives--Asian American Cabaret | |
| 1940's-1950's | Chop Suey Circuit | |
| 1942-46 | Japanese American Internment | Going by when the first main camp, Manzanar, opened [March '42] and the last one, Tule Lake, closed [March '46]. |
| 1942 | Dutch & Indonesians in concentration camps under Japanese occupation | |
| 1959 | The Crimson Kimono" debuts starring James Shigeta -- one of the first studio marketed films in which an Asian Pacific American gets the girl! " | |
| 1959 | Creation of the San Francisco Mime Troupe | |
| 1961 | Flower Drum Song starring Nancy Kwan was the first TV. performance of Asian American actors and positively influenced Asian identity. We saw ourselves in the media. | |
| 1961 | Breakfast at Tiffany's shows a buck tooth stereotype of Japanese man | |
| 1965 | Immigration Act of 1965 - Relaxation of anti-Asian immigration laws, large wave of Chinese, Filipino and Korean immigration to the US as pent up demand lasts for at least two decades. | |
| 1960's | Yoko Ono's appearance on "The Tube" & in the media | |
| 1960's | Vietnam War | |
| 1960's | Tanzaman Socialist dance performances | |
| 1965 | East West Players is founded - Mako is the founding Artistic Director | |
| 1966-67 | Bruce Lee as Kato | |
| Late 1960's | Collaboration between East West Players and Inner City Cultural Center | |
| 1969 | Demonstration at Los Angeles Music Center (re) Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen | |
| Late 60's Early 70's | Great Asian American actors audition but no roles for Asians | |
| 1970's | Most consistently multicultural ensemble in SF Bay area and the oldest" political theatre in the nation " | |
| Kumu Kahua Theatre Honolulu -- as a response to the absence of local voices and material in Hawaiian theatre. Local" is an identity shaped by/for largely | ||
| 1970's | Asian American Studies begins | |
| 1970's | First courses in Asian American Theatre taught at UCLA | |
| 1970's | Second City establishes improv + sketch comedy as an art form | |
| 1970's | BITAW -- Basic Integrated Theatre Arts Workshop was an educational program created in the Philippines and used in the Philippines and the United States to teach and empower | |
| 1970's | American Conservatory Theater develops Asian American actors | |
| 1970's | Indian Sheer Theatre meets Asian American solo performance | |
| 1970's-1980's | Anti-Asian Violence | |
| 1970 | Country Dinner playhouse toured Teahouse of the August Moon | |
| 1970 | International Manila Voice Fest | |
| 1972 | Ping Chong's Lazarus at La Mama ETC | |
| 1972 | Production of Chicken Coop Chinaman by Frank Chin | |
| 1972 | Creation of Theatrical Ensember of Asians (which became Asian Exclusion Act, then Northwest Asian American Theatre ) in Seattle |
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| 1972 | Creation of Asian American Theatre Workshop (later Company) in San Francisco | |
| 1972 | Coda written by Tri-Am, Alberto Isaac, produced by East West Players | |
| 1972 | Kearny Street Workshop founded -- San Francisco | |
| 1973 | Chinese Theatre Group Act La Mama Return of the Phoenix | |
| mid 1970's | Asian Americans protest Broadway parts being given to non-Asian Americans | |
| 1974 | Nicky Paraiso was the first Asian-Filipino-American to be admitted to NYU's graduate acting program. Harsh Nayya, a South Asian actor, was in the class a year ahead and Marion Yue was a Japanese American classmate. | |
| 1976 | Pacific Overtures on Broadway | |
| 1977 | Pan Asian Rep founded by Tisa Chang | |
| 1977 | Wakako Yamauchi's And the Soul Shall Dance at East West Players | |
| 1978 | Nobuko Miyamoto founds Great Leap – Asian American performing arts organization in Los Angeles " | |
| 1979 | New World Theatre founded -- Asian American female artistic director -- Asian American theatre presented, produced, developed since its founding | |
| 1979 | David Henry Hwang writes F.O.B. at Stanford | |
| 1979 | Pacific Asian Actors Ensemble in San Diego founded by Thom Sesma, Gingerlily Lowe, David Tamayo, Kent Brisby, Ed You, & Janine Lowe | |
| 1980's | East West Players' productions hit me in my theatrical heart, and I knew someday I wanted to be involved with East West. I got my opportunity in 1991. | |
| 1980's | AIDS epidemic devastates the theatre world | |
| 1980's | Paper Angels at Chinese Cultural Center in San Francisco | |
| 1980's | Reading Fanon & Rustom Barucha | |
| 1980's | Participating in Street Theater in India -- watching Badal Sircar's extraordinary production Procession | |
| 1980's | Seattle Group Theatre -- multicultural playwrights, festivals, national gatherings | |
| 1980 | Song for a Nisei Fisherman at Asian American Theatre Company | |
| 1981 | Cold Tofu founded by four women: Marilyn Tokuda, Denice Kumagai, Judy Momii, & Irma Escamilla | |
| 1981-82 | Japan America Theater opens its doors | |
| 1982 | Yellow Fever at Asian American Theater Company and Pan Asian Rep | |
| 1983 | Chicago's first Asian American theatre formed: MinaSama-No | Co-founded by Marc Rita |
| 1983-84 | Yellow Fever by Rick Shiomi in Vancouver Canada | |
| 1984 | Who Killed Vincent Chin? | |
| 1984 | Karate Kid with Pat Morita - 1st Asian American born Oscar nominee | |
| 1984 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (as a bad thing) | |
| 1986 | 1st Production of David Henry Hwang's F.O.B. in our Capitol City Sacramento | |
| 1986 | Creation of Cahoots Theatre Projects in Toronto | |
| 1986 | The end of Asian Writers Basement Workshops led by Fay Chiong in NYC | |
| Late 1980's | Velina Hasu Houston's Tea at San Diego's old Globe Theatre | |
| Mid 1980's | Films like Sixteen Candles & Gung Ho portrayed Asian stereotypes and sparked a movement for Asian Americans to fight these stereotypes. | |
| 1988 | David Henry Hwang's M Butterfly | |
| 1988 | David Henry Hwang wins Tony for M Butterfly | |
| 1989 | Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan | |
| 1989 | Ma-Yi Theatre Company founded in NYC | |
| 1989 | Chinese Story Theatre (later renamed Asian Story Theatre) founded by Kent Brisby & Gingerlily Lowe | |
| 1989 | Highways Performance Space founded by Tim Miller & Linda Frye Burnham in Santa Monica, California | |
| 1989 | Dan Kwong premieres first solo performance, Secrets of The Samurai Centerfielder | |
| 1989 | Tianamen Square student protests | |
| 1990's | Exit the Dragon in Berkeley | |
| 1990's | Development and rise of Asian American stand-up comedy (Margaret Cho) | |
| 1990 | Production of Yankee Dog You Die at Washington Project F/T Arts | |
| 1990 | Petition in protest to Colleen Dewhurst & Actor's Equity regarding non-Asian American casting of Miss Saigon | |
| 1990 | Miss Saigon Opens, starring Jonathan Pryce & Lea Salonga | |
| 1990 | The first Gulf War | |
| 1990 | David Mura's reading of After We Lost Our Way | |
| 1990 | Bindlestiff studio in San Francisco founded | |
| 1990-1992 | Tokyo Bound Amy Hill's solo show | |
| 1990's-2005 | Chay Yew teaches the Asian Theatre playwriting workshops at the Mark Taper Forum | |
| Early 1990's | David Henry Hwang Writer's Institute | |
| 1991 | Treasure in the House Asian Pacific American performance series born at Highways | note: founded by Dan Kwong |
| 1992 | Theater Mu founded | |
| 1992 | Rich Shiomi writes and Theater Mu produces the first play about Korean Adoption | |
| 1992 | LA Riots and the subsequent founding of Society of Heritage Performance | |
| 1992 | NWAAT's 20th Anniversary | |
| 1992 | Asian American Renaissance -- conference & organization forming in Minneapolis, MN 55407 | |
| 1992 | The Public Theater forms an Asian American Playwrights Lab headed by Chiori Miyagawa with members Sung Rno, Lesli Jo Morizono, Diana Son, Eugenie Chan, Dawn Akemi Saito and Cary Wong. | It is shut down a year later after Artistic Director JoAnne Atkalitis is replaced by George C. Wolfe. |
| 1993 | Joy Luck Club the film | |
| 1993 | Red Earth & Pouring Rain won the Booker (Indo-American novel). | |
| 1993 | Unbroken Thread published -- edited by Roberta Uno and Velina Hasu Houston -- the first anthology of plays by Asian American women playwrights. | |
| 1993 | Canadian premiere of David Henry Hwang's The Dance and the Railroad | |
| 1993 | Club O'Noodle - Vietnamese American Theatre Company started | |
| Mid 1990's | 2nd Spoken Word Summit APIA Chicago | |
| Mid 1990's | Youth Speaks in NYC at the teachers & writer's collaborative | |
| 1994 | Community Asian Theatre of the Sierra established -- introducing Asian American theatre to the whitest county in California (Nevada County) | |
| 1994 | All American Girl with Margaret Cho | |
| 1994 | Asian Boys -- Nicky Paraiso's first full-length performance piece | |
| 1994 | Dan Kwong's Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Asian Men - but Didn't Give Enough of a Shit to Ask at Japanese American National Museum Los Angeles | |
| 1994 | Cleveland Raining Sung Rno | |
| 1994 | Berkeley Rep's Woman Warrior | |
| 1995 | Stir-Friday Night! Discovered a fun yet powerful method to show a truthful perspective on the Asian American experience-- that method was sketch comedy. | |
| 1995 | Asian American Repertory Theatre founded in San Diego: Andy Lowe, Vince Sobbrano, Jenn Wong, Donna Maglalang, Jyl Kaneshiro | |
| 1995 | Peeling the Banana Writing and performing workshop at Asian American Writers Workshop - NYC | note: founded by Gary San Angel |
| 1995 | Lapu (UCLA's Asian American Theatre group) | |
| 1995 | Ann Bogart's Still Co. - Suzuki Summer Program | |
| 1996 | Asian Arts Institute - First nonprofit community arts center targeted to Asian American forms. | |
| 1996 | RAW - Real Asian Woman Talk (performance art/dance) at the Walker Art Center. Shared stage with Denise Uyehara & Canyon Sam | |
| 1996 | Roger Tang develops Asian American Theatre Review website which suddenly links API artists nationally through the world wide web. | |
| 1996-1999 | Produce APIA Arts Initiative @ Pomona College hosting readings of John Song/ Judy Soo Hoo, & Michael Premsirat's plays. | |
| Late 1990's | New World Theater's Third World American Theatre Conference | |
| Late 1990's | Introducing & directing South Asian play at regional theatre | |
| Late 1990's | San Francisco Chronicle article on interracial dating: Asian women and Caucasian Men | |
| Late 1990's | Spoken word turned theatre | |
| Late 1990's | Journey to the West at Berkeley Rep | |
| 1997 | Asian American Women Playwrights archive founded at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It becomes a national repository of plays, interviews, photos, etc. | |
| 1997 | Josephine Lee's publication of Performing Asian America | |
| 1997 | API 101 at Asian American Theater Company | |
| 1997 | Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center founded | |
| 1997 | Ching Valdes Aran-Obie -- best performance, Flipzoids @ Ma-Yi Theatre | |
| 1997 | Scholarly work by Josephine Lee's Performing Asian America | |
| 1997 | Asian American Theatre Listserv established | |
| Post 1997 | Import of Hong Kong Box Office stars like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun Fat. | |
| 1997-98 | Making Tracks NY Musical Workshop | |
| 1998 | First the Forrest worked with Dipankar Mukherjee in one-woman show | |
| 1998 | Conference at Seattle's Northwest Asian American Theatre | |
| 1998 | Dan Kwong & Gary San Angel introduced an all Asian American performance workshop in Philadelphia | |
| 1998 | East West Players moves into new 240-seat Equity theater in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo | |
| 1998 | Something to Say performance group at Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia | |
| 1998 | East is East Premieres in NYC | |
| 1998 | World Premiere of Dogeaters at La Jolla Playhouse | |
| 1998 | Hapa Performance Weekend @ Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica | |
| 1998 | East West Players produces first Thai-American play Big Hunk O' Burnin' Love by Prince Gomolvilas | |
| 1998 | In Vancouver, the Asian Canadian population constituted 40% of the general population, but we were not represented at all on stage in Vancouver. Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (VACT) was born to right this injustice. | |
| 1998 | Resurrection of Stanford Asian American Theater Project (a group started by David Henry Hwang). Sean Lim of AATC involved as student. | |
| 1999 | Singapore Festival of the Arts hosts Los Angeles based playwright of Dutch, Indonesian, & Spanish Apache descent. If I Only Had a Heart Made Out of Levi's written by Annette Jilts Jacobs | |
| 1999 | Mighty Mountain Warriors & Latina Theater Lab & Culture Clash collaborate and create a piece. | |
| 1999 | Lodestone Theatre Ensemble founded in Los Angeles | |
| 1999 | Manhattan Theatre Club and The New Group collaborate to produce UK play East is East in NYC with mostly South Asian cast | |
| 1999 | Jooks Songs Performance Group at Yale University | ( founded by Dave Lin, original member of Peeling the Banana, NY) |
| 1999 | Generasian -- Next teen theater troupe starts its first season at the Asian Arts Initiative. | |
| 1999 | I Was Born with Two Tongues founded using the idea of "Asian American Identity" through powerful and proficiently worded spoken word poetry. | |
| 1999 | Sirenz -- women's multi-ethnic spoken word group founded in response to white supremicist hate crimes in Illinois | |
| 2000 | A Jive Bombers Christmas 2nd Generation continues the tradition at the Japanese American National Museum " | |
| 2000 | TeAda Productions -- JACCC -- Hawaii artists in Los Angeles | |
| 2000 | Roberta Uno's reading of her anthology Unbroken Thread | |
| 2000 | Disha Theatre -- The first South Asian theatre company in New York City launches at Dialectica Art Gallery. | |
| 2001 | Teada Productions presents Native Immigrant at JAT in Little Tokyo | |
| 2001 | 1st APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit in Seattle | |
| 2001 | Karen Shimakawa's National Abjection | |
| 2001 | Mango Tribe, a collective of 30 APIA women from Chicago, NYC, Minneapolis, LA -- produces Sisters in the Smoke in Chicago at the Vittum Theater in response to violence within APIA communities. | |
| 2001 | Mellow Yellow's 1st show opens two weeks after the events of September 11, 2001 | |
| 2001 | American Desi released -- 1st major Indo-American independent film nationally released | |
| 2002 | Better Luck Tomorrow opens (grassroots community, globalization) | |
| 2002 | YAWP begins in Chicago! | |
| 2002 | 1st TeAda workshop featuring Kristina Wong, Ova Saopeng, & Robert Karimi | |
| 2002 | Leadership shift and new direction at Asian American Theater Co. of San Francisco. Sean Lim starts as Artistic Director. | |
| 2002 | Great Leap's Sacred Moon Songs at East West Players with Asian. Chicano | |
| 2002 | Flower Drum Song by David Henry Hwang opens -- Asian American patronage extend the run | |
| 2002 | Sex in Seattle: Episode II -- other women influence Vancouver Asian Canadian theatre productions | Sex in Seattle is the country's longst running serial drama for stage. |
| 2002 | YAWP Young Asians with Power workshop | |
| 2002 | Chop! Chop! Asian American Artists collective show | |
| 2003 | 2nd Asian American Spoken Word &Poetry Summit in Chicago | |
| 2003 | World Premiere of Precious Stones by Jamil Khoury -- Chicago | |
| 2003 | Mango Tribe produces Sisters in the Smoke in New York at HERE Arts Center -- sold-out run! | |
| 2003 | Bombay Dreams produced on Broadway with mostly South Asian cast by Andrew Lloyd Weber | |
| 2003 | Ushering in the new generation of Asian Canadian plays and artists (Little Dragon, China Doll, Banana Boys) consistent, continuous, constant | |
| 2003 | Beau Sia, Stacey Ann Chinn, & Suheir Hamad receive Tony Award for Def Poetry Jam | |
| 2003-04 | Taiko Project (re)generation -- 1st major taiko theatrical production tours in the US | |
| 2004 | Harold & Kumar opens with two Asian American leads | |
| 2004 | Dogeaters -- LA production | |
| 2004 | Theater Mu collaborates with Park Square Theater on the first all Asian American cast musical in MN with Pacific Overtures | |
| 2004 | Co-playwright in With love from Ramallah First Arab-American production in the upper Midwest. | |
| 2004 | National Performance Network Conference in Los Angeles | |
| 2004 | Opening night of Remains at Mo'olelo Performing Arts Co. San Diego | |
| 2004 | Pipe Dreams and Paper Trails at Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco | |
| Mango Tribe performs 2nd production The Creation Mythology Project | ||
| 2004 | Henry Street Settlement in NYC. | |
| 2004 | M Butterfly production by East West Players | |
| 2004 | Tea by Velina Hasu Houston in Chicago | |
| 2004 | The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at The Old Globe | |
| 2005 | Premiere of F.O.P. Fresh off the Plane at AATC by Sean Lim | |
| 2005 | 3rd APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit in Boston | |
| 2005 | A Korean couple on Lost the television show | |
| 2005 | Haruki Murakami's After the Quake premieres at Chicago's Steppenwoolf Theater | |
| 2005 | Lodestone Theatre Ensemble production of Aziatik Nation | |
| 2005 | YAWP Young Asians with Power benefit in Chicago Untranslatable | |
| 2005 | As Vishnu Dreams at East West Players in collaboration with Cornerstone Theatre | |
| 2005 | Guantanamo at Culture Project | |
| 2005 | World premiere of Amazing Leap of Faith | |
| 2005 | Asian American Arts Initiative writing and performance workshop | |
| 2005 | Self (the remix) opens in Alaska | |
| 2005 | AATC and Bindlestiff Studio production of Sleeper (a chronicle of the return of the remarkable) | |
| 2005-06 | Touring work of Youth Speaks through Living Project Rep. | |
| 2006 | Making Tracks in San Jose -- Asians can sing and have incredible talent! | |
| 2006 | Kristina Wong is awarded creative capital award in theatre to create new work on mental illness among Asian woman | |
| 2006 | TeAda Lab development & open rehearsal at Angels Gate Cultural Center | |
| 2006 | Scholarly work by Esther Kim Lee History of Asian American Theatres | |
| 2006 | Mango Tribe develops 3rd production Un/knowing Desire and Empire at New World Theater summer play lab | |
| 1st collaboration between CATS and a professional theatre group, the Word for Word Theatre Co. in SF, bringing Amy Tan's Immortal Heart to Nevada | ||
| 2006 | County | |
| 2006 | Grace Lee Project | |
| 2006 | Mango Tribe & Asian Arts Initiative collaborate on a residency exploring gentrification as an intensive workshop for artists across the country | |
| 2006 | Another Heaven depiction of Asian dilemma as indentured labor in Hawaii - produced by Kuma Kahua Theatre | |
| 2006 | Asian American Theatre Conference hosted by East West Players in Los Angeles | |
| 2006 | Mako passes away, July 21. | Bio |
| 2006 | SIS Productions (Seattle) launches Insatiable, the Seattle Asian American Playwrights' Festival | |
| 2006-07 | I Land solo performance by Keo Woolford & Roberta Uno | |
| 2006-07 | Launching of Canada's 1st Asian-Canadian Drama Anthology (acknowledging/recognizing the body of work we love). | |
| 2007 | First National Asian American Theatre Festival held in New York City. | |
| 2008 | Second National Asian American Theatre Conference, Minneapolis, MN | |
| 2009 | Second National Asian American Theatre Festival, held in New York City. |
