TCG Circle: Where are all the Asians? That seemed to be the question at hand last Monday, Feb. 13, during the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) roundtable, with a pun-filled title: “RepresenAsian: The Changing Face of Theatre,” at Fordham University. The roundtable included a presentation of a newly released study, titled “Ethnic Representation on New York City Stages, 2006/7–2010/11”. The numbers, and ensuing conversation, has been aptly summarized by former–American Theatre staffer Randy Gener for NPR here and Patrick Healy for the New York Times here.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
The Perpetual Foreigner of American Theatre
TCG Circle: Where are all the Asians? That seemed to be the question at hand last Monday, Feb. 13, during the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) roundtable, with a pun-filled title: “RepresenAsian: The Changing Face of Theatre,” at Fordham University. The roundtable included a presentation of a newly released study, titled “Ethnic Representation on New York City Stages, 2006/7–2010/11”. The numbers, and ensuing conversation, has been aptly summarized by former–American Theatre staffer Randy Gener for NPR here and Patrick Healy for the New York Times here.
My mother got her undergraduate degree in Acting from Northwestern. Part of the curriculum was a makeup for the actor class. In that class she learned (among other things) how to create an "oriental eye."
ReplyDeleteDisregarding the fact that the term "oriental" is now considered quite offensive when used in reference to the Asian population, let's consider that about 40 years ago, it was considered acceptable (if not simply standard) that Caucasian people could play Asian parts if they simply put a strip of adhesive tape over their eyelid and blocked off their eyebrows with soap.