Why Theatre?

“The “secret” of theatre’s power is dependent upon the “truth” of the illusion.  Enfolded within fiction, theatre seeks to display the line between visible and invisible power” –Peggy Phelan, Unmarked qtd in Shimakawa 57

Why theatre?  “The spontaneous and confrontational aspects of live theatre presented themselves as an antidote to the forced invisibility of Asian Americanness produced through abjection, counter it with not mere inclusion of Asian Americanness in the spectrum of the visible but with a spotlit focus on it. Additionally, traditional Western theatre’s presentational layering of body/actor/character lends itself to a political agenda of Asian American theatre artists like Gotanda”—Karen Shimakawa 67 (National Abjection: The Asian American Body Onstage.  Duke UP: London, 2002. Print)

Karen Shimakawa spends a good amount of time explaining why theatre is a particularly apt social space to examine, expose, counter, and critically mime the national abjection that characterizes the anti-Asian Americanc racism that has been prevalent in White American culture.  The answer is important to me.  To say that the purpose of theater is merely to entertain or instruct oversimplifies what happens through the process of study, rehearsal, and performance.  The variety and amount of people involved in and necessary to the process—each one and group bringing something to the cauldron. 

I had the privilege of studying with East West Players in the summer of 2006; right after seeing the first production of David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face—a play about the Miss Saigon scandal and specifically Hwang’s part in it, but he issue at stake was the question of being Asian American and what that means in the social and theatrical realms.  At the time, I knew little more about the Miss Saigon incident than what I learned in the play, but I had grown up with a lot of Asian American students.  In my school, white was the minority.  When I studied at East West, I was the only student without at least one Asian-American parent—I was the only white girl.  While I was conscious of my race at the beginning, my classmates adopted me. I was already familiar with Asian and Asian-American culture, topics, cuisine, as well as the general American background we shared as a core group (5 of us in every class).  In one of our acting classes (with other students), once or twice a week there was about an hour of time spent on what I came to see as Asian-American Theatre therapy.  Theatre was not a popular or accepted choice for many of the students, and their communities and families often provided pressure.  As an Asian-American theatre company, this was an issue that was important for the teachers to address.  I found myself trying to assimilate and listening a lot.

I remember one exercise that two of my classmates worked on in a scene in which two sisters were fighting: they were both Korean American and so were the characters.  The actress playing the older sister in the scene was asked if she spoke Korean—she did.  Our instructor asked her to say her lines in Korean in the scene.  The actress playing the younger sister did not speak Korean as fluently, but she understood it—her lines remained in English.  The scene exploded.  Using the other language deeply connected both actresses to what was happening.  It was one of many times that I wished I had been part of a more multicultural family—though I have learned since that I am multicultural, if not in a visible way. 

Up until my experience there, I had been very nervous about theatre as a career choice; the general view of actors and theatre practitioners is not a particularly positive one where I grew up.  Learning and working at East West players was the first place that I felt the answer to “Why Theatre,” beyond knowing that I loved it.  The company treated theater as not only an entertaining performance, but also a way to understand, explore, challenge, and correct different baggage that those involved had as individuals and as a community.  The immediacy and tangibility of theater was actively engaged to understand not just characters but actors, directors, audience, and others.  American society/People society is full of problems (I use the word broadly, deliberately), and theatre is able to both instruct and entertain while going deeper than that.  Shimakawa mentioned different ways to use theater to counter abjection, including: presenting more realistic characters and critical mimesis.  What other methods exist?  How else do we use theatre’s fiction to tell the Truth? How do different plays and performances, styles and groups use the medium to explore, contradict, grow, change? 

It’s a puzzle that I enjoy being a part of, in any way I can.