The Pan Asian Repertory Theatre is a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based theatre group that explores the

Asian-American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

experience and provides professional opportunities for Asian-American artists to collaborate. Pan-Asian was founded by

Tisa Chang Tisa Chang (born April 5, 1941) is a Chinese-American actress and theatre director born in Chongqing. Her father, Ping-Hsun Chang, was a diplomat, and her family moved from China to New York City when she was a child. Chang was interested in thea ...

and

Ernest Abuba Ernest Abuba (August 25, 1947 – June 21, 2022) was a Filipino-American actor, playwright, director and co-founder of the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. He appeared on stage and on film, with more than one hundred stage appearances. Early life ...

in 1977, and Chang remains artistic director.Harry Haun
"40 Years On, Pan Asian Rep Still Uses Art as Protest"
Playbill, June 16th, 2017 Chang established the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre as a resident company at

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

in 1977, with the intention of popularizing Asian-American theater and leading to other similar theatre companies in cities with an Asian disaporic population.Mel Gussow
"A Stage for All the World of Asian-Americans"
New York Times, April 22nd, 1997. Specializing in intercultural productions of new Asian-American plays, Asian classics in translation, and innovative adaptations of Western classics, some of the works Pan Asian has presented included: *''Empress of China'' - featuring

Tina Chen Tina Chen (Traditional Chinese: 陳婷, Hanyu Pinyin: Chén Tíng) (born November 2, 1943) is a Chinese-American stage, film, and television actress who starred in the films ''Alice's Restaurant'', '' Three Days of the Condor'', and '' The Hawa ...

in the title role of China's last dowager ruler *''

Yellow Fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

-'' continued to an

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

run *''

Ghashiram Kotwal '' Kotwal'' is a Marathi play written by playwright Vijay Tendulkar in 1972 as a response to the rise of a local political party, in Maharashtra. The play is a political satire, written as historical drama. It is based on the life of Nana Phadna ...

-''

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

play with music *''Teahouse'' - by Lao She, spanning fifty years of modern Chinese history *''Cambodia Agonistes'' - by

, music by Louis Stewart *'' The Teahouse of the August Moon'' - by John Patrick *''Forbidden City Blues -'' by Alexander Woo *''The Fan Tan King'' - by C. Y. Leethe, world premiere *''Yohen -'' by Philip Kan Gotanda *''Tea -'' by

Velina Hasu Houston Velina Hasu Houston (born Velina Avisa Hasu Houston; May 5, 1957) is an American playwright, essayist, poet, author, editor and screenwriter who has had many works produced, presented and published. Her work draws from her experience of bei ...

, 20th anniversary production *''Ching Chong Chinaman'' at the Westside Theatre Pan Asian has staged early works of writers including Momoko Iko,

Wakako Yamauchi Wakako Yamauchi (October 23, 1924 – August 16, 2018) was a Japanese American writer. Her plays are considered pioneering works in Asian-American theater. Biography Yamauchi (née Nakamura) was born in Westmorland, California. Her mother and f ...

, Philip Kan Gotanda, R. A. Shiomi, and

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...

. When they established a residency program in 1987, Pan Asian became the United States' first resident Asian American theater company continuing with Chang's goal to showcase Asian American theater as having a role in the city's theater scene.

References

External links

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre official website

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
{{Authority control Off-Broadway theaters Asian-American theatre Theatre companies in New York City 1977 establishments in New York City