Pan Asian Repertory Theatre
The Pan Asian Repertory Theatre is a New York City-based theatre group that explores the Asian-American experience and provides professional opportunities for Asian-American artists to collaborate. Pan-Asian was founded by Tisa Chang and Ernest Abuba in 1977, and Chang remains artistic director. Chang established the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre as a resident company at La MaMa [Experimental Theatre Club] in 1977, with the intention of popularizing Asian-American theater and leading to other similar theatre companies in cities with an Asian disaporic population.
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 in the title role of China's last dowager rulerYellow Fever - continued to an Off-Broadway runGhashiram Kotwal - Marathi play with musicTeahouse - by Lao She, spanning fifty years of modern Chinese historyCambodia Agonistes - by Ernest Abuba, music by Louis StewartThe [Teahouse of the August Moon (play)|The Teahouse of the August Moon] - by John PatrickForbidden City Blues - by Alexander WooThe Fan Tan King - by C. Y. Leethe, world premiereYohen - by Philip Kan GotandaTea - by Velina Hasu Houston, 20th anniversary productionChing Chong Chinaman at the Westside Theatre
Pan Asian has staged early works of writers including Momoko Iko, Wakako Yamauchi, Philip Kan Gotanda, R. A. Shiomi, and David Henry Hwang. 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.