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A HISTORY OF ASIAN AMERICAN THEATRE. By Esther Kim Lee. Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama, no. 26. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006; pp. 264. $96.00 cloth.
Esther Kim Lee's A History of Asian American Theatre is a concise and utterly readable book that traces the history of Asian American performance from pre-1965 "oriental" theatre through the culture wars of the 1990s. This is a significant and long-overdue contribution to American theatre history, Asian American studies, and any scholarship interested in the politics of representation or art and activism. This book will serve scholars of Asian American performance, as well as teachers of theatre history aiming to think more broadly about multiculturalism, cultural nationalism, and racial representation on the American stage. Her broad scope still leaves her room for many insightful play analyses and discussions of key issues such as yellowface casting practices.
Lee places theatre artists, rather than institutions, at the center of this history, highlighting the ways Asian American artists have fought to create their own niche in American theatre. Based on over seventy interviews and archival research, this book is comprehensive in its inclusion not only of companies and their adherents, but also solo performers, comedy troupes, and Asian Americans whose contributions to avant-garde performance have been largely overlooked. Lee imagines the world of Asian American theatre as a "web of links," and the frequent cross-referencing among chapters indicates that this was no easy project to organize: "Asian American theatre" is in some ways a small world...