Tokens?

A companion piece to the Asian American Writers' Workshop's "The NuyorAsian Anthology: Asian American Writings on New York City, Tokens?", "The NYC Asian American Experience on Stage" presents a vibrant portrait of a burgeoning theater scene. Alvin Eng, "Tokens?'s" editor and contributor, describes the ten plays and performance pieces included in the collection as offering "a great viceral snapshot of what Asian American theater was like in New York City in the 1990s." Other playwrights whose work is found here include David Henry Hwang, Jessica Hagedorn, and Han Ong.The book concludes with "The Verbal Mural," a discussion of the history, current directions, and future prospects for Asian American theater in New York City, gathered from interviews with founders, leading members, and rising stars of the Asian American theater. Through their powerful words and passionate voices, "Tokens?" chronicles the struggles of Asian American artists to find a place in the off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theater world. The author Alvin Eng is currently a teaching artist with the "Young Playwrights Program" of the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY.He is an author, performer, lyricist, and journalist of many celebrated theatrical works including "The Flushing Cycle", an autobiographical one-man play, and "Mao Zedong: Jealous Son" (an Abstract Portrait), an opera.

ISBN 1889876100   Pages 465 ISBN13 9781889876108 (What's this?)   Volumes 001 Publisher Temple University Press,U.S.   Co_publisher Aisan American Writer's Workshop Imprint Temple University Press,U.S.   Weight (grammes) 930 Format Hardback   Published in Philadelphia PA Publication date 20 Jan 2000   Series title Asian American Writers' Workshop Library of Congress PS   Height (mm) 234 DEWEY 812.5409   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Professional / Scholarly

Part I: Introduction / Acknowledgments Part II: The Plays 1. Trying to Find Chinatown, David Henry Hwang 2. Sakina's Restaurant, Aasif Mandvi 3. Swoony Planet, Han Ong 4. Flipzoids, Ralph B. Pea 5. Excerpts from the "Peeling the Banana" Troupe 6. Silent Movie, Jessica Hagedorn 7. Jamaica Avenue, Chiori Miyagawa 8. Big Dicks, Asian Men, SLANT 9. The Last Hand Laundry in Chinatown, Alvin Eng 10. SlutForArt, Ping Chong and Muna Tseng Part III: The Verbal Mural Culled from Interviews Conducted by the Editor With: Tisa Cang, Daryl Chin, Frank Chin, Ping Chong, Jessica Hagedorn, Wynn Handman, David Henry Hwang, Aasif Mandvi, Chiori Miyagawa, Han Ong, Ralph B. Pea, Gary San Angel, SLANT, Diana Son, Ellen Stewart, and Muna Tseng. Prologue: In the Beginning Act I: What Becomes Asian American Theatre Most? Act II: What's New York Got to Do with It? Entr'acte: Growing Up: Asian American Theatre through the Years Act III: Summation: NYC Asian American Theatre 2000, a New Diversity or the Same Ol' Tokenism? Epilogue: In the Future Contributors

"A diverse collection of passionate, provocative, poetic and powerful plays from some of today's most remarkable Asian American playwrights. Defiantly unique in voice and universal in emotion, each work potently strikes the heart and mind. This wonderful volume is absolutely requisite reading for those who love the theater and Asian American literature." --Chay Yew, award-winning playwright of Red, Porcelain and A Language of Their Own, among others "The story of Asian American theatre in New York City is no neat three-act play. As it's been for theatre by any ethnic or cultural minority, it's been a struggle. In Tokens?...that history is well and candidly told. As for the plays that are included in this anthology: Each work proves that it's worth the struggle to give voice to an untold story. Tokens? is a valuable contribution to Asian American cultural history." --Ben Fong-Torres, former editor of Rolling Stone and author of The Rice Room: Growing Up Chinese American, Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons, and Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 200 Years of Rock and Roll

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