Chan: Changing Theater on Campus

If you don’t have anything to do next weekend--or even if you do--grab some friends and head over to see Charles Francis Chan, Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery for a hilariously surreal play-within-a-play that will shake your conceptions of racial identity in America.The play is put on by East West Theater and the organization’s founder and president emeritus, Kathy Zhao ‘17, as her senior thesis in theater.Chan, which follows a college-dropout during the turbulent sixties as he pens a play to combat racism against Asian Americans, debuted last week on Friday the 10th to a standing ovation, according to Zhao. The Saturday performance was preceded by an afternoon symposium featuring conversations on race and representation in theaters both on campus and beyond.“I’ve only been in one other thesis production, Zoyka’s Apartment,” Zhao said of her theater career here at Princeton. “That was the first time I was forced to confront playing race.”Zhao’s role in Zoyka’s Apartment required her to play yellow face and speak with broken English.“I found myself, an Asian American, playing a stereotyped caricature of a Chinese person,” Zhao said of her role. “I didn’t quite understand all the feelings and confusion until it finally coalesced into a feeling of shame of having my parents coming to see the show.”Zhao embarked upon the quest of creating East West Theater last spring to carve out a space for Asian American visibility in the theater community. Having played with the idea of a company since her sophomore year, Zhao states that East West has three goals: “to increase the representation of Asian Americans in theater, to represent the diversity of all experiences on the stage, and to create an inclusive environment to welcome beginners to theater.”Recently, East West Theater has hosted staged readings of Ching Chong Chinaman by Lauren Yee, held mock auditions to explain the auditioning process to those new to theater, and performed their first show, Untold Stories, in December of last year.Zhao notes that East West will continue to organize events such as future symposiums. The symposium on Saturday afternoon included reflections on diversity in theater, featuring scholars, performers, and writers such as Erin Quill, Brian Herrera, Christine Mok, Robert Lee, and Lloyd Suh, the playwright himself.“One thing that heartens me is the fact that we’re sitting here and having this conversation because Kathy created this thing,” Suh said during his panel, followed by a round of applause and cheers. “Power [is talking] about owning your agency, being bold, and taking action.”And that is exactly what Zhao did.“It’s not a popular thing for people of my generation to say,” Suh continued, “but millennials are pretty amazing.”Chan will have another set of performances this week on February 16th, 17th, and 18th at 8:00 p.m. in the Marie and Edward Matthews ’53 Acting Studio at 185 Nassau Street. Tickets purchased in advance are $12 for general admission and $11 for senior citizens and students; tickets purchased at the door are $17 and $15.