Tim Dang is stepping down as East West Players’ Producing Artistic Director, but he isn’t going quietly. This year, Dang received the Zelda Fichandler Award, given annually to "an outstanding director or choreographer" who makes "exceptional [contributions] to the national arts landscape through theatre work in a region.'
The Chinese Hawaiian native has spent the past 22 years in his position working for "the nation’s longest running professional theatre of color and the largest creator of Asian Pacific artistic work." He has overtime become East West’s company face and biggest proponent.
"I actually came to East West Players as an actor and learned everything from the box office to lighting and sound as a technician," said Dang. "By the time I became the artistic director in 1993, I had learned the craft of how to run a theater. This was a firsthand experience that I learned. In the 13 years of grooming and just experiencing the theater, I had learned how to run the theater."
He is troubled by Hollywood’s unwavering homogeneity, and says "the biz" needs to start seeing the world for what it actually is.
"In real life, one out of six doctors in America are Asian," said Dang. "Do you see that on TV when you have a doctor thing that’s happening? You don’t see that because there are biases by producers."
As he searches for a replacement also of a minority background, Dang said he will keep his legacy in mind by making sure that East West continues to be a supportive place for the upcoming minority generation.
"The reason why we were founded was because the types of roles that were available to Asian Americans were very limited," said Dang in his baritone, neighborly voice. "What the artists wanted to do was show Hollywood that there was talent amongst the Asian community. East West started off doing the classics like Shakespeare. Once they figured out that there was respect for the artists, they realized that they were missing one component and that was their own stories – Asian American stories."
Since its inception, the company has shown over 100 productions about Asian Pacific American culture, in which every position – actors, crew, costumes – have been filled with a majority of minorities.
"You could equate us to a social justice organization," he said. "Yes, we provide entertainment to the public, but we also get the message out there. We want to make sure there’s more opportunities for people of color and women in more creative roles and also we want to make sure that we give the youth under 35 opportunities to play leading positions in theater and film and television."
While the theater company is certainly unique – A 2012 study conducted by the Asian American Performers Action Coalition found that, in the previous five theater seasons, Asian Americans comprised just 2 percent of roles, black actors 13 percent, and Latinos 4 percent – East West is calling upon other companies to emulate its diverse makeup.
The group created "2042: See Change" which includes its "51% Preparedness" proposal. Unless 51 percent of an organization’s artists and production personnel consist of either people of color, women, or are younger than 35 years old, East West said, it should not be allowed to use the word "diverse" when describing its programming.
The U.S. Census Bureau released a report in 2010 projecting that the American minority populations will become the majority by 2042, with 20 percent of Americans identifying as biracial.
East West will treat the latter as a welcomed challenge to embrace new cultural norms, Dang said.
"There’s a whole new population that’s going to be growing, and those stories are going to be changing."
East West Players is now in its 50th anniversary season, just wrapping its latest production, "Chinglish," after a successful five week run in its intimate theater house in Little Tokyo. The two-hour play follows Daniel, an American businessman, as he navigates Chinese culture, poor translations, international romance, and miscommunication, emerging from it a more strategic player in international commercial conquests and in his personal life. Written by Tony Award-winning David Henry Hwang, the play has yangge danced its way from locations like Broadway to Berkeley to Syracuse to the City of Angels, the last snatching a spot on the Los Angeles Times’ lauded "Critics Choice" list.
Dang commented on the play’s real life parallels.
"When an American tries to conduct business in China, he needs to learn about the culture," the director said. "You can’t depend on your interpreter or depend on the Chinese to know enough English or about American culture. So, going into that, this is kind of the reason that East West Players is here. We’re actually educating our audience."