Asian Diaspora Theatre

Neoliberal and colonial empires have devastated Muslim communities across the globe. Whether it is British imperialism in South Asia or the military adventurism of the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, geopolitical violence has moved Muslims from homelands to colonizers’ lands. Throughout these migrations, theatre and the telling of stories have been sources of strength and solidarity, a legacy drawing on the origins of Muslim history. Indeed, the dates of today’s Islamic calendar bear the acronym “AH” or “After Hijrah,” a term that references the migration of early Muslims from the religious oppression they faced in Makkah to a more tolerant context in Medina. Drawing on this legacy of migration to escape subjugation, Transatlantic Muslim Voices examines the ways that contemporary British and US theatre artists have continued or drawn inspiration from this practice through their own work. The contributors to this series are diverse in their racial, ethnic, gender, linguistic, and sexual identities, but all of them meditate on what it means to be a Muslim on the move.

Since the start of the pandemic last year, Asian Americans have faced constant and deadly racist violence. “Stop AAPI Hate,” a reporting database, received 3,795 reports of anti-Asian-American discrimination between March 19, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021; women reported hate incidents at 2.3 times the rate of men. The LA Writers Center asked "what can we do?" We think by telling more Asian American stories, we can affirm that this community is a vital part of the American narrative. With this in mind, we are launching the "Home: Asian Voices Reading Series".

The virtual series will explore the theme of the upcoming 7th Annual Asian American Theater Festival & Conference (ConFest) “Kuʻu ʻĀina, Kuʻu Piko, Kuʻu Kahua - Return to the Source” in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi in May 2021, which centers the voices of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander theater practitioners, and will feature the thriving theater community of Hawaiʻi, where Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander faces on stage are the norm, not the exception.

We've gathered theatre artists from the AATAB community, the Boston theatre community, and friends across the country that are now virtually available, to explore a play in development by a Boston-based Asian American playwright, and experiment with how we can become even more creative storytellers through Zoom.

In response to the protest and aftermath of the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players’ now canceled production of The Mikado, this series addresses the racist performance and casting practices of Yellowface in the American Theatre.

A series that explores various Asian American artists' perspectives on the field-at-large and specifically the 2014 National Asian American Theatre Conference and Festival theme of "Home: Here? There? Where?"