Theatre, Performance, and DestiNation

American Society for Theatre Research Conference

San Juan, Puerto Rico

11-15 November, 2009

Asian American Theatre Working Group

Apologies for cross-postings

Constant Journeys: Asian American Theatre and DestiNation

The performative implications of its “arrival” on the national stage position Asian American theatre as a particularly appropriate opportunity to explore notions of “destination.” In contrast to the term’s general interpretation as the culmination of a migration, a transference from a fixed and implicitly less desirable locale to an equally certain and more satisfactory one, the outcomes of such a journey for immigrant groups rarely have been so stable or agreeable. For such populations, the “destination” within relatively specific geographic locales simultaneously may, and likely will, produce exclusion from “settlement” inside “America” or other social and political territories. In particular, Asian populations have found themselves in illusory American “destinations” that deny both statutory and cultural membership and withhold occupation of the territory between the artificial opposition of “Asian” and “American.” By its presence, its “arrival” onstage, Asian American theatre continues to resist relegation and marginalization to a mere cellular component of American theatre and culture, and its marketable potential as a commodity of “diversity.” Its changing self-representation eludes confinement within preconceived boundaries, territorial and cultural, and consistently redefines its own “destination,” fulfilling its depiction by Dorinne Kondo as one of the most promising sites for challenging the false dichotomy that continues to define the constructed representation of Asian Americans. Proposals should address the ways in which those various “travels” and “destinations” extend a performative effect to reconstitute cultural and (inter)national notions of belonging and permit imagination of a redefined “home” space in the American consciousness. That redefinition may, of course, include the term Asian American itself and the performative territory it travels and occupies. We hope to build upon our 2008 conference presence as the first ASTR session to focus on Asian American theatre and continue to encourage participants to explore its potential as a web of links and thus extend our “destination” by re-examining the history, practice and scholarship of Asian American theatre within the American DestiNation.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

· What are the historical and present effects of the “travelling” of Asian American theatre, as tour, appropriation, or cultural adaptation and alteration?

· How has the construction of theatre as an “island” form of cultural expression affected its usability or usefulness to Asian American cultures?

· How have the various constructed “islands” of Asian American culture influenced its theatrical representation or destabilized notions of American nationalism?

The process and implementation of the session will resemble the ASTR seminar’s 2-hour structure. Participants must commit to submitting preliminary drafts of their papers by August 31st and to participating actively in an online pre-conference discussion by means of our session’s fully secure website. The final conference drafts (8-10 pages) will be due by October 15th. Participants will be expected to read all colleague drafts before the conference session on Saturday November 14, 2009. Other important guidelines are listed at: http://www.astr.org/Conference/WorkingSessionsGuidelines/tabid/128/Default.aspx

By Friday, May 15, please submit an abstract (max 500 words) and brief biography (150 words) via email to:

Ron West, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE (rwest33449@aol.com)
and co-conveners

Jennifer Chan, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA (jc609@nyu.edu)

and

Sean Metzger, Duke University, Durham, SC (smetzger@duke.edu).