Asian American Plays for a New Generation

Josephine Lee is Professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She is currently the president of the Association for Asian American Studies. Her most recent book is The Japan of Pure Invention: Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. She is also the author of Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage and co-editor of Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History. (both Temple). Don Eitel is a musician, composer, actor, director, and arts administrator. Currently the Managing Director of Mu Performing Arts, he was also a founding Artistic Director of Starting Gate Productions and has worked as the Development Associate and Assistant to the Artistic Director at Park Square Theatre, a mid-sized company based in St. Paul, MN. R. A. Shiomi has been one of the leaders of the Asian American theater movement since the 1980's, as a playwright, director and artistic director. His plays include Yellow Fever, Rosie's Cafe, Play Ball, Mask Dance and Journey of the Drum. He has directed at Mu Performing Arts, AATC in San Francisco and Interact Theater in Philadelphia. He is one of the founders of Mu Performing Arts and has been its artistic director since 1993. He received the Sally Irvine Ordway award for "Vision" in 2007 for his work with Mu Performing Arts.

"The quality of the plays in Asian American Plays for a New Generation and the diversity of the themes-interracial desire, racial profiling, and grief-is particularly impressive. The plays engage sophisticated ideas about migration and home; imposture and authenticity; political allegory; fantasy and reality; and, of course, identity politics. Lee’s Introduction and Shiomi’s Afterword serve to frame the work, providing the necessary grounding to orient the reader to the origins-and significance-of this fine volume."-Leslie Bow, Professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Introduction by Josephine Lee1. Indian Cowboy by Zaraawar Mistry2. The Walleye Kid: The Musical by R.A. Shiomi and Sundraya Kase3. Happy Valley by Aurorae Khoo4. Asiamnesia by Sun Mee Chomet5. Sia(b) by May Lee-Yang6. Bahala Na by Clarence Coo8. Ching Chong Chinaman by Lauren YeeAfterword by R.A. Shiomi