Multicultural Theater in Los Angeles During the Early 1990s

By Robin Peters
$15.99 Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: Feb. 25, 2012
Words: 55,370 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781465779106

Short description

Is there multicultural theater in Los Angeles? If so, who is involved? Can the identity and nature of diversity be codified? "Multicultural Theater in Los Angeles During the Early 1990s" examines Asian, Chicano/Hispanic and Black theater communities. This historical narrative defines the major professional theaters, the actors and writers and how funding affects professional Los Angeles Theater.

Extended description

The primary resources examined were publications that advertise the presentation of theater. These sources included "The Drama-logue," the "Back Stage West," and the "Los Angeles Times." There were culturally specific publications available, but these sources replicated the items located in the primary resources. Also, notices were listed in the cultures indigenous language, and the listings focused on companies formed purposefully for one-time events. I concentrated on the Sunday edition of the "Los Angeles Times" because it was the one source that consistently carried announcements about current, running, and closing theatrical events of both Equity and Equity-waiver houses. These events were also broken down into large and small theaters; theaters larger than 99-seats and theaters with houses of less than 99-seats.
The approach was to catalogue every play announcement printed in the "Calendar" section of the Sunday "Los Angeles Times" over a specific five year period, 19.. (Read more) The primary resources examined were publications that advertise the presentation of theater. These sources included "The Drama-logue," the "Back Stage West," and the "Los Angeles Times." There were culturally specific publications available, but these sources replicated the items located in the primary resources. Also, notices were listed in the cultures indigenous language, and the listings focused on companies formed purposefully for one-time events. I concentrated on the Sunday edition of the "Los Angeles Times" because it was the one source that consistently carried announcements about current, running, and closing theatrical events of both Equity and Equity-waiver houses. These events were also broken down into large and small theaters; theaters larger than 99-seats and theaters with houses of less than 99-seats.
The approach was to catalogue every play announcement printed in the "Calendar" section of the Sunday "Los Angeles Times" over a specific five year period, 1991-1995. The initial research was primarily the process of cutting out, reading, pasting and organizing close to 10,000 individual advertisements. The cards were then organized by names of each theater and by names of production companies/groups. If the theater or the company/group advertising mentioned anything about ethnicity and diversity they were subdivided into that particular ethnic category. Other categories began to emerge based on information included in the advertisements, such as: topics covered, genre or style of plays produced, specific artists that wrote, produced, or were involved in the productions, location of performances or theater houses, length of play run, and year and date plays ran. These divisions helped to define the nature and structure of the theaters.
Further definition of the nature and structure of the theaters included a search for articles pertaining to any of the theaters defined as ethnic during the initial cataloguing. Again, the major newspapers and trade journals covering theater in Los Angeles were examined. In all, over four hundred articles were collected and these articles were instrumental in clarifying the identity of the theaters, production companies, and artists performing ethnically diverse theater. Another method employed to clarify the research was a review of playbills from performances. The playbills contain information regarding performers, history of the production companies and theaters, mission statements, and directorial visions.
The final component of the research was interviewing as many of the major players involved with multicultural theater in Los Angeles. The interviews were conducted after the cataloguing and research was completed. To allow for the research to define the important players. Each interview had similar questions asked pertaining to the companies organizational structure, methodology and mission statement.
These major methodological components helped to define First and Second Level multicultural theaters. Overall, the purpose in writing this book is to define and catalogue, create a foundation for, these ethnic theaters under one book so as to "begin" the essential long term analysis and historical documentation of such an important part of Los Angeles theater. The intent is to deliver a historical narrative meant to be accepted as a survey for the purpose of starting to notate the historical development of ethinic theater in Los Angeles. This is truly meant as an introduction to the people and companies which make up the diversity found in Los Angeles theater. The focus is on the early-middle 1990s because it was during this time that multiculturalism, pluralism, and diversity controlled ideological processes, philosophies, missions, and artistic visions.
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Tags

luis valdez, culture clash, los angeles times, actors equity association, quincy jones, black theater, african american theater, multicultural theater, los angeles theater, los angeles media, african american history month, dr robin scott peters, national endowment for the arts, don shirley, back stage west, california arts council, los angeles cultural affairs department, james irvine foundation, weingart foundation, audrey skirballkenis theatre, los angeles theatre company, asian theater los angeles, japan america theatre, japanese american cultural community center, east west players, amy hill, duane ebata, tim dang, wakako yamauchi, velina hasu houston, rob shin, philip kan gotanda, vernon takeshita, denise uyehara, dwight okita, sandra tsing loh, jude narita, elizabeth wong, brenda wong aoki, saachiko, latino theater, hispanic theater, chicano theater, plaza de la raza, bilingual foundation of the arts, grupo de teatro sinergia, margarita galban, estela scarlata, carmen zapata, edit villarreal, beverly robinson, frank gilliam, patricia harter, nosotros theatre, victor crosthwaite contreras, ruben amavizca, ofelia fox, latino theatre initiative, latino theatre lab, bob herrara, luis alfaro, carlos morton, maria irene fornes, guillermo reyes, victor hugo rascon banda, federico garcia lorca, lope de vega, diane rodriguez, jose luis valenzuela, richard montoya, ric salinas, herbert siguenza, los angeles theatre co, ebony showcase theatre, nick stewart, edna stewart, elma v jackson, pamela goodlow, eartha kitt, al nodal, inner city cultural center, c bernard jackson, elaine kashiki, josie dotson, larry kubota, rosamaria marquez, the new ivar theatre, ivar theatre, peter deanda, ucla school of theater film television, black theatre artist workshop, shabaka, shabaka barry henley, tarabu betseri kirkland, satie jamal, della reese danny glover, bill duke, rusty condieff, zatella beatty, mark christopher lawrence, blacksmyths, l kenneth richardson, crossroads theatre, george wolfe, colored museum

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