News: East West crisis

Funding troubles symptomatic of Asian American theatre?

[Opinion/Analysis]

Troubling news from Los Angeles and about East West Players. According to a feature story in the Los Angeles Times of August 31, 1997, financial shortfalls and ill health have hit the nation's oldest Asian American theatre hard. The end result? Staff layoffs and a gaping financial hole where there used to be a $1 million capital pledge.

Originally, East West had planned to move from their 99-seat, bare bones space on Santa Monica Boulevard to a much larger and technically more advanced space in LA's Little Tokyo later this year. At the same time, the company planned to nearly double their operating budget to something just under seven figures. Plus, East West planned to establish a half million dollar endowment.

Currently, these ambitious plans are up in the air. While East West still plans to forge on, only Artistic Director Tim Dang is left as paid staff; remaining staff has been laid off as a budgetary move (though staff is currently expected to be hired by mid-fall). Additionally, according to the Times article, annual giving at East West has drastically plummeted this year; apparently, current donors shifted their dollars from annual giving to capital giving. Moreover, the current board of directors have raised only $100,000 of the project endowment. And finally, the $1 million pledge for the new theatre by Malaysian entrepreneur Vinod Sekhar has not materialized, due, in part, to serious health problems; in fact, there are questions as to its general viability; Sekhar is quoted by the Times as saying, "I'm still going to give them something, but I've got to sort myself out first."

While this crisis can be seen as an isolated misfortune, there are some aspects that are troubling for Asian American theatres across the country. First, East West is not the only Asian American theatre hit by cutbacks; Pan Asian in New York has cut back their programming in the last year or so--and, of course, it is well known that the Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco was forced to give up their space last year. Only Theater Mu (Minneapolis) of the majors seems to be getting by relatively unscathed, having recently moved to better quarters.

Second, the weakness of the Board at fundraising for the endowment is not unique. In the Times article, Dang speaks of a tension between the grassroots vs. the "professional", both on the board and on staff. This similar tension is reflected in Asian American theatre boards across the country, particularly in the West Coast theatres; it is common to hear "I'll do anything but fundraising" from board members, even though the sole purpose of board members of mainstream theatres (and non-profits in general) is to do nothing but fundraising.

Third, the response of the East West donor base was essentially to switch much of their giving from annual operations to capital giving. This is in marked contrast to campaigns at such mainstream institutions as Stanford University, where they were able to leverage increased annual giving out of their capital campaign. By itself, this may mean nothing. However, put this into context: this funding woe is common; at one major AA theatre, the TOTAL number of donors for an entire year was well under a hundred people.

Does that mean Asian American theatre is not a viable proposition? Maybe. Maybe not. Compare the woes of East West and Asian American Theater Co. with the unbounded optimism of Asian American Rep in San Diego (where they successfully extended a run of David Henry Hwang's F.O.B.) and Asian Pacific Theatre in Sacramento, where artistic director Dennis Yep has stated that he could fill the seats for his shows, if he could only find a performance space to do it in. And countless marketing surveys in all markets show widespread support for the idea of an Asian American theatre, both in the Asian American community and in the theatre-going audience.

Perhaps some of the answer to this is that the Asian American theatre audience will have to reach beyond its usual audience. Traditionally, the biggest portion of support has been grassroots: the usual Asian American community of first and second generation. However, it is also true that both support of the arts and philanthropic giving do not fully begin to flower until the third and fourth generations come of age. It may be necessary to reach out beyond the traditional core audience for both donors and audience. For example, the Wing Luke Art Museum of Seattle, for example, finds the majority of their funding base from the wider, non-mainstream audience.

Part of the answer as well is probably to educate the traditional grassroots audience to start attending and giving to local Asian American theatres. It's a truism that a prophet knows no honor in their own land; in at least one market, the resident Asian American theatre has a far higher reputation and greater respect in the theatre/arts community than in the Asian American community. It is not surprising to find that giving from the mainstream community equals or even outpaces giving from the Asian American community.

This won't be easy. In the current funding environment, there is less government funding. Well and good (according to certain circles). However, according to professional fundraisers across the country, there is also reduced corporate and foundation giving...and individual dollars are NOT taking up the slack.

The situation resists easy analysis and easy solutions. Asian American theatres will have to plod along and plug away, hoping to survive. In the meantime, there ARE things individuals can do to help...just a little:

• Give to the Asian American theatre of your choice; even $5 will help...and if you given $5 every couple weeks for a year, that adds up to something substantial (waddya mean you don't know any addresses??? Check the Directory, fer crying out loud!).
• Attend local productions by Asian American groups. That's more possible than ever these days.
• Tell others to go! And it can be very reasonable to go....in some places it's cheaper than a movie ticket.

Comments? Suggestions? Feedback? Flames? Email the Revue at gwangung@u.washington.edu.

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