For Race-Specific Theater Companies, The Fight For Diversity Onstage Is Far From Over

In 1965, nine Asian Americans working in theater were tired of being relegated to roles like villain or cab driver and fed up with the regular indignity of white actors playing Asian roles.

They founded East West Players, now the nation’s longest-running professional theater of color, which has since premiered more than 100 plays and musicals about the Asian American experience, telling stories that didn’t make it to other stages or that were overlooked by Hollywood.

But times have changed. Playwrights such as Lauren Yee, Qui Nguyen and Julia Cho have found their way to major regional stages, and last year, Young Jean Lee became the first Asian American woman to see her play (“Straight White Men”) open on Broadway.