Woman: Take 1, shot C, and scene 1.

Tim: A lot of people when they saw "East West Players," they thought that we were either a baseball team or a swingers' club.

Tamlyn Tomita: I'm never going to see this kind of [bleep] on TV.

Man: The largest and longest-running AAPI theater in the country.

Daniel Dae Kim: And you created this, and I benefited.

John Cho: It's not the building, it's the people in it.

Woman: Yeah.

George Takei: A broadening, enlightening space.

[Theme music] ♪ Announcer: This program was made possible in part by a grant from Anne Ray Foundation, a Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropy; the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture; the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

♪ [Woman vocalizing] [Indistinct chatter] Man: Thanks for being here today.

This is the opening of "On This Side of the World."

[Cheering] Woman 2: Every single seat is taken.

Plus, we have a wait list.

Man 2: A lot of excitement, but it's never a dull moment.

[Laughs] Woman 3: Here you go.

Man 3: Thank you.

Actor: We always dreamed of, like, being here, and working on a show together.

And it's a dream come true.

I can't believe this is happening.

Woman 4: Oh, my goodness.

Oh, June!

Man 4: Oh, my God.

Interviewer: When did you first join up with East West?

Man 4: Around '73.

Interviewer: Around '73.

Man 4: Yeah.

We had some great times, man.

We had some great times.

Woman 5: Enjoy the show.

Shaun Tuazon: We really cannot wait to share these stories with our audience.

Cassie Simone: Because many of our first times actually being able to portray Filipino Americans.

Zandi de Jesus: It hits me in a different way, you know?

The characters themselves are calling out to "Please, please tell my story because it needs to be heard."

♪ Conductor: 1, 2, 3.

[VCR clicks] Younger Tim: East West Players' main mission is to develop performers.

It's artist-driven or it's actor-driven.

The theater represents a lot of history of where the Asian-American experience came from.

It represents the limitless possibilities of where Asian American theater can go, how it can change the actual thinking of people in Los Angeles, how we can bring those people together.

And East West Players may hold that key.

Tim: Hmm.

[Laughter] Man: You're so young!

Tim Dang: Wow.

When I was at USC, my senior BFA professor, Jack Rowe, had told me that as I was about to graduate, I was going to have a very hard time making a living as an actor.

He said, "You should investigate this Asian-American theater company" that was in Los Angeles called East West Players.

Most of the founders were actors, so it was giving actors opportunities.

Snehal Desai: Like you, I started as an actor, and I felt like there was limited opportunities.

And, you know, it kept coming up as "If you want opportunities, you're going to have to create your own," opportunities for Asian-American artists to play roles they traditionally have not been considered for, and for Asian Americans to tell Asian-American stories.

♪ Go Esther!

♪ Woman, whispering: Yellowface.

Actor: I think [indistinct].

Woman 2: Yellowface is a non-Asian actor putting up makeup or costumes to make themselves look like an Asian person.

The tradition comes from Europe.

I think it's as old as 1600, as soon as so-called Oriental or Tartar or Chinese characters were onstage.

It was a tool to perpetuate exclusion of Asians.

1860s to, say, 1940 is what we call Asian exclusion era.

There were a number of laws that excluded Asians from becoming citizens or becoming immigrants owning land.

So while they were excluding real Asians, they were representing Asians onstage in an exotic, stereotypical way and played by non-Asians in makeup.

[Canned laughter] [Music playing on TV show] Mako: I received a telegram saying, "You got a part.

Come down and sign the contract."

He said, "Oh, all you got to do is pull a rickshaw across the stage."

So I said, "No, no, no, no, no, thank you."

He said, "Why?

It pays $135 a week, man."

I said, "No, I didn't go to drama school to pull a rickshaw."

Daniel Dae Kim: You know, the challenges that we faced as a community, a small Asian-American community, back in the '90s and 2000s.

But I'm sure when you were starting out, there were so many roles for Asians and everything was super easy, and you were playing lead roles in Hollywood right away.

James Hong: Well, not leading roles.

You know... Daniel: I'm just joking.

Ha ha!

James: I wasn't thinking of prejudice.

I, too, accepted the situation as it was and said, "OK, I'm a Chinese-American actor, and they can give me the roles, and I'll play ten roles a year," characters like Lo Pan.

I'm still looking for the girl with the green eyes.

[Laughing sinisterly] Or the sympathetic Chinaman being rescued by Zorro.

And, "Please let me go."

Of course, I did not like the situation of not playing the leading roles.

So I got tired of that.

And I and Mako Iwamatsu got together, and we were very frustrated by that time that, "We got to do something."

You know, we can't be just wallowing in these small roles.

June Kyoku Lu as Lotus: Oh, life I dreamed, read about America... June Kyoku Lu: Around that time, just, you know, a little kimono and walking like this and... Or whorehouse madam.

June as White Tiger: Cash or charge?

June: Yeah, those were the only kinds of real parts that was available.

East West probably contributed a lot to try to change the image of Asian-American actors.

Esther Kim Lee: 1960.

Mako, he auditioned for a role for a TV adaptation of a play called "Rashomon."

And "Rashomon" is a story that comes from Japan, set in Japan, Japanese characters.

So Mako thought that, "Oh, I'm sure I could get this role."

And he auditioned, and the director told him, "You gave a great audition, but we cannot cast you because you'll stand out.

The rest of the cast will be in yellowface."

The role went to a Mexican actor, Ricardo Montalban.

Mako, after he joined the East West Players, the first play he suggested that they do was "Rashomon."

♪ And he played the leading role that he auditioned for and did not get.

♪ James: "Tajomaru, you are an animal!"

Wait.

Didn't you say that?

June: Yes.

Ha ha!

I called him Animal.

James: Can you say that just for me?

[June laughs] June: Tajomaru, you are a animal.

James: Oh, that's wonderful.

It makes my heart beat faster.

Mako: By one Saturday afternoon, when I was working in box office, we began to receive phone calls of cancellations, cancellation after cancellation.

Police: Please go in your homes.

Mako: That was a day of Watts riots.

So that ended our initial project.

But I think our spirit remain together.

And that's how East West Players began.

♪ [Indistinct chatter] [Conductor vocalizing] Both: Ohh!

[Actor chuckles] Actor 2: Hi.

Actor 3: It's good to see you.

How are you?

[Indistinct chatter] Man: Hey, everybody, welcome, welcome, welcome.

It's the first rehearsal.

[Cheering] Paulo K. Tirol: "On This Side of the World" is a musical about a woman flying from Manila to New York City with a one-way ticket and a suitcase full of stories.

Noam Shapiro: Close your eyes.

Think for a moment about whose story you carry with you, whose story do you tell and who you are.

Whose story can you bring through this show to invite them to bring their own stories to the surface?

And... [Actors chuckle] Zandi: The first person that comes to mind is also my mom, who gave up a lot to be here in the United States and sacrificed.

Michael C. Palma: The two people that brought my entire family to the United States.

These are my maternal grandparents who I grew up with.

That's who this is for, for me.

Paulo: These are our stories.

These are our stories.

And they're on stage, and they're worth telling.

And you just have to have someone--a community of artists who are willing to look deep enough and excavate the artistry and the heart and the humanity and everything behind that story.

So... [Exhales] Zandi: But all of these people are counting on me, and my contract is signed.

And so with my passport, my luggage, some make-believe courage and a one-way ticket... Jemmalyn, she's definitely the main character that I'm playing.

She's the storyteller.

She's the conduit through which all of these stories are being told.

What she did was she collected stories of people who've made this journey before to go to the States and make a brand-new life.

Michael: Credit cards are all maxed out, and they're three months overdue.

But here's my Christmas bonus just for you, because I'm a Cool Tito.

I'm like a cool, cool ranch Dorito.

[Laughter] Actor: Yes, it's stranger and tougher and colder and lonelier, farther than we can conceive, but it's wider and freer, more vivid with color, and heights you and I can achieve.

Here I go.

Go, go, here I... Woman: Together, all six step out of the terminal and take their first breath of American air.

Brimming with hope and wonder, the beginning of the rest of their lives.

Actors: Go.

Woman: Lights fade to black.

End of show.

[Cheering] [Applause continues] ♪ Sign Esther Esther: From Oriental to Asian American!

The term East West comes from that idea that they would bridge Eastern theatrical cultures and Western theatrical cultures.

So this is where'd they do, like, "Kyogen" and Shakespeare in the same season, because there was no kind of notion of Asian-American culture at the time, and that begins to change.

Donatella Galella: So, Asian-Americans was a way to realize that what we have in common is a racialization as Asians in this country.

I need to have the backs of all these other folks, and they've got mine.

So Asian American is this term that allows for self-naming, pan-Asian American solidarity, and a claim to our belonging to the United States.

Esther: So when you see this shift from Oriental actors to Asian-American actors, what Asian-American actors are saying is that "We want to be taken seriously as actors, not just play ourselves.

We should be able to play a whole range of roles."

Woman: This is Clyde Kusatsu in "Total Theatre Ensemble."

This picture is Mako in his rehearsal.

Tim: We were doing Shakespeare.

We were doing Chekhov.

We were doing O'Neill.

We were doing Sondheim.

But we weren't doing our own experience.

Keone Young: East West Players basically was trying to become part of the fabric of Hollywood.

But then, younger people wanted their own identity.

So Mako's philosophy kind of changed.

He wanted to find a voice.

What is our voice as a community?

What was our voice as Japanese Americans, as Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, Filipino Americans?

Diep Tran: So tell me about how East West Players nurtured playwrights and why it was important to do so, especially back then?

David Henry Hwang: The term "Asian American" wasn't invented until 1968.

So there's this whole question, OK, there's a political movement, but can it also be a culture?

Can we make art out of it?

Woman: It was Soon-tek Oh's idea of starting a national playwright contest, and that was an ingenious vision.

It stimulated people to write about their own experience.

And from that, that's how we got started with Asian-American playwrights.

David: We were all relatively new at doing this.

Everybody was just kind of grasping to try to figure out what this new form would be.

Mako: The Asian American concept does exist.

We do need it to get developed materials from our own communities.

Beulah Quo: And I remember Mako calling me in and said, "This is an awful play, but it's got something in it about Chinese Americans, and we're going to do it."

And that started it.

David: I was about ten years old, and my father, who was a CPA at the time, was friends with Beulah Quo, and my mother was a pianist.

And so she ended up playing piano for an early production of theirs.

So I had the choice of either being babysat by my aunt or going to rehearsals.

So I decided to go to rehearsals.

At that age, I was exposed to people who looked like us, as artists and actors and directors and artistic leaders.

And maybe that made it more possible for me to envision doing what it is that I've ended up doing.

[Typewriter clacking] [Bell rings] And it was just around that point that Frank Chin started having his plays produced, and Mako brought Frank into East West.

Keone Young: Frank was the fire under all of us, and we were being portrayed as, oh, you know, submissive, pacifist, effeminate as Asian males.

But, no, Frank Chin wrote characters that were men--Chinamen but men, stress on the men, not the China.

The China...Man!

And he changed the stress for us.

Clyde Kusatsu: In the '70s, Frank Chin, Lawson Inada, Shawn Wong had this book called "Aiiieeee!"

Tamlyn Tomita: "Aiiieeee!"

Yup.

Clyde: about Asian-American writers and poetry.

Mako said, "You got to read this."

Keone: And we would study it, and we'd say, "Damn," you know?

"This is the voice that we must develop."

Clyde: And I said, "Well, I think there are two pieces in here that have possibilities-- "Yoneko's Earthquake" and "The Soul Shall Dance" by Wakako Yamauchi, which then led Mako to contact Wakako and said, "You got to write this play."

♪ Woman: Emiko-san, is there anything I can do for you?

Emiko: I have kimonos I bought in Japan for dancing.

Maybe she can, if you like, I mean--they'll be nice on her.

She's so slim.

Woman: Oh, beautiful!

Child: Mama, pretty.

Gold threads, Mama.

Mother: That's real silk, madam.

Velina: "If you could give me a little--if you could pay, manage to give me something for-- Hana: But these gowns, Emiko-san.

They're worth hundreds.

Emiko: I know, but I'm not asking for that."

Emiko: Whatever you can give.

Only as much as you can give.

Tamlyn: Oh, my God.

Clyde: An audience had never saw that before in L.A. Tamlyn: Yeah.

Yeah.

Clyde: OK?

And it was because of East West.

Tamlyn: Yeah.

Theater is the place to go.

It's like to be expansive, to be daring, to be fully seeing what a woman could be.

Velina: Wakako felt that it was important to tell the stories of the history that she had experienced, but to tell it from a female perspective.

In a situation like the scene I read, a kimono is not just a kimono.

It becomes a kind of metaphor for Emiko's Japanese culture, her struggle to live in a country that doesn't appreciate what one is.

And then we can think ahead, historically.

We know that in ten or so years' time, if she does, whoever has that kimono is going to have to burn it or give it away because of the forced incarceration camps.

[Woman singing] Esther: The 1978 production of "And the Soul Shall Dance" by Wakako Yamauchi.

I've heard anecdotes of that play being produced and the audience seeing it, that the play ends.

The audience sits there, and there's just silence.

[Applause] And then after a few minutes, they start to applaud.

That--that silence is really interesting to me.

So like, what happened there?

So there's recognition that, "Oh, gosh, I'm seeing my story, my parents' story, for the first time."

Unlike film, when you see an actual human body onstage that reflects your experience and there is this communal experience and you're not just watching it alone in your living room, but you're experiencing it with whole other people in the same space, breathing the same air, that's incredibly powerful.

There's something ritualistic about it.

Theater has always been about hero worship.

Actor: ...warrior went to the mirror, which has remained unbroken... Esther: And I think Asian-American theater gives us Asian-American heroes, and we don't see that elsewhere.

Actor: And long ago, they carved the flesh of her young back.

Esther: They produced a number of plays about Japanese-American internment camps.

That became, I think, a collective therapy for the nisei community here.

Emily Kuroda: I had not heard of camp before.

John Cho: Get out!

Emily: No, seriously.

My dad never talked about it.

His whole family was at camp.

It wrecked his life.

I asked him later on.

I said, "What did the whole war do to you?"

And he said, "It emasculated me."

That's how I learned about the whole camp thing.

Not in school, not at home, but at East West Players.

Esther: They had musicals about Japanese-American internment camps, for example.

They had comedies, right?

There were allowed to do that, and I think East West Players gave them space to mourn, cry, and laugh together.

It helped a whole generation of Japanese Americans to heal.

John: We're animating these silent generations, you know what I mean?

This conversation between the generations that's being played out on a stage.

Esther: The power of theater, I think, is the opportunity to create empathy for us to feel for each other.

And Asian-American communities really don't have that space.

I think the Asian-American audience feels like they're empathized, they're seen.

Younger Tim: Theater works with the community, trying to say something socially relevant and provocative and still trying to be as artistic and creative as possible.

Snehal: To have two queer men of color lead this organization.

You know what I mean?

And for me, that was one of the key things about East West is, I felt like it was one of the few places where I could bring my whole self in, following your lead and your example.

George Takei as Dysart: In, out.

In, out... George Takei: East West Players played a critically important part in my coming out as gay.

George as Dysart: A way of seeing in the dark... George: I was closeted for most of my adult life.

George as Dysart: What dark is this... George: I was feeling very, very constrained by being in the closet.

Dysart in the play "Equus" is going through that and making discoveries about himself.

He sees the beauty that's missing in his life.

Tim was telling me how I can reconcile all that, and I felt comfortable enough discussing it with him.

And I decided "Now is the time.

I'm going to come out."

[Applause] It was important bringing the community to another level of their fullness and pride.

♪ Paulo: I want the show to get out to audiences with that, with the light, with the hope, with the joy.

Noam: Yeah.

Paulo: And it's really what propels the protagonist into... being able to face her own future and to be... Noam: I think that's a really important note to give to the actors, that that is the last song of the show for a reason, because it does motivate her to envision a future that is optimistic and that is empowering and not one that is scary.

And then you can act on that lyric.

"So I straighten my tie."

You have--yeah.

"It's my turn to stand."

You can use that high note to rise.

So take that full kind of-- those few beats to stand, all right?

Um, "I head to the stage."

You might take one step forward, head to the stage.

And raise my right hand.

Yeah.

Michael: Right.

Noam: OK?

Change your gaze.

Michael: Yeah.

So that we really sense that the thoughts, the visual is connected to your--to what you're saying.

Michael: OK. Got it.

Noam: So as they start to speak, you know, even by turning your head a little bit, you're letting us know that there's that relationship.

Michael: Exactly.

Actor: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Downstage.

♪ Philippines ♪ [Indistinct conversation] Michael: ♪ Fine, finito ♪ [Indistinct singing] Michael: ♪ These are the fruits of Tito's labor... ♪ [Woman laughing] Michael: ♪ I'm the dude whose default moves let the blessings flow, I'm that dude who won't say no 'cause I'm a Cool... Tito--I'm a...

Cool... want your friends to meet-o Oh oh oh The best ♪ Man: 1, 2, 3.

Singers: ♪ The best!

♪ [Cheering and applause] Michael: That was rough.

That was rough.

Beulah: We started in my church basement, remember?

George: That's right, right there On Sunset.

Beulah: Yeah.

I just borrowed it to rehearse "Rashomon."

And we stayed for 4 1/2 years until they booted us out, you know?

Emily: It was Beulah's church, right?

Albert Isaac: Beulah's Church, Beulah Quo... John: Oh, Beulah.

Right.

Albert: one of the founders of East West.

So we were in this-- we were headquartered in this basement and--did several productions there.

We had to strike the set at the end of the weekend because then the church ladies would use it, too.

John: Wow.

I had a love scene with Mako.

I did finally go the full Monty.

John: Oh, wow.

Albert: And so that did not go well with the church.

So that was the last production we did there.

We eventually had to find our own space.

June: My house at that time was less than a mile away.

So everybody came.

And we were all poor.

I have hamburger.

I stirred.

I put some kimchi in there.

James: Oh, God.

Mako.

He incorporated his wife-- June: Whole family, actually.

James: and then his children.

Sala Iwamatsu: But he used to always cook for them, barbecue.

He was, like, "At least I can give them food."

He's like, "Right now, that's all I can give them."

But he couldn't pay them.

Yeah, it's crazy.

They had to have been a little crazy to do that.

Definitely.

But I think it was different then, you know.

Tim: Mako took care of everybody.

If you were not at a place to be on--to be acting in a show, he would say, "Well, OK, well, why don't you help us do props?

Why don't you help us paint the set?"

There was always a place for you at East West Players, and that's how he included you.

Tamlyn: Everybody knows that "Clyde Kusatsu used to live in the back house."

I'm like, "Oh, my God."

What did you say you were?

You were the BME?

Clyde: The building maintenance engineer... Tamlyn: Ha ha!

The guy that does everything.

Clyde: So it's the classic thing, the starving artist, the actor, and occasionally getting a role in TV.

And you do the TV role, do a guest star, and then you come back that afternoon or--to mop the floors and clean the bathrooms before the audience comes.

In fact, I, by hand, broke through the concrete and had to dig about 2 or 3 feet down... Tamlyn: Oh, my God.

Clyde: so we could install the urinal.

Tamlyn: Are you kidding me?

Clyde: No.

So... Tamlyn: Building maintenance and engineer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

June: Oh, I saw blood one day.

Ha ha!

Soon-tek Oh with Mako, they had a disagreement, and I think Mako went the bathroom.

He had a coffee mug.

I think Mako went like that.

There was blood, so--you know, actors, I say we are so sensitive.

Yeah... James: Like a family.

Yeah.

June: Yeah.

Saachiko: If Mako got upset or anything, I mean--you'd walk through the door, and he'd go, ka-chung!

Man: They raised the rent on the theater.

And I remember Mako walking through the double doors, and I felt like I had [bleep].

And he grabbed, like, these seats in the audience.

And he just threw this over across the theater.

I realized the power of Mako.

But that energy, emotional energy, is a tactile thing.

Mako: I'm proud of, you know, being able to teach, able to share my ideas of approach to acting, my idea of existing racism in this industry with younger actors so that hopefully, they would be more ready when they do go outside to work.

Mako on tape: You know how you train dogs?

Student on tape: Yeah.

Mako: You have to be very stern.

Student: Right.

Mako: No.

No.

Again.

No.

No.

Good boy.

Student: Right, right.

Mako: And I guess that-- went against some of the people.

I don't know.

Sala: He's so funny.

I miss his voice.

Ha ha!

One of the things that's exciting in class is you see people, they want to be a good performer.

And then my dad, or whoever was teaching the class, would be like, "Yeah, that was good.

Now let's make it great.

Let's make it you."

And then the people would look at them like, "What are you talking about?"

Some people liked it, and some people didn't.

Emily: Well, first, when I met Mako, he goes, "What are you doing?"

I said, "I'm preparing."

Because, you know, I thought I learned acting.

He goes, "No!

No, no, no, no."

I said, "What?"

And he said, "Erase the blackboard."

I had done all this homework, and now you erase the blackboard and you just come in blank onstage and see what comes out.

So I still try to erase the blackboard.

Actor: They told me to sing it sadder, so I did.

I went out there, and I gave them sad!

John: F.O.B., fresh off the boat, FOB...

The importance of East West Players in my life was I needed to be seen by you before I went out there and was seen by them.

The first experience of being understood needed to be from my own, to resist the messages when you leave home that you're not worth very much.

Soon-tek Oh: Unlike white actors, we don't have opportunities or privileges to fail.

We have hopes and dreams that someday it will disappear.

I don't know, but how?

Only way we can cope with that is be prepared better than any other color actors.

Sala: He wanted me to continue representing Asian-American actors at the best possible level that I could.

He always said in order for us to even be considered for a job that would be a Caucasian part, we have to be three times better, you know?

And I was like, "I'll try," you know?

And sometimes-- that's why sometimes people ask me, like, why I stopped performing.

And I was like, because I was just average.

You can't be average.

You have to be like, way better than everybody else.

I was like, I'm not anymore.

I see the talent.

People are so talented.

I'm not there, so I don't want to misrepresent.

So I'll take a backseat, and maybe in 40 years, I'll come back to it.

♪ Zandi: I've actually been on a bit of a hiatus for the last 15 years.

The last time I was onstage doing a show was before I had kids, 15 years ago.

I have a 13 year old now and a 9 year old, and they're super supportive of their mom finally getting back to her passion and her joy and what she loves to do.

And everything, the stars aligned, and I'm doing this now, so I hope it doesn't stop.

I'm hoping that this is the beginning of a brand-new chapter in my life where I get to really do this.

[Indistinct conversations] [Music] [Michael singing indistinctly] Michael: ♪ With a sigh and a prayer my last breath of this air With the rush of a... [Continues, indistinct] ♪ ♪ Here I go Go Go Here I ♪ Actor: ♪ Go!

♪ [Laughter] Actors: ♪ Go ♪ Zandi: You can do four weeks of rehearsal, and every single night could be different.

Every single night you could interact in a new way with the rest of your castmates.

Anything could happen.

Actor: Do you think we sang altogether at one point?

Actor 2: The three of us did.

Actor 3: We definitely did.

Actor 1: We did.

We did at one point.

Actor 2: Well, maybe we did... Actor 5: Yeah, I think you did for sure.

Actor 6: They heard all six of us singing, and we were like... Zandi: They were like, "That's magic.

It clicked."

There you go.

[Cheering and applause] [Typewriter clacking] Dom Magwili: Jimmy Hong played Fred Eng, and Dana Lee played the father.

And they have this intense scene in the bathroom.

And Mako said, "Why don't you try it in Chinese?"

Both Jimmy and Dana are bilingual.

So they did the scene in Chinese, and it--it got personal.

[Typewriter clacking] Clyde: And Frank Chin and Mako, who was directing it, felt that Jimmy was missing something of it.

And everybody jumped on Jimmy's--what he's doing to the point where James was shocked and just let out a howl, howl.

James: And Frank Chin said, "James Hong, you're the worst actor I've ever seen for my role," you know?

Daniel: Ha ha!

James: And I was shocked because I wasn't expecting that.

But that's Frank Chin.

He says things like that, you know.

So I got all choked up, and I just had to walk out and excuse myself.

Mako on tape: Frank didn't like James Hong's Chinaman attitude, you know.

"You show me what you want me to do, I'll do it."

Frank is one of those guys, "You do what you want to do!"

[Woman laughing on tape] Mako: "Don't you have any fire as a Chinaman?"

Keone: The first people that formed East West Players, they were in the industry.

They were part of the industry.

They weren't allowed to be a part of it unless they serviced the industry.

And so I guess that conflict, you know, Jimmy did not know how to respond to that, and Frank did not know why Jimmy could not respond to that.

But there was a clash of servicing the master versus attacking the master.

Yeah, there's a lot of conflict, but that's good for theater.

That's what theater needs, you know?

But we were one family looking towards one goal, and that was to do theater, good theater.

Clyde: When it started to be family and things happen, everyone's, "Well, that's family anyway."

But sometimes family can be destructive.

Mako on tape: The board of directors, they accused me of doing, practicing nepotism, particularly family members.

You know.

The musical director wanted to bring in somebody, and I said, "No, no, no.

We got enough people here who sing."

One of the people on the list was my daughter.

That is my recommendation.

Why do we have to go outside?

You know.

Sala: I didn't know it was that production.

That was me.

That was--I was cast in that production.

So I'm like, "Oh, sorry, everybody."

My dad was pissed, and my mom was hurt.

It was like, Whoa, this happened, and "I'm out."

You know?

I was like, What?

There's no, like, discussion?

My mom, especially, I remember saying, "How dare they?

How dare they do that?

We helped them.

We raised..." They were like their family.

My dad nurtured their career, their skills, their craft, "and then they stab me in the back."

That's what they felt like.

Clyde: I mean, everybody else would talk about it.

"Oh, another family show, another show where the family's being cast."

But everybody grumbled, but they never opposed it or complained very loudly.

Just behind, they would chat.

And it was like, time to get away from that sea of negativity.

Everything's not that friendly.

Everything's not that collaborative because there's an edge.

This is what the whole destructive nature of art and creativity can do.

Keone: I saw Mako write checks to pay for the theater bills.

He and I did, you know, to pay for staff's salary, stuff like that.

So I don't want to hear no [bleep] about nepotism because I'd see him reach in his pocket and pay for the bills.

He didn't have to, you know?

Any other artistic director do that?

♪ Set ♪ Donatella Donatella: Musicals.

[Woman singing indistinctly] Donatella: Musical theater was the most popular form of American culture in the early to mid-20th century.

In order to understand American culture, you could look at musical theater.

[Actor singing indistinctly] Donatella: Some of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most popular musicals were "South Pacific" in 1949... Actor: ♪ Happy talk ♪ Donatella: then "The King and I"... And then "Flower Drum Song."

So suddenly they were interested in Asians and Asian Americans.

But most of the time, those characters were played in yellowface, and these were often stories about white people teaching and taking care of Asians.

Rodgers In his autobiography, when he talks about "The King and I," says quite proudly, he did no research into Thai culture and music.

And so that means he was drawing on what he thought it would sound like, again, because of the Orientalism that pervaded the culture.

That's why it's also important that East West Players intervenes in two major ways, one--producing original Asian-American musicals... Actor: ♪ The bases, fully loaded and two outs is where we're at ♪ Donatella: And two--doing a lot of these canonical American musicals with Asian-American casts.

Singers: ♪ Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street... ♪ Donatella: East West Players produced "Pacific Overtures" shortly after it had its Broadway bow, and a lot of East West folks who were in that production reprised their performances at East West.

Mako: ♪ Trains are being run wars are being won things are being done ♪ Chorus: ♪ Ways are being found watches being wound prophets being crowned somewhere... ♪ Donatella: Showed what are the possibilities when an Asian-American theater company gets to have the reins on the production.

Mako: ♪ The farmer plants the rice the priest exalts the rice ♪ [Drums beating, bass guitar playing] Actor: I'm scared for my life.

Ha ha!

I'm scared.

We haven't had an audience yet.

So I think tomorrow when we have an audience, I'll, like, know my feelings a little more.

Paulo: I'm kind of regretting already not keeping a journal of this whole experience.

Noam: Oh, I'm going to take notes.

But tomorrow-- tomorrow, I let go.

Well, after opening, I let go.

Snehal: OK.

I was going to say, "Let go Sunday, please..." Noam: Yeah, let go Sunday... Snehal: You guys are not done yet.

I would like you to all be working for five more days.

Noam: Yeah.

Five more days.

After opening... Snehal: But after Sunday-- yeah, after opening, you can relax.

Ha ha!

Woman: So you remember how to put it on before.

Like, usually it's a loincloth.

Michael: No.

Well, usually it's a loincloth.

And you have to, like, tie it all over the place.

Woman 2: Yeah, but we made it easy for you because, how fast is this quick change?

Michael: It looks great.

Yeah, it does.

Woman 2: How does it fit?

Does it feel secure?

Michael: Yeah, totally.

Woman 1: Let's pretend this is real.

Michael: So he says, "Check this out."

♪ Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo-- ♪ I'm using--it's not even the right words.

I've been doing this for over 20 years, and I still get nervous till this day.

There's just, if I don't get nervous, the performance will suck for me.

Ha ha!

Interviewer: Do you know all the songs yet?

Michael: Yes, I do.

Like I said, I'm at 98%.

But I hope you don't print that part of the interview.

Woman 3: Sorry.

Am I messing you up?

Zandi: No, no... Woman 4: No.

She needs you for the guidebook.

Zandi: I'm gonna need you.

Could you sing-- Woman 3: Want me to do it?

♪ ...Your own home someday... ♪ Zandi: ♪ Someday ♪ OK. Woman 3: That's what I thought you've been doing.

Woman 4: No, she's been doing a really pretty third below that.

[Laughter] Noam: You're usually hitting your mark.

It's just about-- Zandi: Going, getting, moving.

Noam: Going--yeah.

Zandi: I swear I was getting it right.

Noam: No, you got it... Zandi: Every single-- Noam: It's just the timing.

Zandi: OK, I can work on that.

Chorus: ♪ 'Cause it's stranger and tougher and colder and lonelier, farther than we can conceive but it's wider and freer more vivid with color and heights you and I can achieve ♪ [Actor yells] Actor 2: We did it!

Actor 3: Whoo!

Actor 4: We have an audience tomorrow.

Zandi: I can't for my kids to see it.

Noam: Because they've never seen you be in a show before.

Zandi: Act before.

No.

Noam: Wow.

They're going to flip out.

Zandi: Hopefully.

Noam: "That's Mom!"

Good night.

Zandi: Good night.

♪ [Indistinct singing] Singer: ♪ Excitement fills the air... ♪ Nathan Wang: "Canton Jazz Club."

It's been about 34 years.

And I just found the book, the original book.

This one, I think, was called "L.A.

Blue."

♪ Singers: ♪ I'd like to show 'em what we all go through... ♪ Nathan: Our "Canton Jazz Club" was sort of our answer to the fact of "Miss Saigon" going on the way it was going on.

Like, "Hey, you don't believe that Asian Americans can do a Broadway show?

You don't think that we'd have the talent?

Actor: ♪ Not right for the number-one daughter?

♪ Nathan: And that's the reason why we did it.

♪ Actor: ♪ Yeah, I got the moxie ♪ ♪ David: I first heard about the yellowface casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in the musical "Miss Saigon" when it was still in London.

Jonathan Pryce: [Indistinct].

David: The show was coming to New York, and it became kind of the first big yellowface protest in American theater history.

East West Players, Pan Asian here in New York, Asian-American theater companies, but these institutions existed already to coordinate a response.

Tim: All the Asian actors, we were on a speakerphone in New York with BD Wong and David Henry Hwang.

It was the actors mobilizing, "How are we going to change this and say this is wrong?

The whole idea of yellowface is wrong."

[Protestors chant, indistinct] Tim: David Henry Hwang and the Asian-American actors from New York picketed Equity in New York.

And we picketed in L.A. in front of Actors' Equity.

David: You know, I was really involved in the casting protest, but not so involved in the content protest.

Diep Tran: "Miss Saigon" is a story about how these poor Vietnamese people, like, the Americans abandoned them and they had no choice but to kill themselves.

But every Vietnamese person I have ever known was superhumanly strong, like my mother and my father.

Like, Asians are survivors.

And at that point, we had never been portrayed as survivors.

David: We lost the battle, but it jump-started the conversation which had never been really considered before.

Younger Tim: We began to empower ourselves that the only way that we could prevent something like this ever happening again was to take control of a production, to have that creative input in writing the play, in directing a play.

Tim: We didn't necessarily know of any Asian-American musicals, so, you know, all of us got together and developed this piece about an Asian-American nightclub in the forties, "Canton Jazz Club."

Singers: ♪ Show-stoppin', start hoppin' gonna get this hotspot rockin' ♪ Tim: You were the owner of the nightclub.

Emily: Uh-huh.

Tim: Uh, Roxie Gow, I think.

Tough as nails.

I mean, um, she was a bull.

[Laughter] Emily: I was a bull.

Tim: She was a bull.

Emily: And then he had me do stuff, like, fly up in the air, and guys had to catch me.

Tim: Oh, that's right.

See, I choreographed that, too, right?

Emily: You did!

Tim: So, oh, my gosh.

Well, you know, and Emily was young and spry back then.

So... Emily: I was young then.

I'm telling you, on a good night, when everybody's in tune and singing, you know, it's kind of, like, sends chills up your spine.

And it was very gratifying.

It was like, "Yeah, we can do this.

We are doing this."

And it showed the world that maybe Broadway's wrong.

Actor: ♪ Don't talk down to me ♪ Actor 2: ♪ Don't talk back ♪ Actor 3: Hey, Phillip, what's up?

Phillip: Representation.

The girl needs representation.

Tim: East West Players was a dues-paying company that would actually help in terms of paying the rent.

So once Mako resigned, Nobu came in as the artistic director and was able to involve more community sponsorships, corporate sponsorships, and able to bring more cash flow into the theater.

Nobu McCarthy: My main goal is to nurture youth.

Younger Tim: When Nobu stepped down as the artistic director, she recommended me as the next generation, so to speak, to take over East West.

This production is made possible by IBM and Toyota Motor Sales USA.

Beulah: We're ready for a leap forward.

And I'm glad to say that there is a building in Little Tokyo called the Union Church, a federal historical landmark, and we plan in about two years to move into that facility.

Younger Tim: It looks like you already started some work here.

Younger George: With this million-dollar campaign, we plan to build a world-class theater, and I think it is a measure of the maturity of Asian-American culture.

George: After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were assembled at Union Church.

And it was from there that Japanese-American Christians were taken into barbed-wire imprisonment.

And we need that physical symbol to tell that story and put a theater, an Asian-American theater, in that building.

[Indistinct chatter, laughter] Keone: You got to respect that it's a commercial success.

It's, you know, it's standing on its own feet.

But it's, you know, it's like a mom-and-pop store, right?

Everything's good.

You go in, the food is great, you know?

Oh, yeah, there's bugs running around, but so what?

It's great, you know?

And then the people say, "Hey, you know, we can make money doing this.

So nothing personal."

You know, if this is the way you got to go, go ahead.

Do your thing.

Tim: When I came onboard, East West was a $350,000 organization.

And I think when I left, we were probably about 1.5 million to 1.8 million.

And then Snehal has taken it to, like, even another level.

I think that East West Players might be ready for the next move.

I mean, I think the sky's the limit, right?

[Indistinct conversations] Snehal: Hello.

Hello, everyone.

[Cheering and applause] [Indistinct].

Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

Welcome to East West Players and opening night of "On This Side of the World."

[Cheering and applause] Yes!

We have been here for 57 years.

[Cheering and applause] Yes.

And everything we do is for you, our community.

And so whether this is your maiden voyage with us or you are a frequent flier, thank you so much and enjoy the show.

[Airplane chimes sound] Singers: ♪ Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ♪ Velina: I'm always concerned that we don't honor our classics in the same way that mainstream theater does.

Zandi: ♪ What's beyond that?

♪ Velina: Because our history is part of who are we and who we will be in the future.

Donatella: I would push them to go further... Zandi: ♪ Two hours by subway ♪ Donatella: to more radical work and challenging work.

Zandi: ♪ Oh my God... ♪ Daniel: We're at a unique point in history where there's never been more roles for Asian-American performers.

I see more of us working than ever.

Alberto: Is there even a need for East West?

Are we going to be doing it only for ourselves?

And ourselves might not care to see what we're doing.

Snehal: Some of what our mission is, is, I hope, finite.

I hope in 3 or 4 generations, we're not in the same place, we've moved beyond.

Tim: When America becomes majority people of color, how are we, as artists, going to prepare for that?

Singers: ♪ Am I making this trip... ♪ Tamlyn: The East West Players has always got to be theatrical sanctuary, to be able to practice and hone the craft because this is how we evolve.

John: What human experience do we need East west Players to manufacture for those people, for the creators, and what human experience do we want the audience to have?

♪ Albert: Where I felt like the audience and I were one, I felt, I can do anything.

They're with me.

We are going to be one.

We will share this.

♪ Alberto: Oh, I'm--I'm moving myself.

Ha ha!

Singers: ♪ Here I go Go Go Here I Go ♪ [Cheering and applause] ♪ Both: Ready?

We went to high school together.

Actor: No, I'm sorry.

So sorry.

Actor 2: No, no, no, no.

Actor 1: I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.

Actor 3: So sorry.

Actor 1: I'm so sorry!

Oh, I'm-- [Confidently] I'm so sorry.

[Indistinct chatter] Man: Shh.

[Woman screams] [Laughter] [All singing] ♪ Announcer: This program was made possible in part by a grant from Anne Ray Foundation, a Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropy; the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture; the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs; and the National Endowment for the Arts.