stopwhitewashing:

It’s been over twenty years since Asian Americans rallied on Broadway against yellowface and “racebending” inMiss Saigon–the same protest that inspired our work against The Last Airbender here at Racebending.com–but Asian Americans are still not getting roles on Broadway. Enter the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), a group that has organized to help actors of color overcome obstacles to bring more inclusive casting to New York City stages. AAPAC is focused on changing Asian perceptions and opportunities within the New York theatre industry only. It was created by a group of Asian American performers in 2011 in response to what was perceived as a lack of access to opportunities within mainstream New York theatre.

On February 13th, the New York City based AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition) hosted an industry roundtable at Fordham University to dialogue on the representation of minority actors on Broadway. The three hour panel at the RepresentAsian conference was moderated by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang.

At the event, AAPAC unveiled statistics of a survey they conducted on New York stages, over a five year period. This report is the first report on minority casting in New York theatre ever to be released publicly. [Click here to download the report!]

“The statistics were culled because there was a need for it,” said Pun Bandhu, an Asian-American actor who is currently performing in “Wit” on Broadway, and a member of AAPAC’s steering committee. “There are no publicly available statistics that track minority casting in theatre, while SAG-AFTRA has already taken on that responsibility for Hollywood. Of course, as actors, we are involved in Hollywood too, especially TV shows and films that shoot in NY, and we often interact with casting directors who cast for both Film and Theatre. Our hope is that by focusing on the things we can reasonably change within one industry, we can have an impact on others as well.”

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