The Big Event

In this blog post, I will explain the specific event that sparked my controversy in my own words.

Stefan, "Anger." 3/19/2010. via flickr. Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

The screams of the Asian American community rang like a blaring horn, warning of an incoming bomb strike like in the days of the Second World War. This anger and hatred spread immediately throughout the country as the reaction of La Jolla Playhouse's casting decisions regarding their performance of The Nightingale. In July of 2012, La Jolla Playhouse based on the campus of University of California, San Diego cast and began performing The Nightingale, a traditional show that has come from Asia for their Page to Stage series. Due to this history, most of the characters in The Nightingale are meant to be of Asian descent, and La Jolla Playhouse only cast minimal Asian-Americans and the majority of the cast for the show were white, including the lead of the show as well. This sparked immediate controversy from the surrounding Asian American community, specifically AAPAC, or the Asian American Performers Action Coalition. This organization took great offense to the perceived miscasting of this show, and the community was left with what felt like another disgusting forced-feeding of vegetables before a dessert that would never come. They believed that minorities, specifically the Asian American community, have been betrayed by being underrepresented in popular entertainment and when they were represented they were made to be nothing more than a joke to not be taken seriously. They believed this was another instance in the long list of grievances against popular culture where those that are a part of the Asian community do not deserve representation that others receive, leaving those in the Asian community hungry for not only an apology, but a solution.