“Conceptually, community is easy for me to grasp. But when I try to take inventory, it’s less tangible. I remember hearing or reading somewhere of Dunbar’s Number, a theory that says we can only maintain about 150 connections at once. And when I think about how small that network of relationships actually is between family, close friends and co-workers, that doesn’t leave much space for community. Acknowledging that definitions of community can differ, for me, an idea of community is a collection of people that reflect and influence the physical and emotional spaces I seek connection and affirmation in. It could be my neighborhood, a volunteer committee, my barista or artistic collaborators.”
“When I think about how that has changed over the last decade within the context of my Asian identity, it takes me back to college when I first felt othered and had to come to terms with the opportunities and limits my Asian-ness came with. Cue flashback music.
“I’m 22. Graduated from NYU. Living as a thespian in NYC. And I’m finding that I had to move to the mainland to understand what a privilege it was to grow up in Hawaii where I was a part of the majority. As a teenager, I knew on a national scale and in the media, I was a part of the minority. But in Hawaii, the world looked like me and that was powerful. In New York, it didn’t and I was powerless. I knew after graduating that I had the headwinds of typecasting against me. Forever confined to the “Asian folder” in casting offices unless I was somehow “ethnically ambiguous” enough. It’s in this commercial theater climate that I felt my dreams of Broadway could have an expiration date. I found my first taste of freedom from how I presented racially on stage when I was a part of an all Asian company of Hello, Dolly! produced by the National Asian Artist Project in 2013.
“I found community in that experience not only in my castmates who looked like me, but who were also on a similar creative journey getting to express ourselves in our Sunday best like the countless casts of Hello, Dolly! before us. I learned then that there’s power in collectively challenging the norms of how something is traditionally portrayed and staged while seeing what else reveals itself in the process. I’ll never forget thinking that for those in the audience seeing Hello, Dolly! for the first time that Dolly Levi would always be a Chinese woman in their minds. Forever changing the perception of what a leading lady can look like for any young aspiring artists or patrons.”
“Fast forward to April 2023, I’ve gained a new perspective on how theater can shape perception thanks to an experience performing with Theater Mu. But this felt bigger than Hello, Dolly!. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Theater Mu has been centering storytelling on the Asian experience for 30 years. Suffice to say, I was late to their party, and so happy to be there. I had the privilege of performing with three Hmong artists in a musical centered on Hmong experiences written by Hmong playwright Katie Ka Vang. The fact that 10 years ago an all Asian cast in a non-Asian show was considered groundbreaking and now we are professionally producing world premiers of original work conceived by BIPOC artists centering on their marginalized experiences is a sign of progress we can all be proud of. I found community in my castmates once again. Not because we were grateful for the opportunity to perform as Asians in a traditionally White musical. But because we were getting to express our whole selves in a story centered on our existence. There was community in the vulnerability and courage of creating in the hands of each other. We now live in a world where a Hmong musical exists. We can’t undo or unknow that. Community did that.
“So how has community building evolved over time? For me, it’s become less about the people and numbers, of which can have its limits. It’s more about what gets learned, created and perpetuated in community. Community used to mean people brought together by shared circumstance, staying insular and exclusive. Today, community means collective learning and evolving in service of betterment. Thinking back to my Dolly days, it’s now not enough to just change someone’s perception. We must push to change someone’s world. Make it better. Make it more accessible. Make it safer so that we are not crawled under rocks, but out in the sun. Knowing less. Learning more. Belonging and creating more in community. “
