ABSTRACT
The journal entry trace the odyssey of the play, A Small Delegation, from its genesis while teaching in China, to its eventual production in China by the China Youth Arts Theatre. The play tells the story of a small group of Americans who go to Beijing the summer before Tiananmen Square, the developing friendship between an American professor and her Chinese translator, and the limits and possibilities of East/West exchange. There are five Chinese and three Caucasian characters in the script. A Small Delegation premiered at the Annenberg Center Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays in 1992. Despite excellent reviews, it was not easy to get the play produced in the United States. Each play always has its own hurdles. A Small Delegation received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to Bellagio, an A. W. Alton Foundation Production grant, and a grant for the Beijing production from the Asia Society, the Asian Cultural Council, the Kunstadter Foundation, and the Starr Foundation.
