ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at spaces of rehearsal and performance in the context of Asian American theatre. It examines the negotiation of transnational-national dynamics and focusses on cross-border displacement and its relationship to the construction of multicultural belonging. Asian American theatre is strongly linked to the production of American multiculturalism because in providing a platform for the voices of Asian immigrants and their descendants, this medium has helped write Asian America into the national cultural fabric with non-stereotypical complexity. The chapter analyses two different experiences of displacement and their articulation in performance: diaspora and refugees. In analysing the spatialities these displacements create and evoke, the tension between displacement and emplacement becomes apparent, through the notion of belonging to a homeland. Traversing these dynamics, the chapter discusses the tensions surrounding displacement in two productions: Imelda: A New Musical, originally produced by East West Players (EWP) in Los Angeles and restaged in New York City in a co-production with Pan Asian Repertory.
