A Personal Statement from Anh Tai Bercher

            Let me be perfectly clear that I have no problem with APA as a program. APA is my home, almost literally because I spend most of my time at it, and the people in it are my family. I’m not blaming the white girls of APA for theoretically being cast in Miss Saigon. My problem isn’t even with the show Miss Saigon. I love Miss Saigon. It’s one of my favorite shows, and I can guarantee you I know more about the show than anyone else in the program. It’s because these two things that I hold so dear are intersecting that I feel the need to get involved and stop it from happening. I just think that we’re making a mistake by doing Miss Saigon if we aren’t prepared to do Miss Saigon right. I had initially been excited about the idea of doing the show, but over the summer and at the beginning of the year it struck me how APA was a predominately white program, and would be unable to accurately portray the story of a Vietnamese prostitute. I brought up the issue with an APA faculty member (who shall remain nameless) who said to me something along the lines of “it’s easier to make someone Asian than it is to make them look black. All you need is a black wig, and some makeup, (at this point they gestured to their eyes and made a motion indicating they were smearing makeup diagonally) and nobody in the audience will be able to tell the difference.” And this really resonated with me, because it showed to me something that I think I hadn’t considered before: I was the only one who recognized the problem here. I was the only one who saw how offensive it would be to put a white girl up onstage and have her portray the story of a Vietnamese prostitute torn apart by a real war that effected real people. The faculty wasn’t seeing what I was seeing. These people are just seeing a show, a great show with a big starring role for a girl. Well if that’s what they want, they can get that without doing Miss Saigon.

            I looked through all of the musicals put on Broadway in the last hundred years, and by my estimates maybe 16 of them specifically required Asian actors. Of the 16, Asian characters were only principle roles in 11. And of all 16 shows, only 10 are available to be licensed, only 5 which feature an Asian character in a principle role. Coincidentally, APA has done 5 of these shows. As there was no authentically Indian Fakir in either production of The Secret Garden, neither Chin Ho nor Bun Foo in Thoroughly Modern Millie were Asian, and the leads in Miss Saigon were white when APA did it in 2007, this means that APA has done 2 productions where actors of Asian descent were actually cast in roles intended as such. When we did A Chorus Line last year, Vicky Vo played Connie Wong, a real life Asian-American actress who complained about the lack of diversity she was could find in her work, and Avenue Q this year featured Anna Nguyen as the Japanese immigrant Christmas Eve (though it bears mentioning that her solo number had a chorus of mostly white girls in kimonos bowing added to it). So APA used yellowface casting for 3 of 5 shows.

            What does this all mean? Well, we have to think about the implications of the decision to cast roles intended for actors of Asian descent with white actors. In 2012, NPR found that Asian-American actors only filled up 2.3% of roles on Broadway, including ensemble roles, despite Asian-Americans accounting for 12.9% of the population of NYC. It’s a very real problem that Asians are underrepresented in the media. Awards are a good gauge of how well respected certain groups are in an industry, and the results there are depressing. The number of Asian Tony award winning performers can be counted on one hand. What this all boils down to is representation. It’s a scientific fact that representation for minority groups in the media is important. It gives developing individuals (even developed individuals) role models that they can look up to and reinforces positive messages. The fact that Asian Americans are all but absent from the history of the theatre is disheartening to aspiring actors, as well as sending out negative messages to Asian-Americans in general by indicating that they themselves won’t be successful if they don’t try to fit into a very specific mold of what’s expected of someone of their race. Many Asian parents will discourage their children from becoming actors because they feel from experience that there's no place for them. I know firsthand how awful this can be.

                        One of the symptoms of the stigma against Asians in the acting industry is what I call “orientalism.” This is when all Asian people are considered the same race because they’re Asian. Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, white people look at them and say that they’re Asian. This “one size fits all” practice of casting Asian actors helps perpetrate the idea that all Asians look the same. The stereotypical pale skin, slanted eyes, and dark black hair that most people associate with “Asian” is incorrect. Asia is a whole continent that spans from the top of the map to the equator, and there are all people of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The idea that a black wig and some makeup can make a Caucasian girl appear to be authentically Vietnamese is offensive and brings us back to the “all Asian people look the same” logic. And that’s ignoring the already racist practice of depicting a white actress in yellow-face. 

                        The act of presenting oneself as another race is inherently racist because it is an attempt to make an entire ethnicity redundant. Casting a white actor as an Asian character is essentially saying that Asian actors are dispensable and everything that makes them Asian is purely cosmetic. Yet the knife never seems to cut both ways. Because white actors are in a position of privilege, their situation is never displaced by actors of color. Unless you're seeing Hair, Abraham Lincoln is always going to be played by a white guy. The issue with representation is that the situation that currently exists is unfairly tipped towards white actors. Another student brought up the fact that they were in The Secret Garden and they weren't white, so it would be racist for them to play a British person. And it wouldn't. That argument is illogical. First off, mostly because of the whitewashing the media has done of history, we assume that everybody everywhere was white always. There were a lot of non-white individuals all of the world at all points in history. But more than that, there's something called "suspension of disbelief" where the audience willingly puts aside reality to pretend that the play is real. The audience is aware that everyone in the show is a high school student, and that none of them are British, so it's not too far of a stretch for them to accept that there's an Asian person or a Hispanic person or a Middle Eastern person. This is okay for a variety of reasons. By playing a British ghost, the show is making no claims to the character of the actor. The characters being white or British is in no way is impacted by the actor. With a character like Kim in Miss Saigon, the fact that she's a young Vietnamese woman is constantly brought up and of the upmost important to the show. The other reason is that there's already a bunch of white people in the theatre. If there had been a historic problem with white parts being played by not white people, there'd be and issue, but in fact the opposite is true. There's historically been an issue with white people playing every color under the sun. In general, and at APA.

            There is also the inherent problem of Miss Saigon being a story about Vietnamese people, who are a minority in APA. Kim at one point in the show sings:

“Do you want one more tale of a Vietnam girl?

Want to know how I was bound to a man I don’t love?

Want to hear how my village was burned?

Want to hear how my family was blasted away?

How I ran from the rice fields and saw them in flames?

How my parents were bodies whose faces were gone?”

Now, Kim may be a fictional person, but the destruction that the Vietnam War caused to Vietnam was real. The story Kim sings about is the story of thousands, if not millions of people. Millions of people were forced to flee their homes, and even their home country, to flee one of the longest, most brutal wars in American history. And it’s not just this one verse, the whole story is filled with uniquely Vietnamese events. Forlorn Vietnamese prostitutes singing of how they want a better life in a seedy bar. A parade orchestrated by the communists after the fall of Saigon. Desperate Vietnamese people screaming and clawing at the gates of the American Embassy as they watch the last of the American troops abandon them to the Viet Cong. The exodus of millions of Vietnamese people into neighboring countries to flee the communists. All of these events are depicted in Miss Saigon. Telling such a powerfully emotional and historically relevant story about Vietnamese people with white actors would be inconceivable. Except for three leads and a handful of scenes with small ensembles, every scene takes place in Vietnam and all of the characters in the show are Vietnamese. Doing this production at the predominately white APA would be racist. The entire cast would have to be in yellow face, and that’s in no way okay.

            During the initial run of Miss Saigon, the very white Jonathan Pryce was cast to play the lead in the show, a half-Vietnamese, half-French pimp called The Engineer. This caused some outrage among the Asian community, as well as protests from Actor’s Equity when the show transferred to America. Due to intense pressure, Actor’s Equity was forced to back down, and Jonathan Pryce would win a Tony for his role, but the fact still stands that he was in yellow face. As a half-Vietnamese and half-White individual myself, what this says to me is that I am disposable. It says to me that I’m too Asian to play the leading man in most shows, but even when the role specifically calls for someone like me, the rules can be bent to allow in someone else. This is what’s so problematic about APA continually producing shows that require Asian Actors, it discredits Asian-American as an identity. The nonchalant attitude the faculty has been displaying towards this show is one that I expect we wouldn’t see in regards to any other show. APA hasn’t performed Dreamgirls, a musical about African-Americans in the music industry. APA has yet to perform In the Heights, a musical about the lives of Latino-Americans in Brooklyn Heights. I wouldn’t hear a teacher tell me that a black wig and some makeup would allow the audience to sincerely believe white actors in those shows. Asian-Americans have it hard enough in the entertainment industry and it’s shows like Miss Saigon that force the community to recognize and give opportunity to actors of Asian descent. It would be extremely disrespectful to take a groundbreaking role like Kim (which elevated the Filipino Lea Salonga to international stardom) and give it to a Caucasian actress. And I think it’s a problem when, out of every musical ever written that has been cast and performed with white people thousands of times, APA has to select one that has such significance to the Asian community. It says to me that out of every musical ever where race doesn’t matter in the casting of the lead, we have to do the one show that a white girl can’t be cast in and we have to pretend to be okay with it. You seem to look at this show and see a show with great music, a large ensemble, and some great leads. I look at this show and see the hours I’ve lain awake at night debating whether I was more white, or more Asian. I look at this show and see myself Googling “roles for Asians in musicals.” I look at this show and see myself wondering what the musical theatre degree I’m going to college to get is going to amount to. I look at this show and I see people who would shy away from the idea of putting black makeup on a girl’s face, but are suddenly okay with it if the makeup is bronze. I look at this show and I see a bunch of people who mean well, but just can’t see the error of their ways. I realize that I just got super preachy there, but it's how I feel, and I think that I deserve as much of a safe environment as every other student at the school, regardless of their race.

            I’ve voiced this sentiment to many other students, and I’m not the only one who has a problem. Other Asian students have complained about the racist micro-aggressions they face daily being in and around APA shows. White students have agreed with me that it is extremely racist for us to be telling a story about Asian people in a program where most of the students are white. It seems that everyone was just too shy to say anything because they were scared it would influence their chances of getting a part or because they would somehow be punished for speaking up for what’s right. We're all terrified, and I don't think we should have to be concerned about voicing these types of concerns. Several people have suggested that I appeal to the parents or the district with my concerns, but I don’t want to make it some attack on APA. But a mistake is being made, and it would be in everyone’s best interest to correct it as soon as possible. The main reason I’m taking such a broad approach to the issue is because while the issue is a personal one to me, it also affects the other APA students, and they deserve better. It’s not APA’s fault that there aren’t an abundance of Asian-American actors in their program. It is their fault, however, that they continue to do shows that specifically call for Asian-American actors if they aren’t prepared to cast Asian-Americans. It’s very much a moral issue, one that will continue to tax on all of us for the rest of the year if some action isn’t taken. We shouldn’t have to choose between doing a musical or standing by our morals. We shouldn’t have to choose between what we love and what’s right. It’s not fair to me, and it’s not fair to anyone else in this program.

            That’s why we would like to respectfully request that Miss Saigon be removed from the upcoming season at APA and replaced with a less controversial show. I am aware that there are lots of concerns like money, or finding the rights to another show, but with the show months in the future I’m confident some kind of solution can be reached. My call may come too little too late, but I couldn't in all good conscience continue to be a part of APA without at least voicing my concerns. 

             I encourage all other APA students to read what I say and take the issue into consideration. If you agree with me, perhaps you'd like to stand with me. If you disagree, I'd love to hear what you have to say. As much as this issue is personal to me, it's one that effects all of us, and it's one that we should all be talking about.