Great Roles for Asian Women

A pair of ruthlessly ambitious teenage twins. An applied mathematician with an explosive secret. A young woman on the autism spectrum. A wayward daughter discovering the secrets of her father’s past. These are just some of the compelling roles you’ll find in this collection of Concord Theatricals plays and musicals that put Asian women in the spotlight.

An Ordinary Muslim by Hammaad Chaudry (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 5m)
Balancing their parents’ high expectations, Muslim religious doctrines and the demands of secular Western culture, Azeem Bhatti and his wife Saima struggle to straddle the gap between their Pakistani heritage and their British upbringing. With deep compassion, Hammaad Chaudry brings to life a recognizable and unforgettable family, and with sharp intellect, asks potent questions about the challenges of integration and assimilation for immigrants in today’s global world.

Aubergine by Julia Cho (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 4m)
A man shares a bowl of berries, and a young woman falls in love. A world away, a mother prepares a bowl of soup to keep her son from leaving home. And a son cooks a meal for his dying father to say everything that words can’t. In this poignant and lyrical play, the making of a perfect meal is an expression more precise than language, and the medium through which life gradually reveals itself.

Ching Chong Chinaman by Lauren Yee (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m)
The Wongs are American as apple pie. Desdemona dreams of Princeton but could use some help with her calculus. Her brother Upton wants to be a World of Warcraft champion but needs more free time to train. Upton solves both their problems by bringing an indentured servant home one day, but they soon discover that “Ching Chong” has American dreams of his own. An irreverent comedy skewering every cliché about Asian American identity.

Christmas in Hanoi by Edward Nguyen Borey (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 3m)
Winnie Ganley and her family are traveling to Vietnam, her late mother’s birth country, during Christmas. Her Irish-American father is drinking too much, her Vietnamese grandfather is coming to believe his grandchildren are too assimilated and her brother is seeing ghosts. As Winnie tries to uncover the real reason her father and grandfather have decided to make the trip, she – and the rest of her family – try to make peace with the past, with each other and with themselves.

Church by Young Jean Lee (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 1m)
It’s time for Mass, as acclaimed playwright and director Young Jean Lee transforms her lifelong struggle with Christianity into an exuberant church service. Both celebratory and confrontational, Church will test the expectations of religious and non-religious alike – looking deep into why we believe what we believe.

Coconut by Guleraana Mir (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 2m)
Rumi is a British Pakistani woman who’s referred to as a “Coconut” (brown on the outside, white on the inside). Born and brought up as a Muslim, Rumi spends more time enjoying fine wine and bacon than being at the mosque. When she meets Simon, a white guy, she hopes that his decision to convert to Islam will be enough to keep everyone happy. However, as Simon begins to explore his faith, Rumi’s world spins off its axis in ways she could never have predicted.

Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 2m)
Three kids – Kenny, his sister Edith, and their friend Benji – are all but abandoned on a farm in remotest Middle America. With little adult supervision, they feed and care for each other, making up the rules as they go. But when Kenny’s and Benji’s relationship becomes more than friendship, and Edith shoots something she really shouldn’t shoot, the formerly indifferent outside world comes barging in, whether they want it to or not.

Empty Ride by Keiko Green (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 3m)
In this tragically warm, supernatural comedy about those left behind from the 2011 tsunami in Ishinomaki, Japan, a painter returns home to take over her ailing father’s taxi cab driving job. There, she begins rediscovering where she’s from and where she’s been.

Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play by Keiko Green (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m)
It’s 1999, and Ami is an awkward, Japanese American high school girl just trying to stay as invisible as possible. Her world comes crashing down with a terrible discovery: Her family is responsible for manufacturing MSG, the poison spice getting all the kids hooked. Meanwhile, a mysterious new girl arrives from Japan. Her name? Exotic Deadly. She’s loud, she smokes and she’s not playing by the rules. Who… or what is she?

Fast Company by Carla Ching (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 2m)
Mable Kwan is the best grifter that ever lived. She taught sons H and Francis to be the best roper and fixer around. When youngest daughter Blue puts together the con of the decade, will they get in on the action together or will one of them walk away with it all?

Film Chinois by Damon Chua (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 3m)
The place: Peking, China. The year: 1947, an uneasy time between WWII and the Communist takeover two years later. Randolph, a fresh-faced American operative, has been sent to the Raymond Chandler-esque Imperial City with an important mission. He makes progress, but soon chances into a staunch Maoist named Chinadoll, his would-be adversary and lover. A cat-and-mouse game ensues. As Randolph plunges deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness of what was once the most beautiful city in the world, he soon finds his life imperiled, even as he begins to unravel the mystery of a piece of old homemade film, and the whereabouts of a beautiful woman who seems to have vanished into thin air.

God Said This by Leah Nanako Winkler (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 2m)
When Masako is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of uterine cancer, her dispersed family is brought back to their Kentucky hometown to care for her. Forced together in a time of need, five estranged people come face to face with their own mortality.

Golden Child by David Henry Hwang (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 2m)
In the winter of 1918, progressive Chinese landowner Eng Tieng-Bin’s interest in Westernization and Christianity sets off a power struggle among his three wives, which will determine the future of his daughter Ahn. Bringing religion, family and the desire to grow spiritually and financially into sharp conflict with each other, Golden Child is testament to playwright David Henry Hwang’s brilliance.

Golden Shield by Anchuli Felicia King (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 4m)
A riveting work about loyalties, intrigue and the delicate art of translation. In this tense drama, two Chinese American sisters lead a class action lawsuit to expose an American tech giant’s involvement with the Chinese government’s firewall, Golden Shield. The play is a whirlwind tour of social and political locales ranging from American courtrooms to Chinese boardrooms to Beijing dive bars, and the story’s transnational events are supported by The Translator, who bridges the gap between Mandarin, English and everything in between.

Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 3m)
Popularized by the CBC sitcom adaptation, Kim’s Convenience is dramatic comedy about a Korean Canadian family who run a convenience store. A hilarious and heartwarming ode to generations of immigrants who have made Canada the country that it is, the play focuses on the relationship between a traditional father and a son who has left home.

King of The Yees by Lauren Yee (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 3m)
For nearly 20 years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father, Larry, has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men’s club formed 150 years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad. But when her father goes missing, Lauren must plunge into the rabbit hole of San Francisco Chinatown and confront a world both foreign and familiar. At once bitingly hilarious and heartbreakingly honest, King of the Yees is an epic joyride across cultural, national and familial borders that explores what it means to truly be a Yee.

Lotus Beauty by Satinder Chohan (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w)
The intertwined lives of five multi-generational women invite us into Reita’s Salon, where clients can wax lyrical about their day’s tiny successes or have their struggles massaged, plucked or tweezed away. But with honest truths and sharp-witted barbs high among the treatments on offer, will the power of community be enough to raise the spirits of everyone who passes through the Salon doors?

Made in India by Satinder Kaur Chohan (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w)
In a surrogacy clinic in Gujarat, three women meet. It’s Londoner Eva’s last chance for motherhood. For village girl Aditi, surrogacy is a lifeline out of poverty. For clinic owner and businesswoman Dr Gupta, it’s all just another transaction.

Masha No Home by Lloyd Suh (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 2w, 3m)
When her late mother’s secret legacy –  a large sum of “community” money – is discovered, 17-year-old Masha does the noble thing and steals it. A comic drama about a second-generation Korean American and her surprising journey of reconciliation.

New Golden Age by Karen Hartman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m, 1 any gender)
In the New Normal, two sisters face a big tech dystopia. Sunlight, founded by a boy genius, has expanded during the Pause, bringing every corner of our lives InLight. Now folk-hero Professor Lin defends the Right to the Dark, while her sister Polly attempts a perilous inside maneuver with a new gig InLight. Will we ever meet unobserved again? New Golden Age is a revolutionary tale about reclaiming human connection in an age driven by data.

No Foreigners Beyond This Point by Warren Leight (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 4m)
Paula and Andrew, two twenty-something Americans, arrive in China right after the Cultural Revolution, when the country is just starting to open up to foreigners. Paula has come to teach English and Andrew has come to spend a semester close to Paula. Their naiveté is astounding as they blunder into the heavily socialist and guarded community of the school. Spied on by everyone, obliquely threatened and mystified by local customs, will they be pushed past their breaking point?

Orange by Aditi Brennan Kapil (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 1m)
An adventure through Orange County told from the point of view of a young woman on the autism spectrum. A unique and sympathetic view of neurodiversity.

2015 Yale Repertory Theatre Production of Peerless (Joan Marcus)

Peerless by Jiehae Park (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 3w, 2m)
Asian-American twins M and L have given up everything to get into The College. So when D, a one-sixteenth Native American classmate, gets “their” spot instead, they figure they’ve got only one option: kill him. A darkly comedic take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth about the very ambitious and the cutthroat world of high school during college admissions.

Poor Yella Rednecks by Qui Nguyen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 4m)
In this funny, sexy and brash sequel to Vietgone, a young Vietnamese family attempts to put down roots in Arkansas, a place as different from home as it gets. Tong and Quang balance big hopes and low-wage jobs, as old flings threaten to pull them apart. It all makes for a bumpy road to the American dream. From the world of Nguyen’s Vietgone, with its comic book and action movie influences, comes a play that melds a deeply personal story with the playwright’s trademark, killer humor.

Queen by Madhuri Shekar (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m)
Sanam Shah, a mathematician, and Ariel Spiegel, a biologist, are Ph.D. candidates and best friends working together to discover the cause of colony collapse disorder: the urgent, ecological crisis where bees are disappearing around the world in alarming numbers. Just as they are about to publish a career-defining new paper on the subject, calling for a ban on commercial pesticides, Sanam realizes that the numbers don’t add up to support their conclusion. Should she look the other way for the sake of environmental action, or should she stand by her scientific principles, even if it means ceding ground to an ecological disaster, jeopardizing her career and losing her best friend?

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and David Henry Hwang (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 3w, 5m)
“To create something new, we must first love what is old,” says Mei-Li in Tony Award-winner David Henry Hwang’s adaptation of this Rodgers & Hammerstein jewel. Mei-Li flees Mao’s communist China after the murder of her father and finds herself in San Francisco’s Chinatown. This naive young refugee is befriended by Wang, who is struggling to keep the Chinese opera tradition alive despite his son’s determination to turn the old opera house into a swingin’ Western-style nightclub. Mei-Li realizes that the old and new can coexist when there is respect for both. In that spirit, Concord Theatricals makes available both the original (US/UK) and new versions of Flower Drum Song.

Smart People by Lydia R. Diamond (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m)
It is the eve of Obama’s first election. Four of Harvard University’s brightest; a surgeon, an actress, a psychologist, and a neuro-psychiatrist, are all interested in different aspects of the brain, particularly how it responds to race. But like all smart people, they are also searching for love, success, and identity in their own lives.

Spun by Rabiah Hussain (UK)
(Full Length Play, Drama / 2w)
Safa and Aisha have been best friends for years. They used to bunk off school, revise for exams together and even went to the same university. But now they’re forging different paths for the first time: Safa to work in the City, and Aisha to teach in Newham. When London is attacked one day in July, Safa and Aisha feel the whole world spinning. As extremes from all sides take hold of the city, can their friendship survive the upheaval?

Taisetsu Na Hito by Leah Nanako Winkler (US/UK)
(10-Minute Play, Dark Comedy / 2w, 1m)
Bethany and Charles, a wholesome American couple, become owners of Android Minami, a Japanese robo-maid. As Minami becomes integrated into their mundane lives, repressed emotions arise and the line between servitude and fetishism begins to blur.

The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 1m)
Afong Moy is 14 years old when she’s brought to the United States from Guangzhou Province in 1834. Allegedly the first Chinese woman to set foot on U.S. soil, she has been put on display for the American public as “The Chinese Lady.” For the next half-century, she performs for curious white people, showing them how she eats, what she wears, and the highlight of the event: how she walks with bound feet. As the decades wear on, her celebrated sideshow comes to define and challenge her very sense of identity.

The World of Extreme Happiness by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 4m)
Unwanted from the moment she’s born, Sunny is determined to escape her life in rural China and forge a new identity in the city. As naïve as she is ambitious, Sunny views her new job in a grueling factory as a stepping stone to untold opportunities. When fate casts her as a company spokeswoman at a sham PR event, Sunny’s bright outlook starts to unravel in a series of harrowing and darkly comic events.

Vietgone by Qui Nguyen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 3m)
An all-American love story about two very new Americans. It’s 1975. Saigon has fallen. He lost his wife. She lost her fiancé. But now, in a new land, they just might find each other. Using the uniquely infectious style The New York Times calls “culturally savvy comedy” – and skipping back and forth from the dramatic evacuation of Saigon to the here and now – playwright Qui Nguyen gets up close and personal to tell the story that led to the creation of… Qui Nguyen.

Wild Goose Dreams by Hansol Jung (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 4m)
Nanhee, the daughter of a North Korean miner, has defected to South Korea, leaving her family behind. Minsung is a South Korean “goose father” who works in South Korea to support his wife and children in the United States. Nanhee and Minsung find each other on the internet. A story about modern aspirations and their betrayals, Wild Goose Dreams explores the miracle of quiet intimacy among the noise of the contemporary world.

White Pearl by Anchuli Felicia King (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 5w, 1m)
This scathing dark comedy was writer Anchuli Felicia King’s international playwriting debut. In Singapore, Clearday™ has developed from a small startup company to a leading international cosmetic brand in less than a year. But when a draft of the company’s latest skin cream advert is leaked, the video goes viral globally for all the wrong reasons. As YouTube views increase and anger builds on social media, journalists begin to cover the story. Facing an international PR nightmare, the Clearday™ staff – desperate not to be seen as racist – scramble to take it all down before America wakes up.

Young Americans by Lauren Yee (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 1m)
Joe and Jenny, a young immigrant couple, share a drive across America to their new home, forging a relationship through national sites, motels and unexpectedly eventful IHOP stops. Twenty years later, Joe takes the same drive with their 19-year-old daughter, Lucy, but Jenny isn’t there. A heartfelt and engaging dramedy about twin road trips two decades apart that creates a nuanced picture of two generations of an immigrant family.

Find more shows featuring great roles for Asian actors on the Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.