A new Asian American theater group on the Harvard Campus hopes to open up more major roles for Asian American actors, reports UWire
The Dis-Orient Player’s mission is to stimulate discussion about cultural awareness in the Asian American community while at the same time opening up more roles for AAPI actors.
“I realized that there was no outlet for Asian-American specific performances,” Karoline Xu, the founder and director of the organization said. “There is so much talent in the Harvard community and I really wanted to harness that into an organization that promotes Asian American culture through theater and give performance opportunities to interested students without previous experience.”
The Dis-Orient Players first production will be “The Secret to Raising Successful Children.”
Theater on the Harvard campus is very much dominated by white actors. It’s unknown whether the lack of Asian Americans in theater on campus is due to bias of casting directors, the lack of Asian American actors auditioning or cultural barriers that discourage Asian Americans from getting involved in theater.
The Dis-Orient Players plan to put a dent into the problem. You can read more about Dis-Orient’s future plans on UWire