Asian Story Theater

ASIAN STORY THEATER began in 1989, dramatizing Chinese folk tales as a project sponsored by the San Diego Chinese Center. The first production was THE WHITE SNAKE (1989-90), presented at the Lyceum Space Theatre and subsequently toured to county schools, libraries, and recreation centers. In 1991 the company staged its first adaptation based on the 16th century fantasy novel JOURNEY TO THE WEST– featuring the Monkey King, with multiple sequels, as well as other favorite tales such as MU LAN (before Disney). In 1995 the company incorporated as the ASIAN STORY THEATER, independent of the San Diego Chinese Center, to diversify programming and expand touring operations to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Each year since, we have produced at least one production in pursuit of our mission to celebrate our Asian heritage, and promote multicultural awareness and understanding by dramatizing Asian and Pacific Island (API) stories, arts and themes for family audiences. Recent years have led to increasingly diverse programs, including a full-length musical about the artist Paul Gauguin (PRICK: The Musical Paul Gauguin), as well as partnering to produce a pilot television episode, based on our 2006 project SHAVE ICE (December 2013). We are also committed to continuing a series of annual touring productions related to the Lunar New Year Celebrations, this year presenting THE GREAT GREEN SNAKE based on Chinese folklore and a little bit of Wizard of Oz.

We continue to explore new production partners and collaborators, such as for STORIES OF THE SUN CAFE (2015), HALO-HALO (2017), and WHAT ARE YOU? (2019). In 2021-22 we presented NOT WORKING, an original musical featuring songs from our BIPOC creative community about our shared experiences during COVID. THE COFFEE PLAYS (2023) celebrated coffee culture around the world, followed by ASIAN SCARY THEATER (2023/2024) an interactive radio theater project with “chicken-skin” storytelling featuring tales from China, Japan, Hawaii, and the Philippines, and WHERE WE LAY OUR SORROWS DOWN (2024) a Cultivating Joy project.

We hope you will go online to AsianStoryTheater.org to join our mailing list and follow #AsianStoryTheater on Facebook. Come see THE LAST CENSUS, the culmination of our project collaboration with TEATRO MÁSCARA MAGICA and UMOJA THEATER in June 2025.