“Grace Kim & The Spiders From Mars” is in rehearsal and it has finally set in…this really is the beginning of the end. 

 

It’s somewhat bittersweet but timely.

 

When Phil, Chil and I had our initial pre-Lodestone discussions – which we soon invited Alexandra Bokyun Chun to join in on – we found that we had quite a bit of common ground in terms of the ideal type of Asian American theatre we’d want to be a part of—and it wasn’t out there. 

 

Now anyone who knows the three of us might find the idea of us agreeing on anything at all somewhat surprising – maybe even shocking – but such were the times.

 

In those early days, we didn’t set out to create something that was missing.  It’s just that if we were going to put in the time and effort that it takes to start and run a theatre company, we wanted to do so on our own terms; and it just so happened that our vision, our aesthetic filled a niche.

 

At the time, if one was going to see Asian American theatre, she would most likely end up watching a play or musical steeped in tradition or addressing generational and/or cultural conflicts.  Those things can be great to watch; but we wanted to do plays that spoke to our generation, not our parents, and we wanted edgy, twisted, edge-of-your-seat stuff.  We wanted the audience to go, “What the F*!K?!”

 

Chil was our administrative guide in those days.  Phil had some experience including helping to run the Society of Heritage Performers (a group he had recruited me into as a founding member with He got us to meet once a week for several months and among many things we brainstormed our mission statement, business plan and possible names.

 

It was at that point that we felt ready to present our vision to our peers in the AA artistic community, leading to a most interesting and somewhat controversial first meeting… covered in my next blog.