Project Summary - Companion Document to Website

Vancouver Asian-Canadian Theatre Project Summary

We choose to do our project on Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (VACT), an Asian Canadian theatre group based in Vancouver which was created by Asians for Asians. The goal of our group project is to figure out how VACT acts as a vehicle for Asian Canadians to connect to their “Asianness” roots in addition to learning about how VACT acts as a base of operations for providing opportunities for Asian-Canadian actors in Vancouver who are generally underrepresented in the local community.

Our primary research method in our project documenting VACT was interviewing actors who are participating in VACT’s next comedy showcase, to be held April 28-29, 2010 at the Roundhouse Performance Centre in Vancouver. Our goal is to interpret their responses, while also supplementing with additional information about VACT as an organization from Joyce Lam and Tom Chin, the founders. From interviewing Joyce and Tom, we experience the operational functions of VACT: the organization, the purpose, main goals, and function as a non-profit organization that showcases Asian-Canadian talent to a public audience through theatre productions. These contents were covered in our original community documentation project and in this follow up project we expanded the concept to look at VACT through external sources – those who participate in events.

For this project, we had the privilege of interviewing three groups all of whom have previously performed shows for VACT, and will be performing in VACT’s next Etch-Your-Sketchoff!#$%!! Sketch comedy competition: “Laughing Make Mind Damage”, “SFUU Man Chu”, and “The Yangtzers”. Questions were asked about performing with VACT along with their acting experiencing while performing at a VACT show.

We got to learn about the differences between performing for Asian themed theatre and non-Asian theatre, and all kinds of materials and techniques they use to entertain the different audience groups such as how they purposely incorporate Asian stereotypes to draw the crowd reaction. Other major issues discussed with our interviewees were their opinions on important issues such as the hardships and struggles of trying to make a name for themselves, and also; trying to breakout and overcome the challenges of being Asian or of Asian decent in the North American world of acting/performing.

From the results of interviewing people who work with VACT directly, we managed to paint a clear picture of what VACT has done for some of these actors by providing them with a chance to expose themselves to the public in a city and country where opportunities are still limited for ethnic minorities, though in Metro Vancouver over the last 20 years, being “ethnic” hardly makes you part of the minority anymore. Through the positive feedback we got in our interviews, and from our own independent research, we all came to the conclusion that VACT has accomplished beyond what they originally had envisioned, and that VACT has done its job and survived the test of time.

Our website “http://asc400vact.blogspot.com” consists of eight categories. The first category, Home, introduces us “the VACT team”, the course: Asian Canadians and Community Media and what we are trying to accomplish. The History section contains information on VACT’s history as told by the founder Joyce herself; about how the organization came into existence, reasons why they created the organization, and how it took off and developed what we know as VACT today. Community as told by Tom, talks about VACT’s contribution to the development of theatre and the product they produce to their audience. Accomplishments touches on information about their past performances and their success stories. Opportunities features Tom promoting their grand prize “The Rice Bowl” which is given to the winners of their annual Etch-Your-Sketchoff!#$%!! competition. The opportunities section also promotes VACT to the public in hope that they give attention to their events, and to draw people into participating in their shows.

We expanded further into our knowledge of the organization through in-depth interviews relating to each of the subtitles. A stepping stone includes incorporates footage from the group “Laughing Make Mind Damage” where they discuss how VACT has provided them opportunities as Asian-Canadian actors/actresses to help expand their careers in acting/performing. In Asian/Canadian, Darlyne, Rick, Fiona and Josette from team “SFUU Man Chu” touch on Asian, Canadian, and Asian-Canadian issues as well as being Asian in Vancouver. The Yangtzers are featured in the last section Beyond Sketchoff!#$%!! Where group members Chinh, Roberto, and Simon discusses sketch comedy theatre performance in general.

Information about the upcoming event “Etch-Your-Sketchoff!#%!! 2” can be found on VACT’s official website at “http://www.vact.ca” where “Laughing Make Mind Damage”, “SFUU Man Chu”, and “The Yangtzers” will compete against each other along with other groups for the Rice Bowl Trophy.