The Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre was established in 2000 by Joyce Lam. With the help of Tom Chin, VACT has evolved into an organization that offers Asian-Canadians a community where they can feel comfortable to express themselves through comedy and theatre.
Joyce Lam is the Artistic Producer and Founder of Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre. She got her start doing community theatre as a child by putting on street performances for other kids in the neighbourhood and charging them 5 cents to watch her show. As an adult, Joyce again stumbled upon the idea of organizing theatre shows when she bumped into her old grade school classmate and future husband… Tom Chin. He told her about an Asian comedy group performing at the local Fringe Festival who were notorious for poking fun at Asian culture in a tasteful and funny manner. Seeing potential in further developing Asian-themed theatre, Joyce got in contact with the comedy group and debuted a show during Asian Heritage Month with support from the organizers who offered to compensate her for any losses if the show did not turn out well, however, the show turned out to be success, and she to her surprise, made a profit.
Inspired by the positive feedback both during and after their first comedy show, Joyce decided to take a chance on going a different direction with a play by putting together a cast and crew to perform “F.O.B.” by David Henry Hwang, and again it was a sold-out success. This was a decisive factor that eventually led to the creation of VACT in 2001. 
If Joyce is said to the be the brains behind VACT, then Tom is the "pretty one" of the company. He works as the official "mascot", poster boy, emcee, and coordinator. VACT stages their shows at several location throughout the lower mainland. Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown, Norman Rothstein theatre on 41st and Oak, Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island, and Firehall Arts Centre in Downtown.
After pouring her heart and soul into developing VACT, Joyce’s hard work has paid off as VACT has developed an underground cult following to the point they are able to attract the attention of comedy groups outside of Vancouver to compete in their sketch comedy competitions. Most recently, VACT produced Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, Flower Drum Song, an undertaking on a much larger scale. VACT managed to successfully cast the entire show using local Vancouver actors of Asian decent in triple-threat roles: singing, dancing, and acting, challenging common Asian stereotypes. Flower Drum Song became a huge hit as they ran many sold out shows during the summer of 2009.
