The past six years have been brutal for theatre. First COVID closed theatres and when they reopened, audiences were down 50 percent, a loss attributable to older patrons who were not willing to venture out as much. The Trump administration eliminated funding to both National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities casting another blow.
Closures have occurred throughout the country, the most startling was the Bay Area, once the forefront of edgy and groundbreaking work, where 21 theatre companies shuttered since 2020. This is devastating to the people thrown out of work and in shattering an ecosystem where new works could be tested and emerging talent could develop.
Seattle experienced the closure of Book-It Repertory Theatre which operated from 1990 to 2023. Yun Theatre received an email rescinding its NEA grant in May 2025 because it was in the multicultural theatre category, a move they characterize as censorship. Various fringe theatre companies that used to perform on Capitol Hill have folded. Even the established Fifth Avenue Theatre announced a $7.5 million deficit in March 2026.
Being in theatre has never been for the faint of heart and representation has been dismal for Asian Americans even before the current predicament, But three local Asian American theatre-makers have shown incredible grit in making their way through this difficult time.
Aimee Hong is a sought-after music director. This fall she will be associate music director for Come From Away at Village Theatre where she has served as assistant/associate music director for Camelot and Little Shop of Horrors. She has worked as Associate Music Director at 5th Avenue Theatre and just received a Sound On Stage nomination for Achievement in Music Direction for Man of La Mancha.
Aimee’s success is important because females and nonbinary are outnumbered by men by three- or four-to-one in most theatre music pits and it is rare to find an Asian musical director.
At a time when schools and colleges are cutting performance act, Aimee fulfills a crucial need by mentoring the next generation. She teaches as a senior adjunct professor at Bellevue College and at various youth programs in the region like Village Kidstage and 5th Avenue Rising Star, where she just music directed 71 youth from 40 Washington State schools in performing the complex and emotional rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.
Michael Wu, is a first generation Korean American who served in the U.S. Air Force and hails from the Bay area. Since coming to Seattle, he has been building an impressive resume of performances at our major venues: Union Arts Center, Seattle Rep, Seattle Public Theatre and Village Theatre. Nationally, only 2.4 percent of leads in musical performance are Asian. You would think that the Puget Sound region with 15 percent Asian population would be the place where these huge disparities can be reduced if not eliminated. He finds the Seattle theatre community welcoming and generous but sees the recovery process as ongoing. He is heartened by how so many people continue to fight for the future.
David Hsieh founded ReAct Theatre in 1993 and he understood right from the beginning how important it was to have diverse representation in theatre. ReAct is currently presenting Oscar Wilde’s plays set in India which runs from now until September 27, 2026. It features actors of Indian descent and give the performers the ability to hone their skills. Many actors David has mentored have left the Seattle area for more opportunities in L.A. and New York City, but he is stayed because he believes that great theatre can happen here.
His Facebook feed is an amazing chronicle of his life in Seattle theatre. In addition to managing programming at ReAct Theatre, he can attend up to 200 performances in a year. He directs and acts for many local theatres. He also builds sets and sews costumes. He teaches at Freehold and gives his students a chance at the professional performance with complex plays like The Laramie Project, about the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. All this, while caring for his mother, struggling with a broken elbow and the healthcare miasma, theft of his laptop, and his car breaking down on the highway.
After 30 years, ReAct finally has a permanent space and David wants the space to be the manifestation of what he has been to Seattle theatre—a place where theatre of all kind happens, much like the ecosystem that has been shattered in other places. Despite the dismal aftermath of Covid and Trump, David feels there are the murmurings of a revival with innovative new theatre-making is springing up, fueled partly by King County funding for the arts and sciences. David wants all these initiatives to find a home at ReAct Studios where they can enjoy reasonable rental rates for workshops, rehearsal and performance space.
These three theatre-makers will be uniting their talents a work-in-progress reading of the musical Cat Country which chronicles the trials and tribulations of Grace, a Chinese-American woman, who uses a cat’s paw strategy with her white mentor, to rise up in the racist and sexist 1980s where everything is run by ex-combatants of Asian wars. The musical is an original work with music written by Asians based on Cantopop references. All major roles are Asian. Cat Country could face the fate of most emerging musicals of never being produced unless there is an audience to nurture it.
Hsieh says that theatre is about stories, the stories we bring, the stories that are created by theatre-makers coming together and stories that evolve when the audience melds with the performance. All this happens in physical space where we must pay attention — to the stories and each other. It is anti-isolationist, anti-AI. It brings us together and exposes us to ideas or emotions that we may never have fathomed. These stories transform us. It is truly the antidote for all that ails us.
We are coming to the time of rebuilding the artistic infrastructure that has been destroyed by a pandemic and cruelty. Washington State has always lagged other states in spending on performing arts. Given the vibrancy of our area, we should be on the forefront creating great art, especially art that reflects the diversity of our Asian community. The Puget Sound region has the ability to be an incredible incubator of performance that can unite our stories and make us feel less disconnected. All it takes to move faster along the road of recovery is the audience.
Free Readings of Cat Country
Oct. 2, 2026 at 7:30 pm Bellevue College
Oct. 3, 2026 at 7:30 pm ReAct Theatre
Register at catcountry.click4tix.com
