Rejecting Helltown Buffet or The Importance of Theater Research

Seattle-based SIS Productions rejected Helltown Buffet with a nice email. The reason? Not enough roles for women. True enough. The play focuses on men, with only two out of the seven main characters for women.

But some research into their theater could've saved some trouble. Their website clearly states that they strive "...to create, develop and produce quality works that involve Asian American women."

Good thing that email submissions don't use any postage. The cheap, simple lesson here is to always check out a theater's background before soliciting them.

The good news is that SIS is looking at my Asian Acting play collection, which has quite a few roles for women. The one all-male play of the collection, Tongue Lashing, can easily be replaced by Christmas Kisses, which is mostly about women, though not strictly an Asian play.