The Chickencoop Chinaman
| The Chickencoop Chinaman | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Frank Chin |
| Characters | Tam Kenji Lee Charley Popcorn Tom Robbie The Lone Ranger Tonto Hong Kong Dream Girl |
| Date premiered | May 27, 1972 |
| Place premiered | The American Place Theatre |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Asian American identity |
| Genre | comedy |
| Setting | Oakland area of Pittsburgh, late 1960s |
The Chickencoop Chinaman is a 1972 play by Frank Chin. It was the first play by an Asian American to have a major New York production.
Tam Lum, a Chinese American filmmaker working on a documentary about a black boxer named Ovaltine, has arrived in Pittsburgh to visit Ovaltine's father, Charley Popcorn. In Pittsburgh, he stays with his childhood friend, the Japanese American Kenji, who lives in Pittsburgh's black ghetto with his girlfriend Lee and her son. In Act I, Tam has just arrived and is catching up with Kenji. In Act II, the two men meet with Charley and bring him back to the apartment, where Lee's ex-husband has shown up to take her back. These scenes are intercut with fantasy sequences, such as one in which Tam meets his childhood hero, the Lone Ranger.
Tam Lum: a filmmaker who grew up in Chinatown but has adopted the inflections of black speech in honor of his hero, Ovaltine Jack Dancer, a black boxer about whom he is making a documentary
Kenji: Tam's Japanese American childhood friend, who is hosting him during his stay in Pittsburgh
Lee: Kenji's girlfriend, of uncertain ethnic extraction and with children by several different fathers; ex-wife of Tom
Robbie: Lee's son
Charley Popcorn: an elderly black man, presumably Ovaltine's father, but now running a porno theater
Tom: a Chinese American author, now writing a book entitled Soul on Rice; Lee's ex-husband
Hong Kong Dream Girl, The Lone Ranger and Tonto: characters who appear in fantasy/dream sequences
The American Place Theatre, 27 May 1972. Directed by Jack Gelber; scenery by John Wulp; costumes by Willa Kim; lighting by Roger Morgan. With Randall Duk Kim, Sab Shimono, Sally Kirkland, Anthony Marciona, Leonard Jackson, Calvin Jung, and Joanna Pang in the lead roles.
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