THE EAST WEST PLAYERS BRIDGE EAST-WEST GAP

The East West Players was formed 20 years ago in part to try to do something about the stereotypic view of Asian-Americans cast by the American media. Businessmen and politicians could talk about how much of the future resided in exploiting the Pacific Rim, but when it came to the people who lived within it, well, that was something else.

Wednesday, East West Players will open Wakako Yamauchi’s “Memento.” Yamauchi is best known for her play “And the Soul Shall Dance,” and if it’s true that so many of East West Players’ productions have had to do with the generation gap and life in the relocation camps--so much so that it seems they were producing the same plays in different guises--”Memento” represents a theatrical evolution in the way the East West looks at Asian-American experience.

“This play is a departure,” said producer and production manager Keone Young. “It takes place in suburban Los Angeles and deals with two women who loved the same man. The Asian-American who has relocated to this country still lives with certain legends and cultural heritage. Here we have a man who has died. His wife brings a Noh mask he owned to his former girlfriend, as a memento. When the girlfriend puts it on, it takes over her life. It transforms her into an image of an older Japan, the geisha girl, and it blurs the past and present in her mind. It’s a real departure for us in the way it personalizes the relationship between the past and the present.”

Looking back on East West’s history, Young said: “We formed in response to racism in our industry. All you saw years ago was houseboys and Dragon Lady types. I’m sorry to say that little of that has changed, but now we’re trying to develop original material. That’s hard too. Asian-Americans have been successful as short-story writers and journalists, but the theater here is new to them. We did ‘Pinoys in Space,’ which deals with the first Filipino in space, and we have upcoming Jon Shirota’s adaptation of his novel, ‘Lucky Come Hawaii.’ We’re also planning to do a play about Mishima. We hope to move into a new space downtown where we can do Equity plays as well as smaller theater works.

“The old struggles are still with us. The generational issue is still very real and painful in Asian-American experience, and the camps are still an important piece of our history--the Supreme Court has revived the case. Reparation is still a possibility. As a theater, we’re trying to fill the gaps.”

If the name Bruce Reisman has cropped up with strange regularity in Equity Waiver circles over the last few years, it’s because he’s had six productions of his own plays produced around town in as many years.

Reisman, whose “On Stilts” opens at Richmond Shepard’s Flight Theater on Feb. 28, is one of those rare writers who jumped from theater to television and has come back to the theater again while maintaining a successful TV career. (“I’m story editor for ‘T.J. Hooker.’ I’ve done 17 episodes. I love working with Bill Shatner and the people on the show, but I can’t tell one episode from another.”)

Reisman’s stage works have included “A Visit From a Strummer’s Wife,” “Cain and Abel Deserved Each Other,” “50 Minutes,” “Knickers” and “KRZY.”

“My idols are Neil Simon and Lanford Wilson,” he said. “I like to try and strike a balance between the two, without being too heavy. ‘On Stilts’ is a very personal play, though. It deals with two young men who have been living with a woman in a plural marriage situation for 10 years. One of them comes down with leukemia and they go to Tennessee and give up their yuppie Hollywood life style. It’s a story that’s very personal to me--I had leukemia myself. Now I’m cured. I’m convinced the best part of one’s therapy is to maintain a positive attitude.”

Other openings for the week: today, “Things That Go Bump in the Night” at the Itchey Foot, the Mark Taper Forum’s literary cabaret; Wednesday, “The Iceman Cometh” at the James A. Doolittle; Friday, “Evita” at San Bernardino Civic, “Foxe’s Run” at the Tracy Roberts; Saturday, the Dell’Arte Players bring “Malpractice, Love’s the Best Doctor” to UC Riverside.

LATE CUES: Jan Munroe’s “Notes: On Performance” has extended its run at the Wallenboyd through March 1. . . . JoAnne Akalaitis’ “Green Card” premieres at the Mark Taper Forum on May 29, following Marsha Norman’s “ ‘night, Mother.” The Taper’s sixth annual repertory season, which this year plays at the Doolittle starting May 1, includes Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” and Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.”