‘Yankee Dawg’s’ Shimono and Yee Have Their Day

What do Vincent and Bradley have to do with Sab and Kelvin?

A little and a lot. A little, because Vincent Chang and Bradley Yamashita are fictitious characters created by playwright Philip Kan Gotanda and portrayed by actors Sab Shimono and Kelvin Han Yee in “Yankee Dawg You Die” (at the Los Angeles Theatre Center through Sunday). A lot, because--like their real-life counterparts--Chang and Yamashita are Asian-American actors carving out a living and identity in modern-day Hollywood, where inequity, stereotypical casting and flat-out Asian-bashing are too often the order of business.

“I’m playing very close to my own experiences and feelings,” said Yee of his character, an up-and-coming young actor, disdainful (at the onset) of those who would demean themselves and their culture by perpetuating the image of silly, pidgin-talking caricatures. Yee, whose politics extend beyond racial concerns (he once turned down a film that included a rape “because I figured women have a hard enough time walking down the street”), feels a duty as an actor: “I’m a citizen of the world. I also have a responsibility to every Asian-American person in this country, because the major idea the mainstream population gets about Asians is from the media.”

He told of a Stanford student who had been taunted with the name “Long Duck Dong” (referring to the nerdy, anachronistic exchange student in the film “16 Candles”). “This boy looked nothing like the character,” Yee said. “But he happened to have an Asian face. Most of the time, the comedy of those characters is in their very Asian-ness: the fact that they talk funny and their eyes are taped up. I think the media have a responsibility to portray us as Americans in a pluralistic society--because we are. Whether or not you like us, we’re here. And black people are here and Latino people are here.”

For now, the recognition does not come without a fight.

“When I started working,” said Shimono, “I never thought I’d be politically inclined. An actor was supposed to go to museums, reflect, look at things, study. I thought once I got my craft worked out, I’d get jobs. And I have gotten jobs (‘Mame’ and ‘Pacific Overtures’ on Broadway, the films ‘Midway’ and ‘Gung-Ho,’ and, upcoming, Gotanda’s ‘The Wash’ on the PBS series ‘American Playhouse’). But, still a lot of my white fellow actors will say, ‘Sab, I’d like to get you in for this--but the part’s not right.’ What they’re saying is that it’s not for an Asian. I want to say, ‘It doesn’t matter.’ But all they see is the face.”

Somehow, he gets past it.

“I like acting too much to get to a point where I’m so angry I won’t want to do it,” Shimono said. “And doing this play has certainly made me stronger--and more appreciative of my past. It’s not a finger-pointing, accusatory thing. It’s understanding their time, where they were at. Vincent was probably a nightclub star and some Hollywood agent said, ‘Hey, we could use that face.’ So all he sees is dollar signs. . . . But I came in as an actor. Never was I expecting any of this rejection. So it’s frustrating when (good) work doesn’t lead to another steppingstone. No one says, ‘We gotta pick up on this.’ It’s not, ‘How can we use this actor’ but ‘How can we use this Asian face?’ ”

One refuge from limited, limiting industry roles is regional theater, notably the Bay Area’s Asian American Theatre Company and Los Angeles’ East West Players.

What do they offer?

“Dignity and humanity,” said Yee. “The roles are more fleshed out,” echoed Shimono. “You’re not playing stereotypes. They’re human beings who happen to be Asians. It’s nice to know that that theater is there, that there are writers out there like Philip Kan Gotanda who are now finding out who I am--or anyone who feels they’re being typed or denied. I don’t mind playing buffoons occasionally. Just balance it out.”

Neither do the actors want to limit themselves to portraits of Asians. “I’m about to sign a contract with ACT (American Conservatory Theatre), where I’ll be doing a whole season of all kinds of roles,” said Yee (who appeared in the 1986 film “A Great Wall”). “I’ll be playing white people, Asian people. The actor wants to do everything there is to do. And ACT is committed to opening doors and blind casting. No, I’m not denying my culture at all by doing that. I’m just trying to be an artist and create wonderful characters.”

Sometimes that includes taking a new tack on old vehicles. Shimono and Yee (who’ll pair up again this fall in a film for director Steven Okazaki) recently did a reading at the Eureka Theatre of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons”--with Asians playing the Keller family and Latinos as their neighbors.

“Whenever you take a role--whatever culture you come from, you bring a richness to it,” said Shimono. “You’re not denying your identity. You must play the character, find this person. But that character is found because of your own background too. That richness is what America is missing now. . . . Why are the (current powers-that-be) not more open to open casting? These are the people of the ‘60s, civil rights people. Where are their sensibilities? I don’t understand. ‘Star Wars’: Why was there not one Asian face up there? It feels like, ‘I don’t exist. We don’t exist.’ It’s a benign way of neglect--and it’s dangerous.”