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Founding members of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble: (left to right) Philip Chung, Alexandra Bokyun Chun, Chil Kong and Tim Lounibos. Courtesy of Lodestone.
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L.A.’s Lodestone Theatre Ensemble
By Terry Hong
Special to AsianWeek
“It’s a collective match made in heaven,” says Chil Kong, who is one-quarter of the four-person team that leads Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, L.A.’s newest Asian Pacific American theater company.
Indeed, the foursome is awesome: Kong has directed, written, acted in and produced over 35 productions; Alexandra Chun is a film and stage actor who began her career as an Another World-daytime regular and can currently be seen in Ali; Philip Chung is an award-winning writer for film and television as well as a playwright (Yellow Face); and Tim Lounibos is an actor/director/producer with recurring roles on such hits as JAG and The Practice. Together, they were handpicked by Soon-Tek Oh, Hollywood’s preeminent Korean American actor, to create the next generation of APA theater.
Founded in 1999, Lodestone, in its various incarnations, began as a reaction to the race riots that razed L.A.’s Koreatown on April 29, 1991. Oh — with the assistance of Chung, who was fresh out of college — formed the Society of Heritage Performers (SHP) to offer non-stereotypical, non-traditional theater productions.
“Everyone has a heritage,” says Oh. “That’s what we wanted to bring to the stage.”
As one of the co-founders of the venerable East West Players and the founder of the Korean American Theatre Ensemble, Oh had plenty of experience putting on shows. “We became a vigorous multi-national company and did very well.”
But like all good parents, Oh knew when to pass the torch. “The 1.5 and second generations came into their 30s, and they needed to take the lead,” he says. So Chun, Chung, Kong and Lounibos came up with a mission statement about producing “edgy, compelling, impassioned works,” and Lounibos added the name: “I liked the idea of mariners using lodestones [a magnetic ore] for their compasses, leading the way into uncharted waters.”
While the core four are all Korean American, Lodestone is undoubtedly pan-Asian Pacific American: “While Korean American issues are important to us,” explains Lounibos, “we feel that it’s imperative to explore the more-encompassing Asian American themes and experiences, since obviously those are what we’re familiar with … and we wanted a very contemporary, cutting, kick-ass aesthetic with high production values.”
Their first production, a critical success, showed just that. The world premiere of Texas by Judy Soo Hoo, now Lodestone’s resident playwright, was a Shepard/Pinter-esque tale of two damaged, loony trailer-trash brothers who take in an unsuspecting exchange student. Lodestone’s upcoming production is another Soo Hoo world premiere, Refrigerators, a play about what happens when three APA women each set their sights on the same, perfect refrigerator on the hottest day in December.
Says Soo Hoo, “Lodestone’s commitment is to produce new works that go beyond the angst of ethnic identity or the familiar immigrant story. As a theater company, it has a unique voice and sensibility that has grown up in the post-1965 era with changing demographics, global digitalization and an understanding of grassroots theater.”
Chung refers to it as an “Asian American Renaissance.” Take L.A., for example. “This past fall, three of the most critically acclaimed productions were all Asian American, all playing at roughly the same time — [David Henry Hwang’s remake of] Flower Drum Song at Mark Taper Forum, [Chay Yew’s] Red at East West Players and [Matt Pelfrey’s] Terminus Americana at Lodestone.”
Terminus Americana, in fact, proved to be a turning point for Lodestone. A lauded production for its timely look at blinding violence, post-Sept. 11, Terminus was crucial to “building a crossover audience,” says Kong. “There is little to no crossover appeal for most Asian American productions, but we’re finally making that transition.”
Kong is also grateful for having the “flagship” company, East West Players, in the neighborhood. “When you’re the big flagship Asian American company, audiences expect you to bring voice to ‘the Asian American culture,’ ‘the Asian American mainstream,’ which leaves us with a lot of freedom because we just have to prove ourselves artistically.”
And prove it they will. With a company of 60 to 70 members and a season that includes two productions, one workshop and seven or eight readings, Lodestone is growing up. Ten years after the tragic riots, Chun sees Lodestone as “not only an artistic attempt to bridge the gaps — cultural and racial — but a peaceful means to state our case about what we want to change in the world. The riots were an eruption of a desire for change. I think that by creating an artistic outlet, it’s our way of ‘rioting.’”
Chun also has a practical master plan: “I want to turn out award-winning talent to go out to all the different venues — film, TV, other theaters — and then come back home to us so that we can charge $40 a ticket, and our volunteers and actors can be paid.” And for the upcoming 10 years? According to Chung, Lodestone’s headed “maybe to heaven, maybe to hell. But wherever we go, it’s going to be a worthwhile trip. And you can be sure that we’ll be enjoying the ride.”
Lodestone’s next production, Judy Soo Hoo’s Refrigerators, runs April 5-28 at the East L.A. College auditorium. For tickets, call 323-993-7245 or visit www.lodestonetheatre.org.
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