KEY POINTS:
Asian arts aren't all martial, goes the trade-marked tagline of the Oryza Foundation set up to produce, develop and promote Asian performing arts in this country.
Next week, the foundation sets out to prove the truth of its slogan by showcasing seven new works under the title Asian Tales: Native Alienz - Stories from the Lips of Asia.
The short-format works - none is longer than 10 minutes - are described as contemporary insights into the widely differing experiences of being Asian in New Zealand.
Written by new and emerging playwrights, they include a piece by Hiroshi Nakatsuji, known as New Zealand's first (and only) English-speaking, Japanese-born stand-up comedian. Nakatsuji's Mount Head offers audiences a taste of Japanese Rakugo, a form of comedic storytelling with a 300-year history. Stories are told using traditional Rakugo props - a handkerchief and a hand fan - by a single performer in a kimono. Nakatsuji, who arrived here three years ago after marrying a New Zealander, says the piece is a tragi-comedy about the absurdity of human existence.
It starts with the central character greedily munching on cherries and the seeds he finds under a cherry tree. One of the seeds germinates within him and grows into a cherry tree - on top of his head.
It's not the first time food and eating have been a focus of Nakatsuji's work. Last year, he used his comedy stage show Lucky Golden Whales to protest against Japanese whaling. Performing Rakugo returns him to his artistic roots. He originally trained in his native Japan under a Rakugo master before travelling to the United States to study theatre and drama.
Nakatsuji made unsuccessful attempts to break into stand-up and says the experience left him so traumatised that he abandoned comedy until coming to New Zealand.
"Here I'm exotic - I don't think there's another English-speaking, Japanese-born comedian - so I can build on that in my comedy work," he says. "Asian Tales is a unique opportunity for me because I do not usually get to work with other Asian performers."
Other writers contributing work to Asian Tales include cousins Mei-Lin Hansen and Kiel McNaughton, on screen as Shortland Street's nurse Scotty (James) Scott.
In The Mooncake & the Kumara, Hansen and McNaughton tell the story of a budding romance between a Chinese man and a Maori girl working in a market garden in Matamata in 1927. But the man, Chao Kum Chee, has a wife back in China who is struggling to deal with his absence.
Making connections and finding a sense of belonging in a new place are themes that run through all the works in Asian Tales. In Midnight, State Highway 1, Indian New Zealander Mukilan Thangamani's two protagonists, an Indian man and an East Asian woman, form a bond after a car crash, while Ying Ly sets her piece, The Loyal Customer, at a Vietnamese stall in an Asian foodhall where a customer and the owner become friends.
Renee Liang, gaining a reputation for her contributions to the local poetry scene, addresses the question of identity directly in Mask, a story about a Chinese father and daughter locked in inter-generational conflict.
Likewise, Davina Goh's Citizen 3 is about a young Malaysian-Chinese man struggling to bridge the divide between his multicultural family, friends and work associates.
Intrusions, by Misa Tupou, follows the story of Lone Figure, whose battle against discrimination sees him snap and react viciously to the pressures of a world which judges him by his skin colour.
Asian Tales' producer, Yee Yang "Square" Lee, a lawyer by trade, says it was not intended for the works to focus on identity but that issue clearly occupied the playwrights who wanted to be part of the project.
Lee says the Oryza Foundation was founded principally by himself and friend Alex Lee around two years ago. They approached The Edge about presenting a show for its STAMP programme, set up in 2004 to help emerging playwrights, production companies and performers develop new work.
Given the green light, they called for scripts and received around 25.
A committee chose six - a tough ask, says Square Lee, given the high quality. "Asia is such a huge place, with so many different theatrical and storytelling traditions, so we worked really hard to represent as many different cultures as we could."
Eventually, they decided the opportunity to present a Rakugo work was too good to miss, so added it to the bill, making a total of seven works. Mount Head will form a sort of prologue to the rest of the tales.
Square Lee hopes Asian Tales will become an annual event, encouraging more Asian artists to stage their work while tempting new audiences into the theatre.
Possible future projects include an adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Performance
What: Asian Tales: Native Alienz - Stories from the Lips of Asia
Where and when: Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, Feb 12-21Drama isn't all about kung fu fighting, finds Dionne Christian
