Our mission
Asian Story Theater seeks to broaden multicultural awareness
and understanding by dramatizing Asian and Pacific Island (API)
stories, arts, and themes for family audiences.
General information
Asian Story Theater
619/527-2816
Artistic Director: KL Brisby (email, or biography)
Education Director: Gingerlily Lowe
Board of Directors
Edward You
Connie Viado
Suanne Pauley
Dwight Love
Alexander Khalil
Andy Lowe
Gingerlily Lowe
KL Brisby
Asian Story Theater began in 1989, dramatizing Chinese folk tales as a project sponsored by the San Diego Chinese Center. The first production was The White Snake (1989-90), presented at the Lyceum Space Theatre and subsequently toured to county schools, libraries, and recreation centers. In 1991 the company staged it's first adaptation based on the 16th century fantasy novel Journey to the West, featuring the Monkey King. Additional productions followed each year (see the History links on our homepage). In 1995 the company incorporated as the Asian Story Theater, independent of the San Diego Chinese Center, to diversify programming and expand touring operations to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Each year since, we have produced at least one production in pursuit of our mission. Touring and scale of production has varied widely, depending on funding, talent, and venue availability. Ongoing challenges in working with school audiences have led us to increasingly diverse efforts, including a full-length musical about the artist Paul Gauguin (PRICK: The Musical Paul Gauguin, November 2011-May 2012), as well as partnering to produce a pilot television episode, based on our 2006 project Shave Ice (December 2013). We are also commmitted to continuing a series of relatively small, annual theater productions related to the Lunar New Year Celebrations--such as the recent RAM-GIRL. We continue to explore new production partners and collaborators, such as for the upcoming Stories of the Sun Cafe and our 2016 production Monkey.