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Salzburg Global Fellow Nicole Jerr comments on how theater contributes to our understanding of migration and borders
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This op-ed was written by Nicole Jerr, who attended the Salzburg Global American Studies program "Beyond the Nation-State? Borders, Boundaries, and the Future of Democratic Pluralism" from September 19 to 23, 2023.
Migration, the state of being on the move and crossing boundaries, is happening all around us. We tend to think about this in terms of crossing geopolitical lines, but broadening our context can be instructive. In the plant and animal worlds, we study migratory patterns with wonder and awe as we notice the resilience and adaptability on display, but also worry about so-called “invasive” species. In the technological world, we migrate our data to new platforms, sometimes relieved to have better functionality and sometimes frustrated as we are forced into new rules and unfamiliar interfaces. As a society, we are also on the move as our ideals and knowledge shape our behaviors toward others, leading us to construct borders and boundaries, or perhaps to build bridges.
Migration is, literally, unsettling. Perhaps for this reason, literature, theater, and other cultural works are often a crucial means for exploring the mixed feelings surrounding migration. Zeroing in on my own field of theater, I would also argue that works created for the theater have the capacity to uniquely challenge our ideas and responses by placing us in situations we might not otherwise experience.
Historically, theater has proven to be a rich site for exploring border crossings and the importance of giving refuge to those seeking sanctuary. Looking back to the ancient Greek tragedians, Sophocles follows Oedipus to the end of his life in “Oedipus at Colonus”. The self-blinded king is seeking a place where he can be buried, but his circumstances mark him out as “polluted”. In this instance, compassion prevails, but that’s not the case for other tragic protagonists who find themselves in foreign places when their usefulness has run its course.
And what about contemporary American theater? Many playwrights have taken up the issues around migration and border crossing that dominate the debates of our present-day context. In “Hamilton”, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s energetic and racially provocative re-telling of the founding of America, the line, “Immigrants - we get the job done!” is a feel-good crowd pleaser. But Lloyd Suh’s “The Far Country” takes a closer look at the Chinese Exclusion Act and the impossible choices confronting those who nevertheless sought entry to America in the hopes of bettering their prospects. Luis Alfaro’s “Mojada” is set in the present day, but is based on Euripides’ “Medea”. Alfaro explores the inherent vulnerabilities facing an undocumented Mexican woman in Los Angeles.
These works give voice to the aspirations guiding those taking the risk of migration and demonstrate the many hardships they face upon arrival. They explore in explicit terms what exclusion looks like and how it is fostered. But I’d like to draw attention to two works, Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced” and David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face”, that articulate some of the more subtle longer-term stakes of crossing borders, especially in the American context. These plays explore what inclusion might look like and how it could be cultivated.
In “Disgraced”, Amir Kapoor, of South Asian origin, has arguably achieved every mark of financial and social success as a lawyer in New York, climbing the ranks in his firm, wearing expensive shirts, and marrying a white woman. Similarly, in Hwang’s semi-autobiographical “Yellow Face”, the playwright’s father is an ardent believer in the American Dream, and through his success as a banker, seems to have achieved it.
In both of these works, we learn that it is precisely the success of these characters that generates fear and resistance. Despite the obvious ways in which they have assimilated to American tastes and priorities, it doesn’t take much for those with power to question their loyalties. The plays suggest that American society reflexively acts as a gatekeeper at every step, constantly moving the goalposts for achieving naturalization and integration. Belonging in any appreciable sense seems out of reach.
Theater is well-poised to trace the subtle movements across boundaries of race, class, and gender. After all, actors are always playing someone else, not themselves. Cross-dressing was built in. In the Western tradition, acting was limited to male performers until the late 17th century, whereas in Eastern traditions, the actors were women.
In Hwang’s “Yellow Face”, he uses this theatrical history to explore what it means to pretend to be a race that is not your own. The plot is too complicated (and hilarious) to detail here, but Hwang creates a character, Marcus, who is mistakenly understood to be Asian and decides to capitalize on this. He enjoys the community that embraces him, even if he doesn’t look (and technically is not) Asian. Meanwhile, the father, who admires the kinds of characters played by Jimmy Stewart in classic Hollywood films, is devastated to learn that he will only ever be seen as a Chinese man by those around him. The aim of the play, as articulated toward the end, is “to take words like ‘Asian’ and ‘American,’ like ‘race’ and ‘nation,’ mess them up so bad no one has any idea what they even mean anymore. Cuz that was Dad’s dream: a world where he could be Jimmy Stewart. And a white guy – can even be an Asian.”
A work such as “Yellow Face” challenges its audience to consider how we might better build bridges to belonging, rather than policing differences.
Nicole Jerr is an associate professor of English at the US Air Force Academy, where she specializes in modern and contemporary drama and also serves as the faculty liaison for Steel Script, a performance poetry club.
Nicole attended the Salzburg Global American Studies program on “Beyond the Nation-State? Borders, Boundaries, and the Future of Democratic Pluralism” from September 19-23, 2023. The 2023 Salzburg Global American Studies Program focused on the contestations and renegotiations of boundaries beyond the nation-state, and how they are changing the representation of democratic pluralism.