In 2012, the La Jolla Playhouse in California generated nationwide controversy for the casting of a musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's 1843 story "The Nightingale", set in ancient China.
The play was part of the La Jolla Playhouse's "Page to Stage" program,[1] a workshop series in which unfinished new works are tested and altered during the show's run.
[6][7][8][9][10] During a public forum to address the debate, the idea for which having been generated by a letter of protest from the Asian American Performers' Action Coalition, Christopher Ashley, the current Artistic Director of the La Jolla Playhouse, stated that it was his effort to follow a multi-ethnic casting principle for the play.
[citation needed] Ashley and director Moises Kaufman both expressed an understanding and acknowledgement of the criticisms, and clarified their ongoing focus, through the play's series of workshops, to explore multiple ways of telling the story through a multi-cultural lens.
Kaufman later told the Los Angeles Times that his intention was to combine elements of both Eastern and Western cultures and that he was open to a version of the show with an all-Asian cast.
In 2007, the play was workshopped at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco with director James Lapine, and utilized an all-Asian cast.