Tisa Chang

Tisa Chang, born on April 5, 1941, in Chongqing, Republic of China, is a Chinese-American actress, theatre director, and the founder of the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Her father, Ping-Hsun Chang, was a Taiwanese diplomat who was appointed consul general of the Republic of China to New York City in 1946, bringing the family to the city when Chang was six years old. He returned to Taiwan in 1957 to serve within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while Chang chose to remain in New York with her three siblings. Her father had his own connection to the performing arts, having acted in school plays at Nankai University alongside Zhou Enlai. For eleven years, Chang was immersed in the world of diplomacy through her father's career, and her connections extended to Ottawa, where the Republic of China's ambassador, Liu Chieh, was a family friend she addressed as uncle.

Chang developed an interest in theatre from a young age, attending operas and plays with her mother. She pursued that interest formally at the High School of Performing Arts and later at Barnard College. After completing her studies, she began performing as a dancer and actress in Broadway productions. Her Broadway credits, spanning 1963 to 1977, include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, and Pacific Overtures.

Alongside her stage work, Chang appeared in film and television. Her film credits include Ambush Bay in 1966, featuring Hugh O'Brien, Mickey Rooney, and James Mitchum, and Greetings in 1968, in which Robert De Niro appeared. She later acted in the 1981 television film Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper, directed by Lamont Johnson, playing the wife of Kenneth D. Taylor, the Canadian ambassador to Iran during the Iran hostage crisis, a role that drew on her own diplomatic background. Additional screen credits include the 1983 television film Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, the 1984 television film A Doctor's Story, and Michael Cimino's 1985 film Year of the Dragon with Mickey Rourke.

Chang transitioned into directing in 1973, beginning her work at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, where she directed for Ellen Stewart's Chinese Theatre Group. Her first directorial work was the Peking opera The Return of the Phoenix, which opened during the Independence Day weekend of 1973. A review by Richard Shepard in The New York Times praised the production. At La MaMa, she directed and produced bilingual productions of classical Asian and Western works, including a Mandarin and English version of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a production of Servant of Two Masters in which asides were spoken in the characters' native languages.

In 1977, using earnings from her role in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Chang established the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre as a resident company at La MaMa. Her stated purpose was to create opportunities for Asian-American actors to be seen in nonstereotypical roles, at a time when such performers in New York City were largely limited to playing characters such as geisha girls and houseboys. As of 2009, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre had grown into the world's largest producer of Asian-American theatre. Chang directed the world premiere of Shanghai Lil's at the company in 1997 and returned to direct a new production of the work in November 2011 at the West End Theatre in New York.

Among the honors Chang has received for her contributions to theatre is a Theatre World Special Award in 1988, given in recognition of her founding of Pan Asian and her directorial work. Additional awards include the 1991 Barnard Medal of Distinction, the 1993 Chinese American Cultural Pioneer Tribute from New York City Council member Andrew Stein, the 2001 Lee Reynolds Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, and the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans. In 2016, she received the Visionary Award at the East West Players annual awards dinner. Chang serves on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and continues to serve as artistic director of the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre.