الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This thesis seeks to develop a better understanding of Philip Kan Gotanda’s motives and intentions behind moving the confines of the ethnic theatres to the central position in the mainstream venues. Actually, Gotanda keeps a balanced and equitable relationship with both theatres. He argues that his working with mainstream theatres is a kind of responsibility towards his works, because it is the only way smaller ethnic theatres can survive the competition and he thinks also that those plays deserve the best production which can be found and presented with large venues.
Throughout his works, Gotanda remains uncompromisingly devoted to create a uniquely and specifically Asian American vision instead of seeking to ensure commercial success outside the Asian American theatre world by undermining his writing to accommodate the sensibilities of non-Asian American audiences. Moving beyond the Asian American theatre does not signal an end to Asian American themes for Gotanda. He argues that these themes are as appropriate for a general audience as for a non-specific Asian American audience. Gotanda has consciously worked to bring the themes of his works to the widest range of audiences in order to prove that the Asian American culture is still alive and not static.
So, the thesis analyzes three plays of Gotanda’s works that can record his journey from the limits of the ethnic theatres to the wide-range themes and styles of the mainstream theatres. The thesis starts with an introduction and chapter one that cover all aspects of the playwright’s personal life and major works. This chapter presents also the real reasons behind Gotanda’s movement from the ethnic theatre to the mainstream theatres.
The second chapter presents Gotanda’s most traditional ethnic play The Wash. In this chapter, the researcher tries to expose all the ethnic aspects in this play. The main conflict in this play is about the break-up of the marriage between an elderly nisei couple. The third chapter discusses Gotanda’s most produced and studied play Yankee Dawg You Die. The play explains the transformation of Gotanda’s focus from internal family conflicts to the conflicts with the discrimination of the outer cultures. In this play, Gotanda focuses on the professional lives of Asian American actors and the discrimination in the Hollywood entertainment industry. The fourth chapter presents Day Standing on Its Head, which is completely different in themes, techniques and styles from the earlier two plays. In this play Gotanda exposes his conflicts throughout a very general and common context; the mid-life crisis with its symptoms and effects. Throughout the play, Harry Kitamura suffers from the mid-life crisis, and through his hallucination journey Gotanda revisits and reevaluates the past of Asian American experience. Finally, the conclusion sums up the main ideas of the thesis.