East West Players audiovisual collection materials now available to researchers

UCLA Library has completed a yearlong preservation project to digitize 173 audiovisual items from the East West Players(opens in a new tab) — the longest-running Asian American theater group in the United States. The work was funded by a 2024 Council of Libraries and Resources (CLIR) Recordings at Risk grant(opens in a new tab) and led by the Library’s Preservation & Conservation Department. Materials documenting the East West Players’s formative years, from 1965 to 1992, are now available for access to researchers and community members.

The grant supported digitization of EWP’s audio and video materials that include audio of original songs for plays that were only performed for one season, full performances and behind-the-scenes rehearsals.

“It was lovely to reach out to playwrights whose materials are represented in the collection to receive copyright permissions and notify them that their materials were being digitized," said Maile Chung, conservation lead for the project. “We hope that EWP is able to utilize these digitized materials to celebrate their history for their 60th anniversary.”

Among recently digitized materials include “O-men,” the first play by author Karen Tei Yamashita, an emerita professor of literature and creative writing at UC Santa Cruz.

“The East West Players gave me my first chance at seeing my work produced on stage,” Yamashita said. “‘O-Men’ was a tremendous effort by a community of artists. It was a revelation and an important learning process for me as a writer to see how theater is made, how the director and actors and stage management work together to make the stage come to life. That the play is preserved as part of the legacy of the East West Players I hope honors the creative work and the experimental energy of those early years."

“The East West Players gave so many young Asian American playwrights and actors their first and perhaps only chance at presenting their work on stage, featuring foundational work of a particular time and community in Los Angeles,” added Yamashita. “Materials in this collection will certainly show East West's willingness to take a chance on someone unknowing and unknown.”

Many magnetic tape materials in the East West Players collection were in advanced stages of degradation. To stabilize them for playback and transfer, audiovisual preservationists used a conservation treatment called “baking,” heating tapes to 133 to 135 degrees fahrenheit to draw out moisture and reduce “sticky shed syndrome," a condition caused by binder deterioration. In recent years, audiovisual preservationists have been increasing baking temperatures and duration to counter the accelerating rate of tape degradation due to rising global temperatures.

“Unfortunately, this is a common experience with magnetic tape,” said Chung. “Once a recording is shed, information can be lost during the cleaning process and we are unable to receive full picture and/or audio. The CLIR grant enabled us to stop any further degradation, and we hope that users are able to listen and watch these newly preserved recordings for inspiration, learning, and understanding of the Asian American experience.”

A selection of these audiovisual materials can be accessed online from the UCLA Library Digital Collections Platform(opens in a new tab). For access to the entire collection of digitized materials and for more information about available recordings, please contact UCLA Library Special Collections(opens in a new tab). Individual recordings can be accessed by placing an audiovisual duplication request online(opens in a new tab).