Tisa Chang
| Tisa Chang | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 April 1941 Chongqing, Republic of China |
| Nationality | Chinese American |
| Occupation | Theatre director |
| Known for | Acting in theatre and film, establishing Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in 1977 |
| Spouse(s) | Ernest Abuba |
Tisa Chang (born 5 April 1941) is a Chinese American actress and theatre director from Chongqing. Her father was a diplomat and her family moved to New York City when she was a child. Chang was interested in theatre and decided to study acting at the High School of Performing Arts and at Barnard College. Soon afterwards she started her career as an actor performing in Broadway plays and musicals, including Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. She also appeared in a few films such as Ambush Bay and Greetings.
Chang turned to directing theatre in 1973, when she began working at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. With money earned from her Broadway acting she established the theatre group Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in 1977, with the intention to make Asian American theater more popular and to open up for Asian Americans actors to find non-stereotypical roles. Chang has received several awards for her work, including a Theatre World Special Award in 1988. She remains active as artistic director with Pan Asian as of today.
Tisa Chang was born on 5 April 1941 in Chongqing, Republic of China. At the age of six, she and her family moved to New York City where she was brought up. Her father, a Taiwanese diplomat named Ping-Hsun Chang, was appointed as the Republic of China's consul general to the city in 1946. He moved back to the Republic of China in 1957 to serve within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to TV Times, "for 11 years, [Tisa] Chang was steeped in the subtleties and protocol of diplomacy. Her deep diplomatic connections extended as far as Ottawa where the ambassador from the Republic of China, Liu Chieh, was a friend of her father's and she called the Canadian-based diplomat uncle." Chang chose to stay in New York with her three siblings instead of following her father to the Republic of China.
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