Steven Eng first sang the role of Thuy in Miss Saigon in German. When he got to play the role in the United States he thought, "So this is what it sounds like in English."

Eng is equally comfortable playing Shakespeare as he is roles traditionally cast to Asian actors. Trained as a classical actor at George Washington University's Academy of Classical Acting, he hopes to someday play Hamlet, and considers the Asian classical actor, Randall Duck Kim, a role model. Being Asian is a non-limiting identity for the Houston native.

The actor is in town for the Theatre Under the Stars' production of Miss Saigon, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubil's musical that transposes the Madame Butterfly story to Vietnam circa 1975. "I can't believe I am going to admit that I have never seen Madame Butterfly," Eng says smiling.

Thuy is a communist officer betrothed to Kim, the bar girl. "He has serious anger issues," jokes Eng, who is about as different from his character as can be. He last sang this role in 2002 at the Paper Mill Playhouse. "It's funny, my costumes still have my name on them," he says. "Really, it's quite a privilege to revisit this role after so much time. I would like to think I have grown as an actor, and that I have more acting tools to choose from."

As a first generation Chinese-American, the Vietnam era was far from his own family history growing up in northeast Houston. "My job is to portray the role as honestly and sincerely as I can. I had to do a little research on what motivates this character, and there is very little literature out there from the Vietcong perspective," Eng says. He found A Vietcong Memoir: An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and its Aftermath by Truong Nhu Tang a valuable resource. "I keep the book with me," he says.

When he was in Cambodia doing a show, he traveled to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). "I wandered around the city for two days and ended up at the Vietnam museum. I have to say that seeing accounts of what happened from the Vietnamese people helped me understand their perspective. The photos were particularly horrific."

Eng finds Miss Saigon to have the same kind of operatic tendencies as Les Miserables, another hit by the Schonber/Boubil team. "It's epic and sweeping like Les Mis," he says. "The audience gets taken along quite a journey. Vocally, the role of Thuy comes with some difficulty. "

"The big challenge is to scream without ruining my voice," says Eng. "Because my scenes are so fever-pitched, it's important to warm up properly and stretch my voice out. I need to steam my vocal chords to keep them moist. And you won't finding me talking too much. So I am a man of few words right now."

Eng thinks a lot about what it means to be an Asian actor these days. As co-founder of the National Asian Artists Project (NAAP), along with Baayork Lee and Nina Zoie Lam, he's working to help young Asian actors break through. While Lee was in town directing A Chorus Line, Eng and Lee visited with several Houston Asian Arts leaders.

"Houston is an important city for NAAP," says Eng. "We can make an impact here."

Plans are under way for Eng to teach an audition workshop for Houston's Asian actors. "Race does not need to be a deciding factor. Casting agents and directors have to see that a performer of Asian descent is of such good quality that they have no choice but to select that person. Historically that's how actors break through. We can't control who gets hired, but we can control the quality and enter an audition as confident and prepared as possible."

Down the road NAAP hopes to develop an Asian performing company that would perform classics of the American musical canon along with classical theater. "Seeing an Asian in a non-Asian role brings a different voice," says Eng.

Next, Eng heads back home to New York City where he will be workshopping Stuck Elevator, a one-man opera by Byron Au Yong about the true-life tale of Ming Kuang Chen, a delivery man for a Bronx restaurant called Happy Dragon, who spent three days stuck in an elevator in 2005. As the son of a Chinese restaurant owner, Eng can relate.

"It's a human portrayal of the immigrant story. It touches me personally because my parents were Chinese immigrants who went into the restaurant business to provide for their children. I am a direct result of that struggle."