Calendar of Events in Asian American Theatre 1st Quarter 2017

Seattle Repertory Theatre
Vietgone
by Qui Nguyen
December 2, 2016 to January 1, 2017

Perseverance Theatre (Alaska)
Hold These Truths
by Jeanne Sakata
November 18 to December 4, 206(Juneau)
January 6 to 15, 2017 (Anchorage)

Theater Esprit Asia (Aurora, CO)

in collaboration with Theater Company of Lafayette Presents
Coming to America
Written by Peter Trinh and Maria Cheng
Directed by Maria Cheng
January 13 to 22, 2017

In Boat Person, Peter Trinh recounts the bloody fall of Saigon, the harrowing American evacuation from South Vietnam, his parents' escape to freedom against the perils of the high seas facing storms and pirates, their near starvation at refugee camps and finally finding safe haven in the United States. Peter Trinh is a Denver-born Vietnamese-American, an award winning actor, a playwright, a budding director, and one of two Assistant Artistic Directors of Theatre Esprit Asia.

In Antecedents, Maria Cheng recollects the Americanization of a precocious Chinese teenager as she embraces new heroes while never forsaking her ancestors. With poignancy and incisive wit, she recounts the Japanese occupation of China and her arrival in the land of opportunity, materialism and celebritydom. Maria Cheng is a Chinese immigrant to America, whose works have received acclaim across four continents. She is a founder and Artistic Director of Theatre Esprit Asia.

Coming to America won First Prize for Best Production, and also Best Actress – Maria Cheng, Best Lighting – Brian Miller, Excellence in Set Design – Maria Cheng, and the People's Choice at the Colorado Theater Festival in June of 2016. This production has been invited to be performed at the National Festival of the American Association of Community Theatres in June of 2017.

"Artists at Play ... at Play!" returns with producers Julia, Stefanie, Marie-Reine and Nicholas stepping out from behind the curtain with original short plays created from a place of absolute honesty. This year, we welcome as special guests some of Artists at Play's favorite behind-the-scenes players Jeremy Lelliott (director, The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up) and Magdalena Guillen (costume designer, In Love and Warcraft)! Nothing is off-limits in this frank exploration of our lives in-and-out of theatre.

Join us for an evening of laughter, embarrassment, truth and probably more than one instance of stage awkwardness. Plus, we will announce our upcoming 2017 line-up. Happy New Year and let us entertain you! #AAPatPlay

Doors open at 8 pm for hosted drinks, dessert and silent auction.
Performance at 8:30 pm.

Artists at Play ... at Play!
Armory Center for the Arts
145 Raymond Avenue, Pasadena

Ma-Yi Lab Member Presents
SAFE: three queer plays
by A. Rey Pamatmat
directed by May Adrales
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 10, 2017

Starting at 11:30 AM — 6:30 PM
PEARL STUDIOS 500 Eighth Avenue, 12th Floor, ROOM 401
with Satya Bhabha, Erica Bradshaw, Nicholas Carriere, Helen Cespedes, Tina Chilip, Daniella de Jesus, Sue Jean Kim, Jacob Knoll, Jon Norman Schneider, and Nick Westrate

Admission is Free to subscribers but you must reserve on the FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE or email chris@ma-yitheatre.org or call 212-971-4862 and ask for Chris.

11:30: Reading of Picture 24
— Joey meets Max, and it's love at first sight… sort of. Joey meets Chuck, but love has nothing to do with it. While preparing an autobiographical photo series for a public showing, the romance and pornography in Joey's private life start blurring together. Dot com parties, safe sex that's hot sex, and dial-up Internet welcome you to a queer love story in the year 2000.

1:30: Reading of Beautiful Day
— In 2007, Joey, Felicia, Kat, and Matthew reunite for a wedding in their small hometown of Port Huron, Michigan where a constitutional amendment was passed defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Haunted by past lives, they navigate the present traditions of marriage in the five nights preceding one beautiful day.

3:30 Lunch Break!

4:30 Reading of Here Are Our Monsters
— Rupesh wants to marry Joey; Ilsa wants security for her impending tri-racial, quadra-cultural daughter; Philippa wants to buy a condo; and Joey want to know why "acceptance" makes him more confused and not less. One week after the Supreme Court's 2015 decision declaring marriage equality the law of the land, a "no" to a wedding proposal unleashes everyone's anxieties and makes them wonder whether those monsters can ever be locked back up again.

Ma-Yi Theatre (New York, NY)
Matt Park Is Peer Gynt
With The Norwegian Hapa Band
Written by Michi Barall
Directed and Originally Conceived
by Jack Tamburri
Music by Paul Lieber and Matt Park
Based on Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen
January 17 to February 11, 2017

A.R.T./New York Theatres Mezzanine Theatre 502 W 53rd Street New York, NY 10019

Written by Michi Barall
Music by Paul Lieber and Matt Park
Orchestration by Chad Raines
Musical Direction by Harrison Beck
Directed and originally conceived by Jack Tamburri
based on the play, Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen

Peer (Matt Park) is a brash young man on a journey to discover his ultimate self in this rock music odyssey about risk, reinvention and going roundabout. Ma-Yi Theater Company's remaking of Ibsen's classic verse drama asks what it means when we sacrifice everything to be most fully ourselves.

The festival will feature readings and workshop performances of five new plays by Robert Askins, Bekah Brunstetter, Christina Gorman, Rajiv Joseph, and Kenneth Lin. The festival gives playwrights the opportunity to work with a director and a company of actors to develop the play, while also offering audiences a firsthand look into the play development process.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Kenneth Lin, a reworking of Twain's novel focusing on the relationship between Huck and his father Pap. Artistic director Gregory Boyd will direct.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre
Incident at Hidden Temple
by Damon Chua
January 21 to February 12, 2017

This world premiere focuses on China 1943 with the historic US Flying Tigers squadron and the presence of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. The play throws open a window into the critical role played by American pilots in China during WWII, and hinges upon three Chinese women - who cross paths unwittingly in a secret quest.

The sterling cast includes veteran artists Rosanne Ma (FILM CHINOIS, SHOGUN MACBETH), Dinh James Doan (DOJOJI, FILM CHINOIS) and Ying Ying Li, Tim Liu, Jonathan Miles, Nick Ryan, and Briana Sakamoto.

Coterie Theatre
Tradewind Arts (Kansas City, MO)
Hana's Suitcase
An investigative play by Emil Sher
Based on the book by Karen Levine
January 24 to February 12, 2017

Past and present mysteries come together in this captivating true story spanning 70 years and crisscrossing three continents. Fumiko Ishioka, a Japanese Holocaust educator, and her students set out to track down information about a suitcase from Auschwitz. It is a worldwide search for information about its owner, Hana Brady, whose fate is pieced together from her suitcase and artifacts. Hana's story reaches through time into the lives of the young Japanese students in a Holocaust story like no other - providing a contemporary global perspective and a fascinating history of love and tragedy from Hana's courageous life story.

Single Carrot Theatre (Baltimore, MD)
Samsara
by Lauren Yee
January 18 to February 12, 2017

Come see Stir Friday Night's newest show, featuring sketch, standup, and storytelling! Leave your pocket dictionary at home, because the show is in English! And the comedy...is also in English.

Written & Performed by
Annelyse Ahmad, Dacey Arashiba, Scott Hanada, Claudia Iao, Javid Iqbal, Brooke Montoya, Nic Park, & Loreen Targos

Stage Manager: Ashley Connell

WHEN:
Friday 2/3 @ 7:30pm
Friday 2/10 @ 7:30pm
Friday 2/17 @ 7:30pm

WHERE:
The Blackout Cabaret @ Second City
230 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60614

TICKETS:
$13
$11 students
$7 Second City students

Lewis Center for the Arts (Princeton, NJ)
Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery
by Lloyd Suh
February 10 to 18, 2017

Princeton's Lewis Center for the Arts Program in Theater presents Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery, Lloyd Suh's fantasia on Asian America, a satirical play that hilariously challenges racial stereotype and caricature, helmed by Princeton University's Lecturer in Theater Peter Kim. The cast includes theater seniors Kathy Zhao as Kathy and Ross Barron as Chan, with costume design by senior Julia Peiperl. Performances are February 10, 11, 16, 17 & 18 at 8:00 p.m. in the Marie and Edward Matthews '53 Acting Studio at 185 Nassau Street. The Feb. 17th performance will be American Sign Language-interpreted.

Dukesbay Productions & Stephanie Anne Johnson present
NEVER AGAIN: Testimonies from the Japanese American Incarceration
February 11, 2017, Tacoma
February 19, 2017 Seattle

In 1942, ten weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, authorizing the forced removal of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Mostly caused by war time hysteria and anti-Japanese racism, the incarceration of 120,000 people is remembered as one of America's worst mass violations of civil rights.

Dukesbay Productions & Stephanie Anne Johnson are proud to present first-person accounts of survivors who spent much of WWII in interment camps, which included Camp Harmony on the Puyallup Fairgrounds. As told by local actors, NEVER AGAIN recounts personal stories and memories from Seattle and Tacoma area Japanese-Americans. Music will be provided by Tacoma musician Stephanie Anne Johnson.

NEVER AGAIN: Testimonies from the Japanese-American Incarceration is presented as a staged reading with live musical performance. Testimonies and interviews were provided by Densho, a grassroots organization in Seattle dedicated to preserving, educating, and sharing the story of WWII-era incarceration of Japanese-Americans. Their website is located at: www.densho.org.

NEVER AGAIN:
"Testimonies from the Japanese-American Incarceration"
Edited by Aya Hashiguchi Clark
Directed by Randy Clark
Music by Stephanie Anne Johnson
February 11, 2017
*One Night Only*
Tacoma Little Theatre
210 N. I St. Tacoma, WA 98403
7:30 pm - 10:00pm

Mu Performing Arts (St. Paul, MN)
Flower Drum Song
by Book by David Henry Hwang
Music by Rodgers & Hammerstein
January 20 to February 19, 2017

Father produces Peking Opera. Son knows nightclub acts sell better. Set in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1950s, this funny and moving story explores what it means to become American. The new, fully-revised version includes David Henry Hwang's Tony Award-nominated text, and favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein songs. After Mu's successful 2009 production, the company is excited to bring this Broadway hit back to the Twin Cities for a month-long run.

Kumu Kahua Theatre (Honolulu, HI)
Buffalo'ed
Hawai'i Premiere by Jeannie Barroga
Directed by Reb Beau Allen
January 26 to February 26, 2017

The Buffalo Soldiers were primarily in the U.S. cavalry assembled during the Civil War. Their bravery impressed everyone and they were 'invited' to participate in more wars for 'freedom' worldwide: the Spanish-American War, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Cuba, then Hawai'i and Alaska, the Boxer Rebellion and the Philippine War for Independence.

Theatre Esprit Asia (Boulder, CO)
Yohen
Written by Philip Kan Gotanda
Directed by Anthony J. Garcia
February 3 to 26, 2017

TEA celebrates Black History Month with a Japanese/African-American love story.
Theatre Esprit Asia offers a unique perspective during Black History Month: a story melding and shaping the intricacies of interracial marriage, culture and Japanese art. Set in California in 1986, Yohen is about James, an African American ex-GI, and Sumi, his Japanese wife. After 30 years of marriage, Sumi reevaluates the relationship and separates from James. In her words, she wishes for him to "court" her again. Yohen is a Japanese pottery term that refers to an accident in the kiln firing that results in transformation of the pot. The outcomes are as unpredictable as the evolution of a marriage. In the end, it is up to the observer to decide its beauty.

Veteran actors and Denver favorites, Maria Cheng and Don Randle, bring their talents to this compelling story directed by Anthony J. Garcia, Executive Artistic Director of Su Teatro. Cheng plays Sumi, a Japanese woman trying to define herself after 30 years under the label of being James' wife. She takes pottery classes, hoping to ignite a spark of passion within herself. James, played by Randle, visits Sumi regularly, per her requests. At first, James has a difficult time being away from Sumi. He is unsure how time apart is supposed to bring them closer together, but he abides.

Yohen delves deeply into the marriage of this mixed-race couple. It is obvious these two characters still love each other and, after 30 years, they are both willing to reconnect and find if there is anything left to salvage. Not as obvious are the baseline cultural differences that sit at the crux of their marital problems. Marriage is not perfect and neither are humans. Playwright Philip Kan Gotanda presents a marriage for artistic observance, allowing for the perception of beauty to truly lie within the eyes of the beholder, just as one would observe in a piece of malformed pottery.

The Regional Premiere of Yohen runs February 3 – 26 at ACAD Gallery Theatre - Aurora Cultural Arts District, at 1400 Dallas St, Aurora, CO 80010. Tickets are $22-$26 and can be purchased at www.teatheatre.org.

Bindlestiff Studio (San Francisco, CA)
The Love Edition: Time After Time
February 9 to 25, 2017

Seven plays about love, heartache, and the weirdness in-between will grace the Bindlestiff Studio stage February 9-25, 2017 (Thurs-Sat, 8pm)

TLE's theme this year spotlights melodramas throughout the ages. Tales of the star-crossed and lovelorn have captivated generations of audiences across the world through soap operas, teleseryes, telenovelas, Korean dramas and the like. TLE invites audience members to embrace, critique, honor, and reinvent the emotional spectacle of the melodrama genre.

SHOW DATES:
February 9-25, 2017
8:00PM - Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
*Thursday February 9th, 8PM - COMMUNITY PREVIEW NIGHT
- Pay what you can
**Friday February 10th, 8PM - OPENING NIGHT
- Opening Night Reception

LOCATION:
Bindlestiff Studio, 185 6th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

TICKETS:
http://tle2017.bpt.me/
$10-$25

Sponsored by:
Zellerbach Family Foundation
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
San Francisco Arts Commission
SF Grants for the Arts

Silk Road Rising (Chicago, IL)
Semitic Commonwealth
Curated By Jamil Khoury, Michael Malek Najjar, & Corey Pond
February 10 to 26, 2017

A staged reading series comprised of six plays by Arab and Jewish playwrights exploring the human toll of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Rather than strive to achieve balance and moral equivalency between "competing" narratives, these works investigate themes of identity, occupation, exile, and home with remarkable honesty.

Denver Center for the Performing Arts (Denver, CO)
Manford From Half Court, or The Great Leap
By Lauren Yee
February 18 to 26, 2017

When an American college basketball team travels to Beijing for a "friendship" game in the post-Cultural Revolution 1980s, both countries try to tease out the politics behind this newly popular sport. Cultures clash as the Chinese coach tries to pick up moves from the Americans and Chinese American player Manford spies on his opponents. Inspired by events in her own father's life, Yee "applies a devilishly keen satiric eye to…her generation (and its parents)" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Artists at Play (Los Angeles, CA)
Japanese American National Museum
Questions 27, Question 28
by Chay Yew
February 26, 2017

Chay Yew's frank drama, Question 27, Question 28 will be presented by AAP and the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which led to the unjust internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. The play is a collection of interviews and transcripts recounting the stories of actual women who lived through the removal of Japanese Americans, their internment and the painful aftermath. The reading is directed by Alison De La Cruz and will perform on Sunday, February 26 at 3:00pm at the Black Box at the Aratani Theatre.

East West Players (Los Angeles, CA)
Free Outgoing
by Anupama Chandrasekhar
February 9 to March 12, 2017

Next will be the Los Angeles Premiere of Free Outgoing by Anupama Chandrasekhar (February 9 – March 12, 2017). Modern technology and old-world values collide in this internationally acclaimed and timely play about a middle-class home in Chennai torn apart by an indiscreet cell phone video that has gone viral.

An original piece devised by the company on growing up in the Philipines and Canada.

Queens Theatre (Queens, NY)
Queens Theatre's 2017 New American Voices Spring Reading Series
Reunion
by Nandita Shenoy
March 18, 2017

This charming and insightful character study follows the intersection of six classmates' lives at their 25th high school reunion in upstate New York. While each returns for different reasons, they all discover that sometimes you really can't go home again - even if you never left.

Pipeline Playwrights (Arlington, VA)
The Men My Mother Lived
by Soo-Jin Lee
March 20, 2017

A vacation to Korea turns a mother-daughter exploration into a fantastical exploration of why it's worth reuniting with ex-boyfriends.

PAPA (Philadelphia, PA)
The PAPA Sessions
Performing for Social Justice
March 20, 2017

Enjoy an evening showcasing the vibrancy of the Asian American theater and performance community in this quarterly showcase series, featuring members of Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists (PAPA) and other local artists sharing stories through music, comedy, and more!

This season's PAPA Session will have explore the theme of social justice/activism in concert with our current Main Gallery Loving Blackness.

Featured performers
Gary Chau
Esther Chiang
Rosie Glade
Makoto Hirano
Dan Kim
Jenna Lam
Stephanie Walters

KIDS+FAMILY READING:
Steppingstone Theatre
55 N Victoria St, Saint Paul, Mn 55104

10 A.M. - The Princess' Nightingale
Free Admission. Free snacks. This children's story is for the whole family.

VERY LIMITED SEATING for the ADULT READINGS at Mu
Call to reserve a seat: (651) 789-1012
Please leave a message with your name, phone number, the title of the reading you would like to attend, and how many seats to reserve.

South Coast Repertory Theatre (Costa Mesa, CA)
Orange
by Aditi Brennan Kapil
directed by Jessica Kubzansky
March 5 to 26, 2017

Leela is different. A teenager from India, she sketches life's important moments in her journal, and she's about to go on an adventure through Orange County. When a family wedding gets boring, her rebellious cousin decides to make a run for it with her boyfriend—taking Leela along. As they careen through the night, Leela challenges their view of her—and each other. A touching story about a unique young woman's search for her place in the world.

GENseng (Genesco, NY)
Mother In Another Language
by Taniya Hossain
March 30, 2017

Questions? Email