SIS Productions presents a multi-venue production of Paper Angels by Genny Lim. Paper Angels offers an intimate portrait of the immigrant experience, revealing the universal desires and haunting realities of those coming to America. All performances will be followed by brief post-play discussions to connect the events explored in the play from 1915 with those happening today in 2015.
Tickets at the door are $16 general admission and $12 for students/senior/actors, $13 general admission and $9 student/senior/actors online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/user/manageevent/1789709.
Lower rates for advance ticket ordersand groups are available. Call (206) 323-9443 or email tickets@sis-productions.org for reservations and information. Performances will be at the following locations, dates, and times:
Dukesbay Theater in The Merlino Art Center
508 S Sixth Ave #10 in Tacoma, WA
August 7 – 16, 2015
Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 4 & 8pm, Sundays at 3pm
The LAB at INScape Arts Center
815 Seattle Blvd S, first floor in Seattle WA
August 20 – 23, 2015
Thursday – Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 4 & 8pm, Sunday at 7pm
The Courtyard outside INScape Arts Center
815 Seattle Blvd. S, Seattle WA
August 28 – 31, 2015
Friday – Monday at 7:30pm
The LAB and the Courtyard at Inscape Arts are located in Seattle’s former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) building, thus echoing the play’s setting – the barracks of Angel Island where detainees carved stories into the walls as they waited years for their American freedom. Audiences attending Paper Angels in Seattle can view Wing Luke Museum’s free Voices of the Immigration exhibit throughout the hallways of Inscape Arts. For more information on the exhibit, please visit: http://www.wingluke.org/voices-immigration-station
PAPER ANGELS offers an intimate portrait of the immigrant experience, revealing the universal desires and haunting realities of those coming to America. In 1915, eager and hopeful Chinese immigrants await permission to enter the United States at the West Coast immigration center located at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. In sharing the stories of sojourners aspiring to find a home in the America of their dreams, PAPER ANGELS brings history to life, creating a moving depiction of issues still relevant today.
The play’s characters are a cross-representation of the approximately 175,000 Chinese immigrants who entered the U.S. between 1910 and 1940 through Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. From 1882 to 1943, the Chinese were prohibited from immigrating to America due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, giving the Chinese the dubious distinction of being the only ethnic group to have specifically been banned from coming to America.
Originally presented by the Asian American Theatre Workshop in San Francisco in 1980, PAPER ANGELS has received numerous productions nationally. In 1985, the play was televised on PBS and in 2000 it received the James Wong Howe Award. This production marks its professional Seattle debut.
Rated “PG-13” for emotional content.
Paper Angels is written by Genny Lim, directed by David Hsieh and produced by Rachel Rene Araucto, Kathy Hsieh, Lisa Marie Nakamura, Miko Premo, Roger Tang, Celeste Mari Williams, and Claire Zhuang.
In order to provide more opportunities to Asian American actors, the show’s roles will be shared by two casts, featuring the talents of: Cristopher Berns, Eloisa Cardona or Kathy Hsieh, Henry Drew or Allen Go, Long Dinh or Andy Tran, Phoenix Ever or Ai Nguyen, Joanna Goff or Kelly Johnson, Denny Le or Kevin Lin, Ian McIntire or James Thomas Patrick, Serin Ngai, Maydene Pang or Aimee Decker, Austin Harry or Ryan St. Martin, Stephen Sumida or Chris Wong, and Tina Yu!
SIS Productions is a production company that strives to create, develop and produce quality works that involve Asian American women, their themes, and Asian American issues. SIS Productions encourages opportunities and support for Asian American women to be involved in all aspects of the production of artistic endeavors.
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Genny Lim is a San Francisco native of Chinese immigrant parents. Although raised with “Confucian values” that included expected gender roles, Lim forged her own path as a poet, singer, actress, journalist, and cultural activist for Asian Americans. Lim co-authored Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island 1910-1940 (a second edition was released October 2014 by the University of Washington Press). Her work on this oral history project became the inspiration for her play “Paper Angels”. The poetry carved onto the walls of the Angel Island Detention Center by the Chinese detainees moved Lim to learn more about her family history and connection to these immigrants. Her own father had been detained at Angel Island. “Paper Angels” became a personal and cultural journey for Lim, as she was able to reconcile her complex Chinese American heritage.
The Inscape Arts Center (A dark history of immigration)
The building is located at the historic United States Immigration Station and Assay Office, built to uphold the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (not unlike Angel Island). Prison cells held Chinese men, women, and children, who were segregated from other detainees. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese community leaders were interrogated there prior to being sent to the internment camps. In later years it held detainees from Latin America. The immigration station closed in 2004. After a huge renovation the Inscape Arts Center opened in 2010 and houses art studios and office spaces.
Special thanks to 4Culture for their support of SIS Productions.
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