SF's AATC presents world premiere of Gotanda's #5 Angry Red Drum (Sep09)

1 September 2009 – San Francisco, CA: Celebrating its 36th Year, the Asian American Theater Company (www.asianamericantheater.org) proudly announces its production of “#5 ANGRY RED DRUM,” a new play by one of America’s greatest playwrights, Philip Kan Gotanda.

This fifth work in the celebrated playwright’s Garage Band Series is the story of two world-refugees determined to survive with style amidst a post-apocalyptic universe gone mad. When a mysterious drum appears, it awakens their lost memories and inspires them to create a new society. #5 ANGRY RED DRUM opens on September 28, 2009 and runs through October 17, 2009, at the Thick House, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco.

#5 ANGRY RED DRUM is a tragic-comic parable reminiscent of an early David Lynch film with a wry nod to Samuel Beckett. This world premiere features a live original sound score using traditional and found instruments, misremembered fragments of Bob Dylan lyrics, and post-post-post modern dance.

Playwright Gotanda notes that “#5 ANGRY RED DRUM was mostly written during 2007-2008…much of the original inspiration grew out of my acute frustration and borderline despair with the latter Bush-Cheney years.”

Director Matthew Graham Smith has worked closely with Gotanda to create this production. "I love this play because it hits on a primal level, with the drum broadcasting its messages directly to the subconscious,” says Smith. “This is where Beckett meets Burning Man.”

Gotanda dramatically integrates words, music, and movement into the fabric of #5 ANGRY RED DRUM, continuing to weave these elements together as he did in A FIST OF ROSES, an earlier play in his Garage Band Series.

Director Smith and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award-winning composer Dan Bruno are collaborating to create the original percussion score, which Bruno will perform as an onstage member of the cast.

Asian American Theater Company’s Executive Director, Darryl D. Chiang, notes that “this production continues our efforts to bring together new and seasoned actors with talented directors and designers from both the Asian American community and the larger theater arts community. We are grateful to the broad coalition of eight local and national arts foundations and grantors who have helped us present this world premiere with remarkable artists and production values.”

The commissioning and production of this world premiere is made possible by the Magic Theatre New Works Initiative; Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, a program of the Creative Capital Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; San Francisco Arts Commission; The San Francisco Foundation; Theatre Bay Area New Works Fund; San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund/Grants for the Arts; and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

PHILIP KAN GOTANDA (Playwright) has been a major influence in broadening the definition of theater in America, and has been a leader in bringing the stories of Asian Americans to the nation’s stages including American Conservatory Theatre, Asian American Theater Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Campo Santo+Intersection for the Arts, East West Players, Manhattan Theatre Club, Mark Taper Forum, Missouri Repertory Theatre, New York Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Robey Theater, Seattle Repertory, South Coast Repertory, Royal National Theatre of London, and Mingei Theatre of Tokyo, among others.

Among his honors and awards are the Guggenheim TCG-NEA, Rockefeller, PEW Charitable Trust, Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, and the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Award. Mr. Gotanda is also an independent filmmaker whose films THE KISS, DRINKING TEA and LIFE TASTES GOOD, have screened at festivals around the world including Sundance Film Festival.

“…the works are written with the overriding principle: Just get the work out. Out of the body. Out on the stage. In producing, if you have an abandoned garage space, car headlights and a willing actor, you’re good to go and everything after that, cream. In writing, it can mean forcing yourself to get out of the way, stewarding the primary impulse to end times. Letting the immediacy of the play’s life tumble out, not over handling the raw stuffness of it, permitting the dots connecting traditional narrative to have wider gaps than usual. The hope that in this process there is an alternative aesthetic that comes into play for the audience….But I do know the GBS process is creatively most invigorating…and a great muse-antidote to my larger, multi-year projects.”

MATTHEW GRAHAM SMITH (Director) is the founder and Artistic Director of Precarious Theatre, San Francisco’s critically acclaimed ensemble theatre company. He is also a core member of the Dell’arte company, a group focusing on classical and emerging physical theater forms.

He has directed at the Walnut Theater in Philadelphia and the HERE American Living Room series in New York City. In San Francisco, he has directed at the Yerba Buena Garden’s Festival, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, A.C.T.’s Masters Program, Aurora Theatre, EXIT Theatre, Playground, and New Conservatory Theatre, where his Kiss of the Spiderwoman was nominated for Best Overall Drama 2006 by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.

An accomplished educator, Smith has taught at A.C.T.’s Master of Fine Arts Program & Summer Training Congress & Studio A.C.T. in San Francisco, Assumption University in Bangkok, and the Meisner Program in Barcelona, Spain. His teaching incorporates principles from many different physical disciplines and traditions from around the world in the service of training a dynamic physical actor.

DAN BRUNO (Composer) is a company member of Berkeley's Shotgun Players, and received a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for composing the original score for the company's 2001 production of "Iphigenia in Aulis". Bruno also won a Dean Goodman Choice Award in 2003 for playing Robert Mayo in Eugene O'Neill's "Beyond the Horizon" at the Tao House.

The mission of the Asian American Theater Company is to connect people to Asian American cultures through theater. AATC was established in 1973 to develop and present original works of theater about Asian Americans. AATC remains committed to producing groundbreaking, entertaining and innovative art. We are not only a production company that presents mainstage plays, but also a workshop where Asian American writers, actors and directors can explore who we are as a people and a community, and in so doing, bring us closer together.

#5 ANGRY RED DRUM is the second production under Asian American Theater Company’s current leadership, including Darryl D. Chiang, Executive Director; Pearl Wong, Managing Director; and Alan S. Quismorio and Duy Nguyen, Co-Artistic Directors.

Questions? Email



	Beckett Meets Burning Man: Asian American Theater Company (Aatc) Announces The World Premiere Of Philip Kan Gotanda’s #5 Angry Red Drum September 28 – October 17, 2009 1 September 2009 – San Francisco, CA: Celebrating its 36th Year, the Asian American Theater Company (www.asianamericantheater.org) proudly announces its production of “#5 ANGRY RED DRUM,” a new play by one of America’s greatest playwrights, Philip Kan Gotanda. About the Play This fifth work in the celebrated playwright’s Garage Band Series is the story of two world-refugees determined to survive with style amidst a post-apocalyptic universe gone mad. When a mysterious drum appears, it awakens their lost memories and inspires them to create a new society. #5 ANGRY RED DRUM opens on September 28, 2009 and runs through October 17, 2009, at the Thick House, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco. #5 ANGRY RED DRUM is a tragic-comic parable reminiscent of an early David Lynch film with a wry nod to Samuel Beckett. This world premiere features a live original sound score using traditional and found instruments, misremembered fragments of Bob Dylan lyrics, and post-post-post modern dance. Playwright Gotanda notes that “#5 ANGRY RED DRUM was mostly written during 2007-2008…much of the original inspiration grew out of my acute frustration and borderline despair with the latter Bush-Cheney years.” Director Matthew Graham Smith has worked closely with Gotanda to create this production. "I love this play because it hits on a primal level, with the drum broadcasting its messages directly to the subconscious,” says Smith. “This is where Beckett meets Burning Man.” Gotanda dramatically integrates words, music, and movement into the fabric of #5 ANGRY RED DRUM, continuing to weave these elements together as he did in A FIST OF ROSES, an earlier play in his Garage Band Series. Director Smith and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award-winning composer Dan Bruno are collaborating to create the original percussion score, which Bruno will perform as an onstage member of the cast. Asian American Theater Company’s Executive Director, Darryl D. Chiang, notes that “this production continues our efforts to bring together new and seasoned actors with talented directors and designers from both the Asian American community and the larger theater arts community. We are grateful to the broad coalition of eight local and national arts foundations and grantors who have helped us present this world premiere with remarkable artists and production values.” The commissioning and production of this world premiere is made possible by the Magic Theatre New Works Initiative; Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, a program of the Creative Capital Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; San Francisco Arts Commission; The San Francisco Foundation; Theatre Bay Area New Works Fund; San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund/Grants for the Arts; and the Zellerbach Family Foundation. About the Artists PHILIP KAN GOTANDA (Playwright) has been a major influence in broadening the definition of theater in America, and has been a leader in bringing the stories of Asian Americans to the nation’s stages including American Conservatory Theatre, Asian American Theater Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Campo Santo+Intersection for the Arts, East West Players, Manhattan Theatre Club, Mark Taper Forum, Missouri Repertory Theatre, New York Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Robey Theater, Seattle Repertory, South Coast Repertory, Royal National Theatre of London, and Mingei Theatre of Tokyo, among others. Among his honors and awards are the Guggenheim TCG-NEA, Rockefeller, PEW Charitable Trust, Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, and the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Award. Mr. Gotanda is also an independent filmmaker whose films THE KISS, DRINKING TEA and LIFE TASTES GOOD, have screened at festivals around the world including Sundance Film Festival. Regarding his Garage Band Series of plays, Mr. Gotanda has said: “…the works are written with the overriding principle: Just get the work out. Out of the body. Out on the stage. In producing, if you have an abandoned garage space, car headlights and a willing actor, you’re good to go and everything after that, cream. In writing, it can mean forcing yourself to get out of the way, stewarding the primary impulse to end times. Letting the immediacy of the play’s life tumble out, not over handling the raw stuffness of it, permitting the dots connecting traditional narrative to have wider gaps than usual. The hope that in this process there is an alternative aesthetic that comes into play for the audience….But I do know the GBS process is creatively most invigorating…and a great muse-antidote to my larger, multi-year projects.” ****** MATTHEW GRAHAM SMITH (Director) is the founder and Artistic Director of Precarious Theatre, San Francisco’s critically acclaimed ensemble theatre company. He is also a core member of the Dell’arte company, a group focusing on classical and emerging physical theater forms. He has directed at the Walnut Theater in Philadelphia and the HERE American Living Room series in New York City. In San Francisco, he has directed at the Yerba Buena Garden’s Festival, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, A.C.T.’s Masters Program, Aurora Theatre, EXIT Theatre, Playground, and New Conservatory Theatre, where his Kiss of the Spiderwoman was nominated for Best Overall Drama 2006 by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. An accomplished educator, Smith has taught at A.C.T.’s Master of Fine Arts Program & Summer Training Congress & Studio A.C.T. in San Francisco, Assumption University in Bangkok, and the Meisner Program in Barcelona, Spain. His teaching incorporates principles from many different physical disciplines and traditions from around the world in the service of training a dynamic physical actor. **** DAN BRUNO (Composer) is a company member of Berkeley's Shotgun Players, and received a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for composing the original score for the company's 2001 production of "Iphigenia in Aulis". Bruno also won a Dean Goodman Choice Award in 2003 for playing Robert Mayo in Eugene O'Neill's "Beyond the Horizon" at the Tao House. **** About the Asian American Theater Company The mission of the Asian American Theater Company is to connect people to Asian American cultures through theater. AATC was established in 1973 to develop and present original works of theater about Asian Americans. AATC remains committed to producing groundbreaking, entertaining and innovative art. We are not only a production company that presents mainstage plays, but also a workshop where Asian American writers, actors and directors can explore who we are as a people and a community, and in so doing, bring us closer together. #5 ANGRY RED DRUM is the second production under Asian American Theater Company’s current leadership, including Darryl D. Chiang, Executive Director; Pearl Wong, Managing Director; and Alan S. Quismorio and Duy Nguyen, Co-Artistic Directors. Visit us at www.asianamericantheater.org. Home \| News \| Calendar \| Directory \| Plays \| Library/Storefront \| Timeline** Copyright 2009, Roger W. Tang Questions? Email

Beckett Meets Burning Man: Asian American Theater Company (Aatc) Announces The World Premiere Of Philip Kan Gotanda’s #5 Angry Red Drum September 28 – October 17, 2009

Beckett Meets Burning Man:
Asian American Theater Company (Aatc) Announces
The World Premiere Of
Philip Kan Gotanda’s
#5 Angry Red Drum
September 28 – October 17, 2009