Asian American theatre performance in 1998

Slant (NYC)
Squeal Like a Pig, a PopOperetta
January 1 to 18, 1998
La Mama Theatre

In this new musical satire, the men of Slant are transformed into three otherwordly, non-english speaking subhumanoids, who have immigrated to this new world via the crash-landing of their percussion-driven chariot in the border zone between Mexico and Texas. Follow the three alien characters as they wobble forward on their journey through border patrols, celebrity wanna-be con artists, sex-deprived cops, false messiahs, late-adult cable channels, and much more!

For reservations and group inquiries please call the La Mama box office at 212-475-7710, Monday through Friday between 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM.

Second Generation Productions (NYC)
Making Tracks
January 15 to 18
Pace Downtown Theater, Pace University
On Spruce Street between Park Row and Gold Street
January 15, 16 @ 8pm
January 17 @ 2pm and 8pm
January 18 @ 3pm.

Mark it in your calendar! This is the first big thing of next year.The Second Generation Productions presents "Making Tracks" an interdisciplinary theater/dance/music journey through the Asian American experience.

Tickets are $20. Please call box office at (212) 346-1715 for reservations. TDF vouchers accepted.

Bringing together some of the most innovative Asian American artists in New York, Making Tracks explores the question: how do a people who have traditionally not been heard, no part in how history has been recorded, how do we find a voice? With a television journalist on one side and a man playing an erhu (an Asian folk instrument) on the other, we go on a journey through history: from the building of the railroads, to the man playing an erhu (an Asian folk instrument) on the other, we go on a journey through history: from the building of the railroads, to the internment camps, to the building of the Internet. Throughout, the incredibly talented ensemble of performers (including singers, acrobats, and dancers) shows us how the music, the dancing, and the art-making has always carried on.

Created by Welly Yang
Choreographed by Shawn Ku
Stage Managed by Sarah Broude
Musically Directed by Lyris Hung
Set Design by Wan-Lin Cheng and Shih-Pao Lin
Lighting Design by Richard Tatum
Sound Design by Amil David
Production Associates:Gladys Chen and Roxanne Taga

Written and Composed by:
Tony Angeles Robert Lee Leon Ko Chad Tanaka
Brian Yorkey Woody Pak Chia-Nan Yen Dmae Roberts

Starring:
Joan Almedilla Gene Chen Paul Keoni Chun Ryohei Hoshi
Tim Huang Tom Kouo Donna Leichenko
J. Elaine Marcos Kiki Moritsugu Paul Nakauchi Jun Kim
Soomi Kim Scott Kitajima Ching-Shan Shih

Asian Pacific Theatre Company (Sacramento)
Canton Jazz Club
January 9 to February 1, 1998
Broadway Playhouse
4010 El Camino
Carmichael, CA

Yangtze Repertory Theatre
Haunts: Liu Sola In Concert
The Gallery, Schimmel Center for the Arts
Pace University, NYC
February 6 (Exhibit Feb. 2 to Feb. 28, 1998)

This concert is the herald of a new show of paintings from China. Artists Hua Qi-Min, Li Nai-Qiang and Zhu Xiu-Li are featured throughout the month of February. The concert itself is one night only and also features Amina Claudine Myers. Admission is $15 ($10 for Seniors/Students). Call 212-346-1715 for reservations (212-889-9332 if you speak Chinese).

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Deep Yellow (Long Beach, CA)
Mystery Play
by Warren Omata
January 8 to Feb. 9, 1998
Actor's Playhouse,
1409 E. 4th St., Long Beach

Cahoots Theatre Projects (Canada)
NORAN BANG: THE YELLOW ROOM by M.J. Kang,
directed by David Oiye
January 30 to February 15

Starring Denis Akiyama, Marjorie Chan, Shelly Hong and Jean Yoon
Drumming performed by Charles Hong
Set Design by Kelly Wolf
Costumes by Cecile Belec
Choreography by Jamie Baik,
Lighting Design by Jeff Logue
Stage Management by Marla Friedman

Melding text, music and dance, NORAN BANG: THE YELLOW ROOM is a poignant and comic journey set in the late 1970's about a transplanted Korean family's struggle to adjust to life in Canada, while trying to maintain their cultural identity. First produced as part of Cahoots Theatre Project's 3D Festival in 1993 as a workshop production, the play garnered immediate praise and performed to sold-out houses.

"Suggestive, hypnotically beautiful and full of powerful emotion..."

Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine.

Previews January 28, 29
Opens Friday, January 30
Runs to Sunday February 15

Tues-Sat at 8:00 PM, $14-18
Sunday 2:30 PM Pay-What-You-Can

Factory Theatre Studio Cafe
125 Bathurst Street, Toronto

For tickets call: 504-9971
Media Contact: Sally Szuster, (416) 533-3945
For more info on Cahoots call: (416) 531-8303

National Asian American Theatre Co. (NY)
February 2, 1998
Fundraiser

On Monday, February 2, at 8PM, NATCO will host its annual benefit at St. Peter's Church on Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street with a concert performance of William Finn's popular musical Falsettoland. A cocktail reception and silent auction begins at 6:30PM at the Church will precede the concert. Mr. Finn, the Tony Award winning playwright David Henry Hwang and the Tony Award winning actress Faith Prince are co chairs of the benefit evening.

Featured in the concert cast of Falsettoland will be Kevin Gray who currently plays the King in The King and I, Jason Ma of Miss Saigon, Ann Harada, Christine Toy Johnson of Grease, Philip Kong and Mimosa. One of the most critical and popular hits of the 1990 theatre season, this musical classic is about the happy-if-neurotic extended family. For reservations call Mia Katigbak at 212-505-3003.

Theater Mu (Minneapolis)
New Eyes Festival
February 5 to 8, 1998

Deep in the winter chills of February, Theater Mu presents their annual New Eyes Festival which will features:

Feb 5
Kiko's World
by Nicholas Carter
A young boy in Paraguay conjures up Asian characters from a folk story to help his father's theater company survive under politcal oppression. The play includes puppetry and music/

Feb. 6
Friday Run
An evening of short pieces:
Faces, Fingers and Feet, a collaboration between Ranee Ramaswamy and Marcus Quinoniones,
My Story, a poignant story about Korean adoption, by Sandraya Kase
The Night My Cat Called Me, by Katherine Peters, a new one-act play about three generations of Korean women.

Feb. 7
The Walleye Kid
by R. A. Shiomi
A children's play about a young girl who comes out of a walleye, inspired by the Japanese folk tale, the Peach Boy.

Feb. 7
Faux American Dream
by Maria Cheng
A Chinese American family encounters the American Dream with comic tragic results. Maria Cheng, a renowned choreographer and dancer, turns the real to the surreal to get to the hearfh American experience.

Feb. 8
What Do You Know About Me? by Marissa Frakenfield
by Lia Rivamonte
A childrens play about a young boy who meets famous historical Filipino historical figures in his sleep.

Feb. 8
Fax Shangri-La
William Sun and Faye C. Fei
A musical comedy about a young American's misadventures in a China obsessessed with modernization.

One woman show, LA
Old Man River
Cynthia Gates Fujikawa
January 30 to March 1, 1998

You are cordially invited to review the one-woman show "Old Man River" about the late veteran actor Jerry Fujikawa ("Whiplash Wang" of "M*A*S*H" fame) as told by his daughter actress/writer/producer Cynthia Gates Fujikawa, who highlights her father's life in the Japanese Internment Camp, Manzanar and searches for a sister she never knew she had.

For more press info. call publicist Stacey Kumagai of Media Monster Communications at 818/506-8675.  Additionally check out: http://www.idiom.com/~hurty/old_man_river/

Your review/support and press coverage is welcomed.   Hurry!  The production runs only through March 1st at Theatre West in Los Angeles.

Tongue In a Mood (SF)
The Kalat Show
February 12 to 15, 1998

COCOJAM PRODUCTIONS
presents

Tongue In A Mood's
The Kalat Show
A FLIPPED UP BULLSHIT VARIETY SHOW

WHEN:
Thursday through Sunday
February 12 thru February 15, 1998
All shows are at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday Matinee at 3:00pm

Bindlestiff Studio
185 Sixth Street (at Howard)
SF, CA 94103

$10 General Admission,
$7 Students w/ID
Available at the door
(no credit cards please)

RESERVATIONS & phone: 415/974-1167
INFORMATION: email: hotbalut@msn.com or stiff@allfools.com

web: www.allfools.com/bindlestiff

Coco Jam Productions in association with Bindlestiff Studio present the Filipino American experimental comedy group, Tongue In A Mood in THE KALAT SHOW, a flipped up bullshit variety show of unrelated monologues and scenes that will further mystify the reality of the Filipino American lifestyle. The cast features Kevin Camia, Patty Cachapero and the Tongue in a Mood Players along with special guest performers Wilma Consul, Krista Conti and Kennedy Kabasares. Directed by Allan Manalo.

Margaret Cho with
an all-star cast of American female theatre performers
Benefit, NYC
February 14, 1998

Margaret Cho joins a band of prominent Amazons of stage and film to perform The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler's award winning play on "V-Day 1998 -Valentine's Day, Saturday, Feb. 14, at 7PM. at the Hammerstein Ballroom Theater on West 34th Street. This one night only, all star, all female performance on V-Day 1998 is a benefit to fund organizations that combat violence against women and girls. For tickets to "V-Day 1998. call 414-1458 or Ticketmaster at 307-7171.

Joining the popular comedian Cho are Glenn Close, Calista Flockhart, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, Rosie Perez, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Liz Smith, Gloria Steinem, Marisa Tomei, Lily Tomlin, and Good Morning America's Chantal Westerman, among others.

V-Day 1998 will be a gathering of some of the biggest stars who not only wish to express their concern about and raise money for women who are victims of abuse, but also want to raise awareness of a situation that has become epidemic. In the US, a woman is battered every 15 seconds, and a woman is raped every two minutes. An evening of humor and passion that will be provocative and uplifting, this event marks the full arrival of the issue of violence against women to mainstream America.

The Vagina Monologues premiered in 1996 at HERE Theater performed by Ensler. For her work, Ensler received an Obie Award for outstanding playwriting as well as a Drama Desk Award nomination. She has subsequently performed the play to great acclaim throughout the world - from Zagreb to Santa Barbara, from London to Seattle, from Jerusalem to Oklahoma City. Villard Books/Random House will publish "The Vagina Monologues, which includes a foreword by Gloria Steinem, this month of February.

Round the clock and up to the minute information about V-Day l99X and violence against women can be found at the event's global website at http://www.feminist.com/vday The site integrates information about the event and resources about how to end violence.

Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene (Bay Area)
Gate of Heaven
by Lane Nishikawa and Victor Talmadge
February 5 to 7, 1998
Montgomery Theatre

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Amy Hill
Tokyo Bound
The Getty (LA)
February 27, 7 pm

Amy Hill will be doing her acclaimed one woman show Tokyo Bound ("this will probably be the last time in LA") at the Getty. Admission is FREE, but reservations must be made for the show and parking at 310/440-7300. Tickets seem to be moving fast, and as Amy put it, "so I don't want to hear anymore 'When are you doing Tokyo Bound again?' unless you want to go to Chicago or something to see it..."

Peer Gynt
by Henrik Ibsen
new adaption by David Henry Hwang
Trinity Theatre (Providence, RI)
January 30 to March 8

In this new adaption of Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Gynt travels from Norway to the Americas to Morocco and back again, in a wild, comical and adventurous epic of self-discovery. Hwang is Trinity's artist-in-residence this year.

Asian American Repeertory Theatre (San Diego)
The Cultural Hyphenate
by Andy Lowe
Jan. 30 to March 8 (EXTENDED again!)

San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre is proud to announce its production of The Cultural Hyphen written by its Artistic Director Andy Lowe. Winner of the 1994 Young Writers Contest, The Cultural Hyphen was produced by the Old Globe's Playwrights Project. The Cultural Hyphen will run from January 30 through February 15, 1998 at the Sweetooth Comedy Theatre in downtown San Diego (630 F Street). The theater is located in the basement of the Maryland Hotel.

The Cultural Hyphen explores the personal identity of Peter Ju, a young teen who questions his life as an assimilated Asian American. Peter finds suburban existence interwoven with fantasy and spectacle from the myth of the Chinese Monkey King. Peter's unresolved conflict unfolds into turmoil as he struggles to maintain relationships with his friends and family.

The play is co-directed by Kent Brisby and Gingerlily Lowe. Artistic Director of Asian Story Theater, Mr. Brisby most recently adapted tales of trickster characters from three ethnic traditions as Coyote, Spider, and Monkey_ and directed its production by AST. The Cultural Hyphen is produced by Andy Lowe.

Scenic design is by AART member Robert Lee, recently seen in San Diego Repertory Theatre's production of Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez, and in AST's Coyote, Spider, and Monkey, as Monkey. Costume design is by AART ensemble member Fwamay Sullivan, last seen as Jackie in AART's production of S.A.M. I Am by Garrett Omata. Martial arts sequences are choreographed by Sifu Dwight Love of the Chinese Martial Arts Institute. Matt Wilson, who played Leonard Djaffrey in S.A.M. I Am, is Stage Manager.

The Cultural Hyphen runs at 8 PM Fridays, 8 PM Saturdays, and 2 and 7 PM Sundays. Ticket prices are $13 for general admission, $10 for students/seniors/military. Discounts are available for advance group sales. For reservations and information call (619) 272-5996.

Northwest Asian American Theatre (Seattle)
WinterFest '98
February 12 to March 8, 1998

The Northwest Asian American Theatre (NWAAT) continues it's 25th Anniversary season with Winterfest '98, NWAAT's annual new works festival. WinterFest '98 is a four-week festival celebrating the best and most unique Asian & Asian American performing artists. This year's highlighted performance is Home: the Places Between Asia & America -- the culmination of NWAAT's three-year International Artists Collaboration Program. NWAAT is also thrilled to feature an exciting array of local Asian American talent performing sketch comedy, music, theatre, dance, poetry, and storytelling. Experience WinterFest '98!

The festival performs February 12 through March 8, 1998. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, and Sundays at 4 pm at NWAAT's home, Theatre Off Jackson: 409 7th Ave. South in Seattle's International District. Ticket prices are $12 for General Admission, $9 for Seniors/Students/Physically Challenged, and $6 for Children/Performing Artists. Thursday performances offer the discounted rates of $8 General Admission and $6 Seniors/Students/Physically Challenged/Artists/ and Children. The Late-Night performance price for OPM and the Pork Filled Players is $6. Group rates are available for all performances. A pay-what-you-can performance of Home: the Places Between Asia and America will be held Sunday, February 15, 1998.

Winterfest '98 features:

Home: the Places Between Asia and America
February 12 - 22, 1998
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 4 pm

Home: the Places Between Asia and America is NWAAT's first international theatre collaboration. This multi-media, multi-disciplinary collaboration is the original creation of five extraordinary artists, all of Asian heritage. The featured performers are: Deirdre de la Cruz, a New York based writer/performer; Susie Kozawa, a sound composer/performer from Seattle, Zai Kuning, a performance installation artist from Singapore; Loke Soh Kim, a dancer/choreographer from Malaysia; and Los Angeles based playwright and director, Chay Yew.

Home: the Places Between Asia and America is the culminating performance of NWAAT's International Artists Collaboration Program. This three year program was created through the generous support of the Ford Foundation as a part of a larger initiative to promote cross-cultural communication and partnership.

The experience begins the moment the audience enters the lobby at the Theatre Off Jackson, transformed into a sound/performance installation created by artists Zai Kuning and Susie Kozawa. The performance begins in the theatre proper, where the artists, through an innovative use of dance, music, sound, text, film, slides, and video, will explore the questions: "How are we different? What do we have in common? How is "home" tied to race, ethnicity, and geography? What is the difference between the "home" surrounding us and the "home" within us?" Home... is a unique collaborative performance piece that interweaves artistic disciplines while challenging the audience to face the questions inspired from the communication of artists brought together from around the world. Discretion is advised. The performance of Home... may include partial nudity.

Isangmahal
performing Thursday, February 26, 1998 at 8 pm

Isangmahal, Seattle's innovative Filipino Amerikan Arts Kollective, features local spoken word artists in an evening of provocative free speech. The Isangmahal Kollective was conceived to cultivate the minds of society through progressive and conscious art. The Kollective envisions that through Kalayean --liberation-- of the mind, of the body, and of the soul, using art as the catalyst, a self-revolution can be attained. Isangmahal creates an evening where artists and analysts will impact, recreate, redefine, and reconstruct the fluid culture of Filipino Amerikan culture.

Magdalen Hsu-Li - Aiko Shimada
performing Friday, February 27, 1998 at 8 pm

Local singer/songwriters Magdalen Hsu-Li and Aiko Shimada share an evening of original music. In their intimate performance style, these artists engage the audience in a powerful exchange that provokes, haunts, and inspires. Experience this special evening with two of Seattle's most dynamic Asian American musical talent.

Magdalen Hsu-Li, the founder and director of Femme Vitale, is a nationally touring Asian American singer-songwriter in the acoustic music genre. A compelling and evocative performer, her music is political, feminist and humanist. Magdalen's solo live show is a dynamic foray into the depths of light and darkness and the evolution of her soul.

Singer and songwriter Aiko Shimada's music is rich in imagery. Her voice and guitar blend to form a whole that alludes to more -- deceptively simple -- with improvisation a subtle constant. At its heart is a strangeness that keeps one off-guard, and bears repeated listening.

Performing Late Nite on
Friday, February 27 &
Saturday, February 28, 1998 at 11 pm

The Pork Filled Players is Seattle's reasonable approximation of an Asian American comedy group, which aims pointed barbs at an unsuspecting world, taking aim with fresh, new Asian American perspectives. In two madcap (but not necessarily zany) evenings of sketch comedy and theatre, the Pork Filled Players presents their audiences with a satirical vision of the Asian American experience. This hilarious and riotous evening is appropriate and enjoyable for people of all ages and race.

Winterfest '98 marks the debut for the Pork Filled Players. Their seasoned group includes Cyndie Mastel as director and features the writing of Roger Tang, David Kobayashi, Tom Bao Pierce, Ellen Williams, and Wally Glenn. These members have garnered kudos for their work with NWAAT's 11:07 Late Night, Politically Correct Theatre, and OPM.

The Movement of Life: A Storyteller's Gift
Saturday, February 28, 1998 at 8 pm & Sunday,
March 1, 1998 at 4 pm
Written and Directed by Nancy Calos-Nakano
Choreographed by Bengie Santos, Jackie Englehart, and Christine Hopkins Music and Drums by Christine Hopkins

Nancy Calos-Nakano creates an evening of stories, music, and motion. The Movement of Life: A Storyteller's Gift is the presentation of three stories: The Movement of Heaven, Wishing Bones, and Good Fortune. The Movement of Heaven is a mystical journey that weaves storytelling, dance, and drumming into an evening of ritual and cultural theatre. Daro, a young girl, searches for Puno, a rare magical tree. From this tree, Daro will be given the mystical materials to make a sacred drum for her family and the generations that will follow. The Movement of Heaven is a coming of age story for people of all ages and cultures. Wishing Bones is a movement based fairy tale, telling the story of a young woman's search and struggle in her quest for true love. In Good Fortune, Nancy Calos-Nakano reveals the secret of the Fortune Cookie. Good Fortune is a humorous audience interactive piece, performed in the traditional style of storytelling.

The featured Performers/Dancers are: Ty Al-Raschid Abellera, Lisa Gascon, Candy Jimenez, Nancy Calos-Nakano, John Scott, Christine Hopkins, Kenny Harlow, Brian Prugalidad, and Mike Sing.

All in the Timing
Thursday, March 5 & Friday, March 6 at 8 pm
Written by David Ives
Presented by Repertory Actors Workshop (REACT)
Directed by David Hsieh -

All in the Timing is a unique evening of theatre featuring five short plays about relationships. David Ives deconstructs the complexity of human relationships in this humorous, yet profound look at our efforts in simply "connecting." In the ReAct tradition of multi-cultural, non-traditional casting, a diverse cast creates a unique approach to this well-known work, making it an evening of theatre that "truly" speaks to our diverse society.

Featured NWAAT veteran artist David Hsieh is the Founding Director of ReAct. He has also directed ReAct's productions of Independence, Crimes of the Heart, The Curious Savage, Prelude to a Kiss, The Importance of Being Earnest, SPLIT, Laundry & Bourbon, and Lone Star. He also serves on the board of Theatre Puget Sound.

The Best of OPM
Friday, March 6 & Saturday, March 7, 1998 at 11 pm

OPM, Seattle's Asian American sketch comedy ensemble, presents an evening of zany parody driven comedy, created and performed by local Asian American writers and performers. OPM's work has been seen at the Brown Bag Theatre and the Nippon Kan Theatre. OPM's mission is to realize original, comedic entertainment based on Asian American experiences by uniting committed artists in a nurturing and collaborative environment. They aim to write, produce, and perform original material to share truths that shed some humorous light on the human experience from an Asian American perspective. OPM hopes to inspire other Asian Americans through comedy that is socially, politically, and artistically relevant to contemporary society.

The Best of OPM features: Toni Davis, Andy Lew, Henry Mark, Serin Ngai, Jennifer Snook, Vera Wong, Kam Woo, Loraine Mesaros, Tom Stanley, Michael Aliaga, and Leroy Chin.

Wing Luke Asian Museum presents Morning Star Dancers
Saturday, March 7, 1998 at 8 pm
& Seattle Kokon Taiko
Sunday, March 8, 1998 at 4 pm

The Wing Luke Asian Museum, the only museum in the country dedicated to preserving the Asian American experience, showcases the work of local community arts groups. Saturday evening's performance features the work of Morning Star Dance Troupe. Sunday afternoon's performance features Seattle's loved, Seattle Kokon Taiko.

Morningstar Korean Traditional Culture Institute keeps the spirit of traditional Korean dance and music alive in the Northwest. Enjoy the spirited performances of this multi-generational performance group- songs, music, and dance.

Taiko is a dynamic synthesis of rhythm, movement and spirit originating in Japan and evolving as a folk art over the last several hundred years. Our own Seattle Kokon Taiko combines the ancient with the modern, presenting a repertoire of traditional pieces, original compositions, and collaborative work - creating their own style of percussive performance art.

The Northwest Asian American Theatre is the only theatre of its kind in the Northwest dedicated to enlightening, entertaining and inspiring audiences about the Asian/Pacific Islander American experience, as well as developing and showcasing the talents of Asian American performers, writers, designers and directors. Special thanks to The Ford Foundation, The Seattle Arts Commission, The Paul G. Allen Charitable Foundation, The Kongsgaard Goldman Foundation, NEA Heritage, Corporate Council for the Arts, and the Washington State Arts Commission for their generous support of Winterfest.'98.

National Asian American Theatre Co.
Ma-Yi Theatre (NY)
You Can't Take it With You
by Moss Hart and George Kauffman
February 14, 1998 onward

Uniting two of Manhattan's foremost Asian American theatres, this production presents an all-Asian American cast performing one of the classics of American theatre. For info and reservations, call 212-505-3003.

PEELING THE BANANA (LA)
IMPROMPTU PERFORMANCE of NEW WORK!
THE PUFFIN ROOM, 435 BROOME STREET
(Between Broadway and Crosby)
SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1998 @ 7:30 PM
Admission:$5

PEELING THE BANANA is a multi-disciplinary, multi-ethnic Asian American performance collective which explores various ways to present written work through performance. Peeling the Banana exists to enrich and diversify the scope of Asian American performance and to build community through outreach to both innovative artists of different disciplines and traditionally underserved audiences with little exposure to this kind of work.

For more information:
email us: peelingthebanana@hotmail.com
visit us: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/pagoda/2927

AATC (SF)
Genny Lim CD Release Party
March 14, 1998

Join La Pena in celebrating
*Genny Lim's CD Release Party*
Devotee has poetry with jazz accompaniment from Francis Wong and Kash Killion

Saturday, March 14
8:00 PM
$10
La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
(510) 849-2568

AATC (SF)
The Clouds, the Ocean and Everything in Between
by Michael P. Premsrirat
staged reading
March 15, 1998 · 7:00 p.m.

A story about life and death, love and loss, history and philosophy, remembering and forgetting, by 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors writer Michael P. Premsrirat. What do you do when you're caught in between a heritage from which you feel increasingly disconnected and a nation by which you aren't entirely accepted? You buy a six-pack of Guinness, a carton of cigarettes and create your own space in a hostile world.

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TnT (SF)
MARCH 15, 1998
Lighting Design Workshop!
11 am- 6 pm
Bindlestiff Studio, 185 6th Street, SF

Don't know a fresnel from a follow spot? Is a gel just another toothpaste option? Well, then maybe this Lighting Design Workshop is for you! Facilitated by Bindlestiff's Rocky Heck, this hands-on introductory workshop will give participants the basics of lighting design for the stage. . . rsvp by calling 974-1384

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March 21, 1998 (Saturday)
TEATRO NG TANAN OPEN HOUSE
6 pm to 9pm
TnT Admin Office,
953 Mission St., Ste. 11

Want to get involved with TnT? Always wanted to volunteer but were afraid to ask? Lost touch with some old friends? Come to our OPEN HOUSE, have a lot of fun and find out our plans for the 1998 season! We'll provide the food, drinks, and, of course, the minus-one machine! Showcase performances by TnT members, video showing, photo gallery, and special surprise guests. . .

E Na Na I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source)
Highways Performance Space
1651 18th Street
Santa Monica's 18th Street Arts Complex
March 18, 19, 20, 21 22

See Story.

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Queer NAsian (NYC)
IN OUR OWN WRITE
March 26, 1998
Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center
NYC

Queer NAsian, New York's first queer Asian performance troupe, will perform as part of the "In Our Own Write" series at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center on Thursday, March 26, 1998. Show time is at 7:30 p.m. The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center is located at 208 West 13th Street (between 7th & 8th Ave.) in New York City. Nearest subways are the 1, 2, 3, 9, A, C, E, or L to 14th Street. When you arrive, check the notice board for the room number. $3 suggested donation.

Queer NAsian began as an offshoot of Peeling the Banana, a community-based performance group operating out of the Asian American Writers' Workshop. In May 1997, they put on a queer variety show which bent genders, purged food fetishes and exploded racial stereotypes. Queer NAsian currently features the talents of Margarita Alcantara-Tan, Dan Bacalzo, Regie Cabico, Aileen Cho, Ray Hsia, Fitz Mangubat, Michel Ng and Gita Reddy. Through a combination of personal narratives, sketch comedy and performance poetry, they explore the Asian American experience from a decidedly queer perspective.

"In Our Own Write" is a monthly series at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center. It features readings and performances by emerging writers, and workshops to foster new talent. For more information, call the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center at 212-620-7310.

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PEELING THE BANANA is a multi-disciplinary, multi-ethnic Asian American performance collective which explores various ways to present written work through performance. Peeling the Banana exists to enrich and diversify the scope of Asian American performance and to build community through outreach to both innovative artists of different disciplines and traditionally underserved audiences with little exposure to this kind of work.

For more information:
email us: peelingthebanana@hotmail.com
visit us: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/pagoda/2927

SLANT
18 Mighty Mountain Warriors
March 28, 1988
Japan America Theatre, LA

For any interested parties, the Slant Performance Group from New York City will be performing in Los Angeles on March 28, splitting an evening with the sketch comedy group the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors of San Francisco. The show is at 8 PM at:

Japan America Theatre
244 So. San Pedro St.
Little Tokyo (downtown L.A.)
213-680-3700

Slant will open the evening with a one-hour performance of excerpts from their first two productions- "Big Dicks, Asian Men" and "The Second Coming."

Voice of the Nikkei
Friday, April 3, 8 pm
Japan America Theatre
244 South San Pedro Street
Downtown Los Angeles, Little Tokyo

Featuring:

* Pat Suzuki, vocalist
* Lawson Inada, poet
* Johnny Mori & Danny Yamamoto, taiko artists
* Denise Uyehara, performance artist
* Kotobuki Kai, classical dance group

The artistry, diversity, and emotion of the Japanese American experience will be reflected in a specially-curated performance, featuring among others, legendary vocalist/actress Pat Suzuki in a rare public performance, and poet Lawson Inada.

Single Tickets: $15
JACCC Members: $13
Students with ID: $10

For tickets to this performance, please call the Japan America Theatre Box Office at (213) 680-3700. Open Noon to 5 pm Daily.

For more information on the JACCC, please visit the website:

http://koma.org/apa/jaccc

AATC (SF)
Alec Mapa's I Remember Mapa
March 26-April 12, 1998 ·
Thursdays-Sundays, 8:30 p.m.;
Sundays, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Magic Theater, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco

AATC presents the Northern California premiere of I Remember Mapa, the hilarious solo show written and performed by nationally renowned Filipino American actor and comedian Alec Mapa. From smoky cabarets to Broadway theaters to television sound stages, San Francisco native Mapa chronicles his hilarious true life experiences in the mainstream entertainment industry. This one-person show, directed by Chay Yew, playwright and director of the Mark Taper Forum's Asian Theater Workshop in Los Angeles, recounts an outsider's experiences in a decidedly insider's industry.

Tickets $16-21 with student, senior and group discounts available.

A Slice of Rice, Frijoles & Greens
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
Lakeshore Campus/Chicago
TUESDAY, APRIL 14th at 7:30 p.m.
Rambler Room/Auditorium

Featuring Nobuko Miyamoto, Shishir Kurup and Michele Serros, A SLICE OF RICE, FRIJOLES AND GREENS is a humorous and poignant mix of stories that give vivid insights into the Asian, Latino and African American experience. Using theater, music and dance, three artists open windows to their own world through their personal tales. Though each slice may be different, "rice, frijoles, and greens" join to make a statement that entertains while enlightens, taking audiences beyond cultural borders.

A Grain of Sand
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
Lakeshore Campus/Chicago
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 at 7:00 pm
Sky Auditorium

Featuring NOBUKO MIYAMOTO, A GRAIN OF SAND is a solo saga of one Asian American woman breaking through the forces of silence to find her own song. In a poetic fusion of story, song, and movement, Nobuko unravels her tales from days of Japanese relocation to the recent events of the Los Angeles uprising. As a young and willing subject of American culture and media, she rejects the ties to her own traditions to 'make it' in show biz. But during the late 1960's, the rhythms of change inspire a compelling pilgrimage as she finds her voice as an activist and singer in the Asian American movement, crossing borders into the Black, Latino and Native American struggles. Awakened by the possibilities and defeats, A Grain of Sand becomes a ritual that takes us beyond the chasms of color and culture, beyond the faultlines in our mind...into the oneness.

For more information on these performances, call (773) 508-8850 or Great Leap at (310) 264-6696.

Currently booking National tours of this one woman show for 1998-99-00. For more information or to request a video clip and an information packet, please call Jenni at 310/264-6696 or email the following info to greatleap@anet.net:

Name, organization or school, street address, email address, telephone number

Ghosts and Baggage
by Ken Narasaki
March 20 thru April 19
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m. at
LATC: Los Angeles Theatre Center
514 S. Spring Street in downtown L.A.
Reservations: 213.485.1681 Tkts: $18

A fabulous, funny, sexy, provocative piece, directed by Alberto Isaac, featuring: Francois Chau, Sharon Omi, and Sab Shimono.

Opening weekend ticket discount deals!:
Final preview, Thursday, March 19: Half-price tickets available; just call the reservation number above and tell them you want a half-price ticket.

Opening night, March 20: Free reception following the show.

Opening weekend, Saturday and Sunday, March 21 and 22: Two-fers; just call the reservation number and tell them you want two for the price of one.

Friends: Ghosts and Baggage has been a labor of love. The play was developed in the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute; was written by actor and EWP literary manager Ken Narasaki; has been cast, crewed, and staffed by dedicated, talented people; and is a chance for a brand new voice of the Asian American theatre to be heard.

ReACT (Seattle)
The Mousetrap
by Agatha Christie
March 25 to April 19, 1998
Theatre Off Jackson
Seattle, WA

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Sining KilUSAn (Seattle)
Heart of the Son
April 3 to April 19, 1998
Langston Hughes Cultural Center

Experience the Philippine Revolution in Timoteo Cordova's explosive mainstage musical drama, Heart of the Son.Celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of Independence from Spain with Sining KilUSAn, the nations premier Filipino Performing Arts Ensemble. Joe Adcock of the Seattle P.I. called the show: "most gripping in its powerful percussion and dancing."

WHEN: APRIL 3 - APRIL 19

All shows will be Friday & Saturday - 8 p.m.
Sunday Matinees - 3 pm
except for Thursday, April 16th when the audience has the special opportunity to have a Q&A with the playwright and cast

WHERE: Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center
104 17th Avenue South
Seattle, WA. 98144
(206) 684-4757

FOR TICKET INFORMATION:
$16.00 Adults
$12.00 Seniors & Youth
Call (206) 461-4870 or (206) 684-4757 or
email espiritu@u.washington.edu

to purchase your TICKETS today!

Yangtze Repertory Theatre (NYC)
The Story of Yu-Huan
by Joanna Chan
April 16 to April 26, 1998
Theater for the New City, NYC

Yu-Huan, of the House of Yang, has been an undiminshed subjected of literature and fine arts throughout thirteen centuries. Her death marked the end of 130 tears of unprecedented prosperity in China's Middle Kingdom and a golden age of artistic outpourings. Her life story is the subject of "The Story of Yu-Huan," the latest play by Joanna Chan, to be presented by Yangtze Reperptory Theatre of America April 16 to 26 at Theatre for the New City, 155 First Ave. (at E. 10th Street), directed by the autgor and choreographed by Yung-Yung Tsuai.

This new version of Yu Huan's Story will be performed in English and Mandarin and will be completetly understandable to English-speaking audiences. It joins the body of the playwright's work as an indicrment of a cultural tradition not governed by law, where the most basic of all rights falls victim to the whims of a self-appointed few. In the Chinese tradition of playwriting, there is no psychological dialogue--the horror of the story is communicated in the facts of the play and in the characters' actions.

Throughout the play, Yu-Huan does not get to speak; her fate is hammered home as the decisions of her life are made for her.

Characters from the "foreign" provinces are cast with caucasian and African-American actors; the balance of the cast (50%)is pan-Asian. Prince Shou, General An(a foreign character), and a Princess sent to the remote north speak in English; the characters from the Middle Kingdom(half the cast) perform in Mandarin. This is an experiment in bi-lingual drama; the English text is intended to combine with the movement of the Chinese-speaking characters and the production's dances to deliver a furfilling evening to English-speaking audiences without the use of projected subtitles.(English-speakers will probably come out thinking they speak Chinese.)

The cast of 16 includes Tysan as Yu-Huan, the Title character, Steven Zhang as the Emperor and Lu Yu as Prince Shou. Set design is by Jae-Kyun Ha, lighting design is by Woohyung Lee (both of Korea), costume design is by Maiko Matsushima (from Japan).

Joanna Chan is Artistic Director of Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America, a company she co-founded in 1992, dedicated to works by and for Asian artists. Jan Stuart (Newsday) labeled "Hou Lei and Lou Ts'ong," a true family tragedy of a world-class Chinese pianist which she produced and starred in, as "a jewel of theater craftsmanship." She directed the Yangtze Rep production of "The Eternal Game" by Wang Wei-Zhong and "the Sound of a Voice" by David Henry Hwang at Theater for the New City in 1996. After seeing these productions, New York Theatre Wire critic Bert Wechsler Wrote, "The company overall has superb production valuesJoanna Chan's direction was clear, uncluttered, exact, and always intelligent. Her pan-Asian Yangtze Repertory Company of America is a vital element of New York's thetare scene. It deserves support and we eagerly await its next production."

Ms. Chan has also headed New York's Four Seas Players(1970-77, 83-92) and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre(1986-90). As a playwright, her major works include"Before the Dawn-wing Rises," and English translation of which is in a 1997 Oxford Anthology of CHinese Contemporary Drama, "Crown Ourselves with Rises," commissioned by Sing Tao Newspapers, which toured the US in 1989 and "The Soongs; By Dreams Betrayed," a political drama published in Hong Kong in 1992. She has adapted and directed over 40 productions since 1970, including both Chinese and American works. A major figure in both Hong Kong theater and Chinese-American theater in NYC, she has been honored here by the NYC City Council and Teachers College at Columbia University for her career as playwright and director. Her last dramatic project was the English tranlation of "Between Life and Death," written and directed by Gao Xingjian, which Uangtze Rep and Blue Heron Theater presented at Theater for the New City in Feb, 1997.

Seattle Rep (Seattle)
The Sisters Matsumoto
by Philip Kan Gotanda
Workshop
April 24, 25 and 26, 1998

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