History for
Cachapero, Patty
- Anak Ti Diablo (Bindlestiff Studios, 2005)
An Ilocano term for Children of the Devil, Anak Ti Diablo
is loosely adapted from Plautus‚ Haunted House. Set in modern day Daly
City, the play focuses on the members of Anak ti Diablo, a
Pilipino-American punk rock band who gets entangled with a notorious
leg breaking loan shark, an absurdly pious Catholic mother, a barrio
fiesta beauty pageant wannabe and an ex-thief turned exorcism expert.
The play's action is energized when the characters break into thrash
metal riffs and sweet Rondalla tunes to exorcise the ghosts of the past
and summon the spirits of colonial history. In the end everyone rocks
out. Cast includes Rose Almario, Pio Candelaria, Eric Fructuoso, Werner
Goff, Jo-ill Merc! han, Jaime Nallas, Francis Novero, Jose Saenz and
Golda ŒSupanova‚ Sargento. Music by Golda Supanova and Ogie Gonzales
and set design by Dino Ignacio, Nina de Torres and Gwen Torres.
Calindos, Jonathon
- Jersey Stories (2001 A Spotlight on Festival Odyssey)
an engaging evening full of characters, whom we come to care about as they struggle to define themselves."
- The Green Dragon: A Modern Myth (A Spotlight On Festival, 2002)
When the Green Dragon destroys the beloved Castle on the hill, the man
with the white stripe in his hair loses his family and goes on a quest
to slay the dragon. The story, told through monologues by the members
of the community, is a story of loss, grief, anger, and redemption.
- The 4 AM 'Lizbeth (Chuchipinoy Productions, 2002)
THE 4 AM 'LIZBETH
is a tribute to the city of Elizabeth, NJ, the author's hometown.
Jerry, Jay, and Eddie, three lifelong friends, come of age as they hang
out on an abandoned railroad track supposedly haunted by the ghost
train known as 'The 4 am 'lizbeth'. A play about the common man's hopes
and dreams in small city America, these three men come to terms with
the breaks life has given them.
- The Magnificent Mr. Vincent (Chuchipinoy Productions, 2005)
A play about being twenty-something in America in the beginning of the
new century. It follows the story of Sam, the idealistic lead
singer-songwriter for the college garage band, The Pedestrians, as he
tries to find a place in society that he can live with.
Calos-Nakano, Nancy & Decaney, Maria
- Please Choose One (NWAAT, 1994)
Original one act on multi-racial Asian Americans
Campsee, Sonal
- Everything but the Paper (Pratidhwani, 2014)
Ketan and Rupal are separated and no one is more determined to re-unite
them than aunt Kusum. Her daughter Supriya doesn't think Kusum's
forty-two years of marriage makes her an expert, but with two divorces
and trouble in her relationship with Pavel, how much does Supriya know
about relationships? Everything But The Paper
- a comedy in English explores the ideas of who should be together, who
should be apart, and what does marriage and divorce mean to this
contemporary Indian family?
Camins, Alexis
- Family Lies (Mu Performing Arts, 2006)
Family Lies is a subversive new Asian-American comedy farcically inspired by the hit 80's sitcom Family Ties.
Carriaga, Daniel
- Sleepwalk (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 1999)
- judy-ex (EWP, 2000)
Carroll, Dennis
- Age Sex Location (Kumu Kahua, 2005)
four generations of a local family confront the complexities and perils
of cyberspace. When a computer is brought home to help daughter Janine
with her job, everyone wants to log on. But the family’s existing
problems-financial troubles, Alzheimer’s, parent-child conflict-only
get more intense in the world of Internet gambling and online chat-room
dating. A four-person “Compuchorus” calls out Internet jargon,
pop-up advertising and Instant Messages, as the computer becomes a
complex and sinister character.
Carter, Nicholas
- Kiko's World (Theater Mu, 1998)
The play tells the story of a young boy in Paraguay who conjures up
characters from an Asian folk tale to help his father's theater
company. Incorporating puppetry and music, the show investigates how
theater can address political oppression.
Cataluna, Lee
Bio:
Keables Chair holder Lee Cataluna brings a writing voice to Iolani
School that is, in Horace’s words, non audita prius (“not heard
before”). In addition to being a short story writer, a dramatist and
playwright, Ms. Cataluna is probably best known to the general public
for her thrice weekly column for The Honolulu Advertiser.
Born on Maui and raised in plantation houses in Wailuku, Koloa and
Ka’u, she is keiki o ka aina ha’aheo (“proud child of the land”) who
matriculated at Baldwin High School before graduating magna cum laude
from the University of the Pacific in Stockton California in 1988,
majoring in Psychology and Dance. In 1999, the University named her a
Distinguished Young Alumna of the University.
Following a notable 10 year career in local television and radio, Ms. Cataluna became a columnist for The Honolulu Advertiser
in 2000. Her column covers all aspects of modern life, from altruism to
political commentary, from real biography to “Sonny” from Kapolei. Her
writing is disciplined and coherent, purposeful and coordinated and is
marked by common sense and clear analysis with an underlying sympathy
and a wry, satiric yet mature humor.
Ms. Cataluna
brings these same qualities to her dramatic writing. She has studied
playwriting with Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, Y York and at the David
Henry Hwang Playwriting Institute at the East West Players in Los
Angeles. She is a 2004 winner of the Cades Award for Literature for her
body of work. Her favorite stories, both fiction and non-fiction, are
about ordinary people struggling to live lives of dignity and purpose.
- Ulua: The Musical (Kumu Kahua, 1999)
With book and lyrics by Lee Cataluna and music by Sean T. C. O’Malley
Ulua deals with life, love, and fishing on Maui. Local boy Kayden Asiu
leaves his job, his Soloflex, and his fiancée Lylas on O`ahu to explore
life’s options on Maui. Butchie and Clyson, two co-workers, introduce
him to the joys of all-night ulua fishing. But Lylas follows him to
Maui, Butchie’s fiancée gets upset, and eventually the women follow
their men to the ulua, and the sea. First staged by Kumu in 1999,
this musical comedy comes to the intimate KKT stage for the first
time. Ulua: The Musical opens in January 2006.
- Half Dozen Long Stem (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 1999)
Local Hawaiian humor in a Honolulu lei and flower shop.
- Super Secret Squad (Kuma Kahua, 2002)
A comedy focussing on five University of Hawaii students who question
the deeds of bureaucrats who banish the name "Rainbows" from UH
athletics and turn the Duke Kahanamoku statue in Waikiki away from the
ocean. In trying to make things right again, the students find their
pranks get them into serious trouble.
- Folks You Meet in Longs (Kuma Kahua, 2003)
In a series of sometimes comic, sometimes somber monologues set inside
a Hawai'i Longs Drug Store, Cataluna continues her theatrical
exploration of the human condition with an emphasis on local color.
Customers and employees alike take turns onstage discussing everything
from product purchases to boyfriends and girlfriends, abusive spouses
and mortal enemies. Some two dozen characters, including Verna
("Waipahu's answer to Martha Stewart"), Rhondalei Alvarado, Rogelio
"D.J. Stankmaster" Cabingabang, Crazy Aunt Cookie, Officer Wolverton
Kahaunaele and Uncle Choochie Nawai, tend inadvertently to reveal their
own personalities while discussing the character flaws of others—all
against the backdrop of Hawaii's preferred shopping destination. As
character Cheryl Moana Marie Sakata says, “This is my whole life. This
is the rest of my life. Zippys, Foodland, Longs.”
- Da Maya (Kumu Kahua, 1998)
When Da Mayah
debuted at Kumu in 1998, it broke box office records, drew rave reviews
and inaugurated for playwright Lee Cataluna the creation of what would
become a string of hit comedies. Now Da Mayah is back in all
its wacky hilarity. The newly-elected mayor of Hilo, Lester Perez
(campaign slogan: "Do What He Sez!"), is not too bright, but his
administrative assistant, second in command and mistress Sandralene
Leialoha Ferreira, manages fairly successfully to keep him from making
a complete fool of himself. When Lester is blackmailed by a childhood
friend, Derek Pang, Sandy enlists the aid of her gangster cousin Dukie
and his hit man Stanton, who has "a rap sheet thicker than the Bible"
and a crush on Sandy. The action takes us from the mayor's office to
Jazzmin’s Karaoke Bar and Washerette ("Karaoke solo $1.50, duet
$4.00"), bringing to play assassination attempts, betrayals and bad
plate lunches.
- The Great Kaua‘i Train Robbery (Kumu Kahua, 2010)
Kaua‘i, 1920: At a time when plantations used railways to transport
workers’ pay, the stage was set for one of Hawai‘i’s most unusual
robberies. This is the story of Hali, a man who will do anything to
protect his beloved family—even if it means becoming a suspect in the
crime. From the author of the smash hits Folks You Meet in Longs and Da Mayah comes this tender and moving drama, inspired by a true story, about how far we go for the people we love.
- The Flowers of Hawai'i (Kumu Kahua, 2013)
Ten vignette playlets capture the essence of family relationships.
- Uncle's Regularly Scheduled Garage Party is CANCELLED Tonight! ( Kumu Kahua, 2017)
Uncle's regularly scheduled garage party is cancelled for the first time in -- ever! The usual attendees show up and process their shock over the cancellation-- while they eat, drink, talk story and play music. The old friends spend the evening telling stories, laughing and sharing food. But it's not a party, because Uncle's regularly scheduled garage party is CANCELLED!
Cervantes, Ray
- Going Somewhere (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 1999)
Chae, Esther K.
- So the Arrow Flies (ART168 Productions, 2007)
So the arrow flies is solo performance piece written and performed by
Esther K. Chae and is about triple spy Catherine (North Korean agent
guised as a South Korean civilian who works as a FBI asset in the
United States) and the Korean American FBI Agent Park that catches her.
Included also is the character of triple agent's 12 year old daughter
Mina and Agent Park's elderly mother Mrs. Park who has survived the
Korean war. With a turn on the chair, the actor changes to all 4
different characters to unfold the stories of each individual.
Chan, Eugenie
- Novell-Ah! (NY Shakespeare Festival, 1993)
A mother and daughter play out the fantasies of their lives through the lurid postures of a Spanish soap opera.
- Rancho Grande (NWAAT, 1999)
A dark comedy that takes disturbing look at the conflicting identities
of Asians in America and their struggle to define themselves as a young
Chinese American girl comes to terms with her emerging sexuality.
- Kitchen Table (Magic Theatre, 2005)
Patriarch Alex Wong demands a perfectly ordered family dinner -- every
dish, every chopstick, every son and daughter in its place. When
favorite son, Nicky, shows up late, beaten and covering up a swastika
cut on his chest, Alex orders the family to continue eating. So begins
their battle, as father and son each struggles to carve out his version
of Chinese American manhood -- in and outside the Family. Special
thanks to the Tournesol Project.
- Daphne Does Sim Sum (Centenary Stage Company, 2007)
In this humorous new play, two old friends lock horns in a dim sum
restaurant in a competition to determine who has the best conpoy, the
best emerald ring, the best dance partner and who will pay the check.
- Bone to Pick (Cutting Ball Theatre, 2008)
Bone to Pick sets
the story of Ariadne in a diner at the end of the war-torn world. Here,
Ariadne, now reconfigured as Ria the Waitress, has been stranded in a
military base diner for three-thousand years. Depleted by millennia of
foreign occupation, Ria enters the labyrinth and confronts her part in
the murder of her brother, Steer #576. A dizzyingly postmodern look at
the costs of love, war and womanhood.
- Madame Ho (Magic Theatre, 2013)
Madame Ho
tells the story of a formidable woman in the Barbary Coast, a real-life
19th-century brothel madam, Chinese immigrant, wife and mother. Within
the confines of the bordello, Madame tries to raise her daughter Daisy
right. But headstrong Daisy is spoiled by her father and infatuated
with a new servant girl. Madame Ho explores the epic history of the
Chinese American West through a shape-shifting tale of one woman¹s
struggle to forge a life for herself and her daughter.
Chan, J. P.
- Oriental Playas (Peeling, 2003)
In the sequel to Peeling's 2002 hit Vampire Geishas of Brooklyn, a motley crew of Asian American performers search for love, or at least sex, via slam poetry and on-line dating.
- Beckoning Cat (Desipina, 2005)
Waiting for the lucky numbers at a convenience store can prove to be an unlucky business.
- No Time for Champions (Ma-Yi, 2006)
Chan, Jeff Paul
Chan, Joanna
- One Family, One Child, One Door (Yangtze Rep, 2002)
- The Soongs: By Dreams Betrayed (Yangtze Rep, 2003)
Before the Shah, before the Marcoses, there were the Soongs...
- Forbidden City West (Yangtze Rep, 2008)
An original musical in English with 3 scenes in Cantonese and
Toishanese Chinese, with bilingual subtitles, on 100 years of Chinese
American experience through the life and times of the legendary
entertainer, Jadin Wong.
Chan, Leilani
BIO:
Awards include: 1999 Brody Fellowship from the California Community
Foundation, California Arts Council Artist in Residence 1997-1999, New
England Foundation for the Arts, National Presenters Network (NPN)
Creation Fund, and a University of California Regents Graduate
Opportunity Fellowship from the University of California at Irvine.
Chan's performance techniques are influenced by: Juanfelipe Herrera,
Roberta Uno, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ping Chong and Guillermo Gomez-Peña and
others. Chan's latest performance installations include: "Life as a
Dashboard Hula Dancer" which premiered in San Francisco as part of
"Apocalypse Mañana: An Ethno-Techno Living Museum of Intercultural
Fetishes" for Guillermo Gomez-Pena's La Pocha Nostra and was presented
at the University of California at Irvine Art Gallery in 2002, and "The
Enemy of My Enemy" which premiered as part of "the Gathering: an
alternate response" at Highways Performance Space, and later as a site
specific action at the NNG Conference in Oakland in October 2001.
- E Nana I Ke Kumu:Look to the Source (1998)
Utilizing the haku (weaving) of dance, poetry, story and music, this
solo work portrays the story of contemporary souls searching to reclaim
their heritage, their honor and the lost memories of a shattered
homeland. Exploding the images of the islands as a "simple care-free
coconut and palm tree playground," these voices cry out their concern
for Hawai'i's future. Exploring cultural exploitation, racial
prejudice, economic crises and fights over native lands, these
characters search for the true Hawai'i. E Nana is a journey that
travels from Hawai'i to the mainland and back asking the audience and
the characters themselves to "look to the source."
Chan, Marjorie
- China Doll (Nightwood Theatre, 2004)
China Doll,
Marjorie Chan's first play for the stage, takes the ancient Chinese
practice of foot-binding as its central image. For almost a thousand
years, until outlawed in 1911, it was the fashion for women to bind
their female children's feet to deliberately deform their growth. The
most desirable "lotus feet" fit into "lotus shoes" -- only three to
four inches long. In China Doll, foot-binding becomes an all
too obvious symbol for the forces of hierarchy, patriarchy and
tradition that constrain all people of Imperial China, but most
particularly women.
- The Madness of the Square (Theatre Direct Canada for The Democracy Project, ?)
This play tells the tale of one young engineering student present
during the upheaval in Tiananmen Square, 1989. Jumping from past to
present, the character of Fan-Ying takes us on her journey to join the
students in protest, the passion in the square as she becomes a leader
of the movement, and through to its' inevitable end.
- Chinoiserie (fu-GEN, 2016)
In America's mid-west in the late 19th C., a Chinese painter arrives at the home of Reverend James and his wife, to recreate the chinoiserie wallpaper from the Reverend's childhood home. But things are not what they seem, and an affair begins that threatens to uncover the house's hidden layers.
Chan, Marty
BIO:
Alberta -based playwright who began his career in the Fringe movement
but whose works are now performed across the country. He has also
written for television and for radio (notably the CBC series Dim Sum
Diary). In January, 2002, he was named playwright-in-residence at the
Citadel Theatre , the first one in the house's history.
- Mom, Dad, I'm Living with a White Girl (Theatre Passe Muraille , 1995)
Mark Gee moves in with his Caucasian girlfriend Sally, but is too
afraid of telling his traditional Chinese parents about his new living
arrangements. Instead, he hides the truth as he introduces Sally to Mom
and Dad in the hopes that they will like her. Fears turn into fantasies
as the real time scenes are interwoven with scenes from the Yellow
Claw, a satire on the racist movie series about a Chinese overlord
trying to invade the west. The play skewers Asian stereotypes and
examines the trials and tribulations of inter-racial romances. In the
end, Mark must choose between his family and Sally.
- Sterling Award for Best New Play
- A.C.T. Award, Harvard University
- Sterling Award for Sound Design
- Polaroids of Don ()
An aspiring male romance novelist convinces a female friend to pose as
his living pseudonym to get published. Sparks fly when their manuscript
is accepted by a female publisher who hates men. As the charade
continues, the lying couple start to fall in love, but the changes in
the manuscript drive them apart. Their rollercoaster romance is echoed
by overheated scenes from the romance novel.
- Sterling Nomination - Best Fringe Play
Cast Requirements: 3 female, 2 male
- Maggie's Last Dance (1995)
A high school reunion brings together old friends and nemeses to relive
the past. Old crushes are revisited along with regrets and hopes. The
play jumps between the present-day reunion when people are wiser and
more experienced, and the high school hey days when youthful exuberance
and naivete ruled.
Cast requirements: 3 male, 3 female
Running Time: Approximately 80 minutes
- With This Ring (Go For Broke Festival, 1996)
A satirical look at Chinese yuppies.
- The Old Boy's Club (1997)
- Kick Up Your Heels, Nina Zapata ()
- The Bone House (Edmonton Fringe, 1999)
An audience comes to hear a lecture about serial killers.
Self-proclaimed mind hunter, Eugene Crowley, recreates gruesome murders
to convince the audience that a serial killer is on the loose. As the
lecture progresses, the audiences suspects Crowley might actually be
the killer himself. But before they can act, members of the audience
are shuffled throughout the lecture hall so that they sit beside
strangers. Crowley presents his final proof, an inkblot that the
audience must scrutinize for a full minute. The lights are turned off
and the negative image of the inkblot forms the face of the killer.
However, in the blackout, the true killer makes his presence known and
proceeds to eviscerate Crowley, leaving the audience's imaginations to
create the picture to go along with the sounds and sensations in the
dark. This play is a psychological experiment about the nature of fear,
imagination, and deification of serial killers.
- Sterling Nom for Best New Fringe Play
- Sterling Nom for Best Actor in Fringe Play
- Sterling Nom for Best Fringe Play
- Sterling Nom for Best Fringe Director
Cast requirements: 3 male, 1 female
- 7th Circle (Fringe Theatre Adventures, 2001)
- The Forbidden Phoenix (2005?)
An allegory for the early Chinese immigrants to Canada, this myth tells
the story of the Monkey King's journey west. Looking for food for his
people, this classic Chinese Opera character faces discrimination in a
prosperous land run by a lonely ruler who only wants to bring the Iron
Dragon to his kingdom. This play is a hybrid of Chinese Opera and North
American Theatre, using martial arts, music, costumes, and magic to
convey a mythical story with historical relevance.
- Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama
- A Hero For All
Kenny
goes back to school after a successful round of chemotherapy
treatments, but he's afraid of telling his friends what he's been
through. He explains the change in his appearance by lying; he claims
he has received super hero powers and that he is now Captain Blasto.
The play bounces between Kenny's real life school problems and his
super hero fantasies, until he is forced to confront his disease. The
real hero that emerges is Kenny, the brave leukemia patient.
- Sterling Award- TYA Production
- Jessie Nom. - TYA Production
Cast Requirements: 2 Male, 1 Female
Running Time: 40 minutes
- The Sword in the Stone
(Theatre for Young Audience Play)
Two young friends, Fisher and Falon, meet up with the grumpy and
bungling wizard Merlyn and hound him until he tells them the secret of
the sword in the stone. Whoever draws the blade from the rock will
become the ruler of all the realms. The two pals embark on a quest to
vanquish Morgala, the creature of the dark woods and prove themselves
worthy of the Sword in the Stone. However, Fisher discovers that
Morgala is no monster and must prevent his friend from destroying the
creature of the dark woods.
- Sterling Nom. - TYA Production
Cast Requirements: 2 male, 1 female
Chan, Melissa
- Fat Free and Other Lies (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 1999)
Chandwaney, Anita
- Gandhi Marg
Set in Chicago's Little India, Gandhi Marg is a very clever updated desi version of A Streetcar Named Desire in which newlyweds Shanti and Shardul are visited by her sister Bina, a recently fired teacher and a perfectionist.
- Instant Recall (Rasaka, 2009)
Madhu can't seem to recall why she asked Nigel to meet her at the café—or can she?
Chang, Jade
-
IPO! The Musical (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 2000)
-
Next Big Thing--An Upstart Musical (EWP, 2001)
A timely musical about the rise and fall of an Internet start-up.
Chang, Richard
-
News to a Muse (Pan Asian, 2009)
A
Farcedy of Terror! Five journalists are trapped in a short-staffed
newsroom during a freak storm and an epic financial crisis that
threatens to destroy the world. Part oral history, part fiction a
suspected terrorist attack drives the staff to seek safety in the
ladies restroom where their individualized closets are exposed and the
truth is bared.
Chanse, Samantha
- Sleeper (AATC, 2004)
Addicted to playing cards and the half-hearted pursuit of job
interviews, a young woman is visited by a young man with a strange
invitation: to join him as a would-be prophet. Replete with rapid-fire
banter, paranormal activity, and secreted children, Sleeper (A
Chronicle of the Return of the Remarkable) is a comedic tale of a
distracted writer and a long-lost brother in search of activation.
- Locked House (Ma-Yi Theatre, 2011)
The Locke family has been minding its own business and enjoying (?) the
daily routine when a long-absent daughter returns with her
not-entirely-welcome partner. As her basement-dwelling and
fantasy-prone musician-sister gears up for a big show, domestic
disturbances and interrupted rhythms ensue.
- Delivery (Ma-Yi Theatre, 2015)
Tara, a woman in Gujarat, India, has signed up as a gestational surrogate for Denise, another woman over eight thousand miles away in northern California. Tara navigates life at the clinic, and Denise struggles to feel connected, when the two women encounter something for which neither one is prepared.
- Fruiting Bodies
A family lost in a fog-enveloped woods meets a mysterious young boy. Limited visibility, the interfamilial politics of race and gender, and thought experiments pushed to extremes.
- What You Are Now (Ensemble Studio Theatre, 2017)
Pia has a professional interest in fear and memory; they constitute the focus of her research as a not-entirely-fulfilled neuroscience postdoc. But the return of an old acquaintance forces her to confront her family's history, and a past that is relentlessly and ruthlessly tangled with the present.
- Trigger (Leviathan Labs, 2018)
When a childhood friend's racist rant goes viral, Lee wrestles with the rage inside herself and in others. On top of that, she has to deal with a deteriorating domestic situation and a sudden xenophobic attack on a family member. What can she do? Lee seeks refuge in studies of ignorance and the science of emotions. As ancient goddesses and not-so-ancient house flies hover over her lecture notes, she comes to learn what little she really knows. In this topical and mythic dramedy,Trigger asks how we can connect people in a time of heightened fear and anger.
- The Opportunities of Extinction (Cherry Lane Theatere, 2018)
Mel and Arjun have embarked on a last-minute camping trip to take refuge from the brewing storm of their lives. Georgia is studying the impact of climate change on the imperiled Joshua tree. Navigating a world in crisis on multiple fronts, what does it mean to survive in the face of annihilation?
Chao, Vic Bonekrusher
- Mascot (EWP, 2003)
After being fired from the Chicago Bulls, a would-be mascot is forced
to work for a Developmental League team. There, the only things
stopping him from being "the greatest mascot ever" are an unusual
crowd, strange co-workers, and a bunch of rocks.
Chatterjee, Sourabh
- Thakuris Nostalgia (Lark Theatre, 2002)
A father and his daughter struggle against shifting cultural, religious
and generational values in modern-day Goa, India.
Chau, Nora
- Endings: A Collection of Love Stories Gone Wrong and Two Commercials (Peeling, 2003)
When love goes south - A real, surreal, bittersweet and sometimes
downright painfully funny look at breakups. Which ending is yours?
- The Art of War (Fluid Motion, 2006)
Nora Chau's new theatrical adaptation brings Sun Tzu's military treatise The Art of War into the context of modern-day relationships.
- Emotionally Disturbed: a Tale of People Losing It (Ma-Yi, 2006)
- Growing Up For Dummies: A Bank Robber's Guide (Ma-Yi, 2009)
What does it mean to be a grownup, esp. in New York? A group of friends
go through the usual growing pains that thirty-something year olds do
today- all the while trying to plan a bank heist. Will they succeed or
will their relationships and egos get in the way. A (hopefully) comedic
first look reading of my new play.
Chen, Christopher
is a San Francisco based playwright whose full-length plays have been
produced and developed nationally at American Conservatory Theater,
Asian American Theater Company, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Central
Works, Crowded Fire, Cutting Ball, Fluid Motion, hotINK Festival, Just
Theatre, Lark Play Development Center, Magic Theatre, Silk Road Theatre
Project, Theatre Mu; and internationally at the Beijing Fringe Festival
and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His play THE HUNDRED FLOWERS
PROJECT, produced by Crowded Fire and Playwrights Foundation, won the
2012 Will Glickman Award, the 2012 Rella Lossy Playwriting Award (for
which juror Mark Russell of The Public Theatre named Chen ³a fresh and
challenging voice") and was nominated for the Steinberg Award and
shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award. In addition it won an NEA
Consortium Grant, and made multiple top-ten lists including the SF
Chronicle. Other honors include 2nd Place in the Belarus Free Theater
International Competition of Modern Dramaturgy for his play INTO THE
NUMBERS; a Ford Foundation Emerging Writer of Color Grant; and finalist
status for the Jerome Fellowship. Chris is the 2013/2014 recipient of
the Paul Vogel Playwriting Award and is currently
playwright-in-residence at the Vineyard Theatre in New York. Chen is a
former resident playwright with Playwrights Foundation, a graduate of
U.C. Berkeley, with an M.F.A.in playwriting from S.F. State.
- Maya (AATC, 2004)
Three people find themselves in a strange, Kafka-esque prison with no
recollection of how they got there or who they are. These sufferers of
amnesia slowly piece together their shared past shaped by lost love and
a brutal war. But soon they find that their memories diverge, and
things are further complicated by their captor, a mad doctor, who casts
doubts on what little they have to go on. His own agenda reveals a
shocking take on spirituality. Maya is at once a political allegory and
philosophical treatise that is brought to life by intense emotions and
poetic language. At its core, it deals with the nature of the soul. Its
surreal, neutral setting is inspired by Samuel Beckett and Sarah Kane.
Its mood and language are inspired by Virginia Woolf and Kazuo Ishiguro.
- Into the Numbers (Mu Performing, 2007)
For Iris Chang, famed author of The Rape of Nanking,
historical research is a thoroughly personal experience: a standard
interview becomes a recurring, disintegrating nightmare of the brutal
events and horrifying statistics in her book. An imagined psychological
journey of Ms. Chang's actual precipitous fall into the darkest heart
of humanity.
- The Window Age (AATC, 2009)
1920s England in the aftermath of World War I. The conception of the
human mind is being reframed by the Modernist Movement in art and
literature, the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis, and the emergence
of a strange new affliction: the War Neurosis ("Shell Shock"). A
Modernist writer, not unlike Virginia Woolf, and her troubled war
veteran husband receive a visit from an old friend, an expert
psychoanalyst not unlike Sigmund Freud. As the evening unfolds, we go
deeper and deeper and deeper into the unconscious minds of this
mysterious trio--a husband, a wife and a rival.
- Lu Shen the Mad (AATC, 2009)
An English translation of a Chinese adaptation of the Greek play "Herakles."
- Anomienaulis (Bay Area Playwrights, 2009)
An absurdist adaptation of Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis in which an
entire army of young, virile, waiting men entertain themselves with
video games and sitcoms -- while King Agamemnon prevaricates the
sacrifice of his youngest virginal daughter, Iphigenia. Seen against
the cruelty of ancient Greek sacrificial rituals, the ennui of
contemporary culture reveals its dark psychic stain.
- The Hundred Flowers Project (Crowded Fire Theatre Project, 2012)
From Cultural Revolution To Digital Revolution: Mao and Now! Crowded
Fire Theater and Playwrights Foundation present a new play about one of
the most defining socio-political phenomena of the 20th Century: Mao
Tse Tung and the birth of modern China. The Hundred Flowers Project
connects the power of today's media to the propaganda employed
throughout the Cultural Revolution. In The Hundred Flowers Project,
nothing is certain…including who controls it.
- Mutt (Ferocious Lotus, Impact Theatre, 2014)
This hilarious new commissioned work explores what it means to be Hapa, or part-Asian, in the U.S.
- The Late Wedding (Crowded Fire Theatre, 2014)
The Late Wedding is
both inspired by and a homage to Italian fabulist novelist Italo
Calvino whose stories "Invisible Cities" and "f on a Winter's Night a
Traveler" have become Chen¹s launching pad into a shadowy exploration
into themes of distance, dislocation, and transience in internet-age
relationships.
- Caught (InterACT, 2014)
Structured in four semi-linear scenes, Caught
is a provocative comedy that follows two Chinese American artists as
they engage with a too-willing-to-believe progressive public, NY
publishers and art gallery curators. Obie Award winner.
- You Mean to Do Me Harm (CAATA, 2016)
In this sharp and fantastical play, an innocuous comment at a dinner with two interracial couples leads to a surreal escalation of cold war-style paranoia. A psychological exploration of China-U.S. foreign relations and of the mysteries of the personal relationships we hold most dear.
- A Tale of Autumn (Crowded Fire, 2017)
Inspired by Shakespeare's Richard III and Macbeth, along with popular "quest-for-power" TV shows Game of Thrones and House of Cards, this new collaboration with Crowded Fire Playwright In Residence Christopher Chen is a modern day fable about the psychology of a one-time altruistic corporation whose seemingly benign tactics destroy a community over time.
- Passage (Wilma Theatre, 2018)
The play is described as a fantasia on E.M. Forster's A Passage to India
Chen, Kitty
- Rosa Loses Her Faces (Luna Stage Company, 1997)
Rosa Loo, a dressmaker from China, settles in Los Angeles. Her
35-year-old daughter, Amy, who works for a publishing company, lives in
New York in a ''disgusting slum pigsty,'' in her concerned mother's
words.
- I See My Bones (Ubu Rep, 1997)
About aging and hope.
- Eating Chicken Feet (Pan Asia Rep, 1997)
A comedy about divorce, abandonment, and the abasement of Chinese
women. The main character is in a coma, but it doesn't stop the antics
of her and her family....
- Blessings of Chairman Moo (Women's Project, 1998)
Subtitled as 'A Dark Comedy of Terror and Repression.' Lest the
audience worry that this mordant satire contains any reference to
actual historical figures, the author cautions, "The play takes place
in an imaginary Asian country. The time is any time. Any similarity to
places or events or people living or dead simply can't be helped."
- Rowing to America (Immigrant Theatre)
Short play.
Cheng, Andrea Apuy
- Criss Cross nee Lloyd's Keys (East West, 2008)
Sometimes you gotta be an asshole. On the last day Lloyd can take his
Board exams, everything that can go wrong will. Will he pass or will he
just pass gas?
Cheng, Charlie
- Quyne Paterson (East West, 2007)
On Dec 1st, 1941, a young man walked into a diner and met himself. If
you could go back in time and talk to yourself - What would you say?
What would you do?
Cheng, Kipp Erante
Kipp
Erante Cheng was born in Taipei, Taiwan and raised Chicago and Hawaii.
His plays have been seen at theater venues regionally and around New
York City, including East West Players, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The
Ontological Theater and Lincoln Center Theatre Lab. Mr. Cheng was
awarded the 1996-1997 Princess Grace Foundation Playwriting Fellowship;
the 1997-98 Van Lier Playwriting Fellowship; and the 1997-98 Jerome
Foundation/Theatre Communication Group Fellowship. As a journalist, Mr.
Cheng writes about technology for Entertainment Weekly, about theater
for American Theatre and is a contributing writer to OUT Magazine.
- Her American Circumstance (Columbia University, 1993)
Her American Circumstance depicts a British husband and a Asian-American wife coming together through their experiences as foreigners.
- The Bird (NWAAT, 1993)
- Trixie Love (Columbia University, 1994)
A fantasy-comedy about discovering adulthood.
- Toby Badger's Southpaw Swing (Accidental Theatre, 1997)
Follows the Taylor family on a cross-country pilgrimage as they attempt
to find the lives they lost on the open road. Along the way, they meet
a mysterious stranger who may be the missing piece in their search for
each other.
- Minky Starfish (New York Theatre Workshop, 1998)
- The China Crisis ()
- The Riddle of Bamboo (Lincoln Center Director's Lab)
- Einstein's Dreams (Holderness Theatre Company, 2003)
It supposes that Einstein's dreams informed his inspiration for his
theories on time, and takes a surreal look into his creative impulses.
In this story, time is measured in images, not hours or days--time is
variously a line, a circle, a hangman's noose. The actors move and
weave through the play, repeating bits of text, soliloquizing on the
nature of time. It's quite intriguing, and offers much food for
thought.
Cheng, Maria
- Wok Up American Dream (1998, Theater Mu)
Wok-Up tells the story of a Chinese family living a fairly typical,
upper-class lifestyle. Dad is caught in a constant struggle to keep up
with his demanding profession while juggling a family and a mistress,
Mom is left with a certain emptiness after devoting her life to a
husband who is never around, and the children -- now in their twenties
-- must reconcile unfulfilling and often emotionless childhoods and the
impact these issues are having on their adult lives.
Cheng, Wei Meng
- Guo Neen (ART168, 2007)
Faymen Chow must find his grandfather's soul before he loses another
loved one to a Neen on Chinese New Year. Will he solve this mystery on
time?
Chim, Jo
- From Scarberia to Nigeria (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 2000)
Chin, Cat
- Clutter (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 1999)
Chin, Curtis
- Son (EWP, 2002)
Photographs. Memories. Baseball. Three generations of men in an Asian
American family find themselves at a crossroads when a son must make a
decision about his aging father's situation.
- Body by God (EWP, 2003)
Lately, God has been testing the Lee family: the dad has a heart
attack, the overweight daughter gets a divorce, and the gay son wants
to adopt a baby. But Mrs. Lee is hoping for better days with the new
Garden of Eden diet, a hilarious diet straight out of the Bible. As
they join this program, will this dysfunctional family return to better
days or is paradise lost forever?
Chin, Frank
BIO:
Chin is a critically acclaimed playwright, novelist, essayist and
political activist living in Los Angeles. His works include the stage
plays The Year of the Dragon and The Chickencoop Chinaman, the novels Donald Duk and Gunga Din Highway, a volume of short stories entitled The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R.R. Co., and his most recent collection of essays, The Bulletproof Buddhist. In literary circles he is especially remembered as one of the co-editors of the influential anthologies Aiiieeee! and The Big Aiiieeee! which helped establish the study of Asian American Literature.
- Year of the Dragon (American Place Theatre, 1974)
Chin's play barges through the comfortable stereotypes of the Asian
American. When first produced in 1974, the play created an enormous
stir and has had a profound impact on a generation of young Asian
American writers. "The language is frequently strong, and the
bitterness, even when wrapped in some very funny comedy, is
unrelenting." --New York Times.
- Chickencoop Chinaman (American Place Theatre, 1972)
Documentary filmmaker Tam Lum comes to Pittsburgh to rekindle an old
friendship with Kenji, a fellow boxing fan, while researching the life
of a black boxer and former light heavyweight champion they both
admired as boys in another city, another time.
- Gee, Pop
- Oofty Goofty (NWAAT, 1983)
Chin, Grace
- The Quickie (TF Productions, 2008)
Can you really know someone in five minutes? And is speed dating a
shortcut to happiness, or a slippery slope to heartache? TF Productions
presents The Quickie,
a Vancouver-based, contemporary romantic comedy that rips a strip out
of speed dating, makingwhoopee, and cultural collision. In all the
wrong places.
- The C-Word (TF Productions, 2009)
If cheating is colour blind, so is commitment, increasingly a “C-word”
to both sexes. How do you deal with intercultural cheating, commitment,
and consequences? The C-Word, a contemporary, set-in-Vancouver dramedy
directed by Mel Tuck, invites an intimate in-and-out of the bedroom
view of four friends’ lives when infidelity and unforeseen consequences
force them to choose to whom, and to what, they must commit.
Chin, Grace and Cho, Charlie
- Twisting Fortunes (TF Productions, 2007)
Reminiscent of the Richard Linklater film Before Sunrise,
Ray Chow and Jessy Leung exchange coffee, tea and repartee against a
video and photo montage of familiar Vancouver venues in TF's intimate
look at personal, sexual and racial politics on the multicultural Left
Coast. A radio reporter and simultaneous non-dater, Ray is tired of the
game. An aspiring actor and serial monogamist, Jessy still hasn't found
what she's looking for. They both want out - or do they want in?
Chin, Jarrett
BIO: His play, Classroom Drama was developed and showcased during this past AATC NewWorks inaugural season. His upcoming film, Babble On,
will be released shortly in the film festival circuit. He is currently
studying the Trigger and Stretch Approach at Seydways Acting Studio,
and has been a student at the Yau Kung Moon Martial Arts Institute for
the past 15 years. His acting credits include: Mysterious Acts Improv,
a Cash One commercial, and the indy film, Dope In Motion. He will be featured in the Acme Players Ensemble's upcoming production of Ghost in the Machine.
- Classroom Drama (AATC, 2004)
Some of the best drama happens in the classroom. What happens when a
group of diverse and opinionated people collide in an Asian American
studies course? Based on a true story.
- Study Buddy (AATC, 2004)
Chin, Justin & Hguyen, Hung
- Cockfight (New Conservatory Theatre, 1998)
Ching, Carla
An LA native, Carla stumbled upon pan-Asian performance collective Peeling at the Asian American Writers Workshop and wrote and performed with them for three years, which she still considers her first theater training. She's an alumna of The Women's Project Lab 2008-2010, the 2011/12 Lark Play Development Center Meeting of the Minds, the 2013/14 CTG Writers' Workshop and the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. 2008 Urban Artists Initiative fellow, 2009/2010 Teachers and Writers Collaborative fellow and 2010/11 Lark Playwrights Workshop fellow. She's been in residence at Voice and Vision's Envision retreat with Women's Project, the Rockefeller Foundation and NY Stage and Film with the Lark. TBA is published in Out of Time and Place. BA, Vassar College. MFA, New School for Drama. Former Artistic Director of Asian American Theater Company, 2g. Proud member of New Dramatists and The Kilroys. Carla wrote on Season Two of USA's Graceland.
- TBA (Ma-Yi, 2006)
When Silas Park's girlfriend leaves him, he becomes a shut-in, pumping
out blistering autobiographical stories in his little Brooklyn
apartment. Just as Silas finds himself unexpectedly on the verge of
literary stardom as the next Asian American wunderkind, his adopted
brother Finn shows up on his doorstep, accusing Silas of stealing his
life. A play in two acts, in the crevice between fact and fiction.
- Dissipating Heat (Thumping Claw, 2008)
A one-act about three store clerks in various states of crisis.
- The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness by Carla Ching
When Hettie dies, Milo doesn't know how to keep the family together
anymore. Greta's been sent to the Sugar House to learn how to stop
getting arrested and Doc is drowning his sorrows in his new girlfriend,
Opal. Inspired by Hansel and Greta, the Sugar House is a play about
trying to go home when nobody there wants you anymore.
\
- Fast Company (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
Mable Kwan was a famous grifter who taught her sons the long con, and
how to be an expert roper and fixer. Tired of the life, Francis retired
and became a magician. H became a sports writer. Blue, the youngest and
the only girl, always kept out of the family trade, now studies game
theory and may become the best con artist of the family. The estranged
trio is called home to Mable’s deathbed. With a small fortune at stake,
will they be able to break old habits? Or who will con who in the end?
- The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up (Artists At Play, 2015)
- Nomad Hotel (City Theatre, 2018)
The not-so-sunny side of California is nothing new to Alix: she's bouncing between motel rooms taking care of her twin brothers for her mostly MIA mother. Her classmate Mason is a budding songwriter trying to keep off the radar of his missing father's Hong Kong mafia connections. Together, the savvy teens must learn to scrape by without giving up their dreams.
Chinn, Dustin
- The Rise and Fall of the United States of Asian America (2g Productions, 2008)
- Asian Women in Space (Ma-Yi, 2011)
It's the 24th century and the United Earth Space Federation is looking
for a few good Asian ladies. Will Nausicaa Lee and her fellow wayfarers
be enough to stop humanity's greatest and most perverted threat?
- Herschel: Portrait Of A Killer (Ma-Yi, 2016)
Seattle, 1983. Something is haunting the waters of the Ballard Locks, and it's hungry for endangered steelhead trout. Can the intrepid scientists of the Department of Fish and Wildlife stop this remorseless predator?
- Colonialism is Terrible, But Pho is Delicious (Ma-Yi, 2017)
Hanoi, 1890 / Ho Chi Minh City, 1999 / Gentrifying Brooklyn, present day. A triptych about the ownership and authorship of food following the journey of Vietnamese noodle soup.
Cho, Aileen
- The Virginity Monologues (FUSE Festival, 2003)
In The Virginity Monologues
(written and performed by Aileen Cho), twenty-something Aileen lives in
New York City, looking for love in all the wrong places, such as
Adultfriendfinder.com, a sex club with a yummy buffet table, and a
menage a trois on Long Island with the President of the National
Bartending School and his luscious girlfriend.
Cho, Charlie and Chin, Grace
- Twisting Fortunes (TF Productions, 2007)
Reminiscent of the Richard Linklater film Before Sunrise,
Ray Chow and Jessy Leung exchange coffee, tea and repartee against a
video and photo montage of familiar Vancouver venues in TF's intimate
look at personal, sexual and racial politics on the multicultural Left
Coast. A radio reporter and simultaneous non-dater, Ray is tired of the
game. An aspiring actor and serial monogamist, Jessy still hasn't found
what she's looking for. They both want out - or do they want in?
Cho, Julia
BIO:
She has developed her plays at New York Theatre Workshop, The Sundance
Theatre Lab, The Mark Taper Forum, and South Coast Repertory. She has
been a playwriting fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a recipient of
a New York Foundation for The Arts grant, and a playwright-in-residence
at The Juilliard School. Her play 99 Histories was given a workshop
production as part of The Cherry Lane Alternative’s Mentor Series, and
was also a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
- How to Be a Good Son ()
For most of his life, Steven and his father have been distant, if not
outright antagonistic. But now that Steven is thirty and his father is
ill, will the two men finally be able to put their differences behind
them? How To Be A Good Son explores the difficult terrain of familial
love and the near impossibility of saying what we feel to the ones we
love -- even, or especially, when we know that time is running out.
- 99 Histories (Pacific Playwrights Festival, South Coast Repertory, 2002)
The protagonist of 99 Histories is Eunice Kim, a young woman whose
promise as a cello-playing prodigy has been destroyed by the onset of
mental illness. Medication allows her to function more or less
normally, but she has landed back on her mother's doorstep in a Los
Angeles suburb. She is pregnant and alone, haunted by memories of her
father's murder during a robbery of the family's mom-and-pop
convenience store.
- B.F.E. (Seattle Repertory Theatre, 2003)
Meet Penny: fourteen and bored. It is, as she would put it, "A very
dangerous time." Out in B.F.E. anything can happen. Girls can
disappear. A security guard can find love in a department store. A
beautiful woman can give her not-so-beautiful daughter the gift of
plastic surgery. Welcome to the wacky world of B.F.E.
- The Architecture of Loss (NY Theatre Workshop, 2004)
This new play traces the familial repercussions of the disappearance of
a young boy named David. The family's mixed American and Korean
heritage affects their past, present and future.
- The Winchester House (Boston Court, 2006)
We’ve all got one story to tell, the story that helps explain who we
are and how we got there. When she’s given a chance to confront her
past, Via has a choice: will she go on telling the same old story or
have the courage to tell a new one? Rising star Julia Cho lays bare the
strategies we use to hide from ourselves as she unravels the unreliable
fabric of memory.
- Durango (The Public, 2006)
To the outside world, the Lee boys look perfect: Isaac is on track to be a doctor, and his younger brother, Jimmy, is a champion swimmer. But when their widowed father, Boo-Seng, decides to take them on a road trip to Durango, Colorado, the carefully constructed facades of all three begin to crack. As they near their destination, tempers flare, old wounds reopen and secrets are re-vealed. DURANGO is the story of a man who sacrificed everything-a home, a country-for the American Dream, and whose sons must now grapple with the consequences of that choice.
- The Piano Teacher (South Coast Repertory Theatre, 2007)
This play is about a retired piano teacher called Mrs. K, who is
haunted by something that happened long ago. Slowly, the children
stopped coming for their lessons. Sometimes, she blames that one
disastrous recital, other times, their parents. Finally, Mrs. K is
compelled to contact her former students. Their mysterious memories are
not at all what she expected.
- Round and Round (2g, 2008)
George is a linguist. He speaks many, many languages. But when his
marriage starts to unravel, he suddenly finds himself utterly at a loss
for the right words.
- Post It (Thumping Claw, 2008)
A one act about a depressed young woman who takes a phone call from her
meddling father, who bolsters his daughter's sagging self-confidence by
relating a sweet memory of her childhood -- a tiny incident that draws
his daughter back from the brink of despair .
- The Language Archive (South Coast Repertory Theatre, 2009)
George is a linguist who knows many, many languages; but when his
marriage starts to unravel, he suddenly finds himself utterly at a loss
for the right words.
- Aubergine (Berkeley Rep, 2016)
An estranged son, a father who's ill, a visiting uncle carrying their memories in tow, a woman without an appetite, and a refugee from a forgotten country—they all prove potent ingredients in this bittersweet and moving meditation on family, forgiveness, and the things that nourish us. When language fails, when the past fades, the perfect meal transcends time and culture and says more than words ever can.
- Office Hour (South Coast Rep, 2016)
Office Hour is set on a university campus, where one student sits in the back of the classroom, wearing dark glasses, a baseball cap pulled down low; he never speaks. His creative writing assignments are violent, twisted—and artless. He scares the other students. He scares the teachers. The kid is trouble. Or, is he just mixed up, using his writing to vent, provoke, maybe even protect himself? Gina is the only teacher willing to get close. But at what risk?
Choi, In-Surp
- Kim’s Convenience (fu-Gen, 2008)
The humorous story of a family in Toronto’s Koreatown and the last day of their convenience store.
Choi, Preston
- This is Not a True Story (CAATA, 2018)
The heroine of Madame Butterflycompletes her tragic suicide, only to wake up trapped in a never-ending loop of her story. Then Miss Saigonis born thrusting another heroine into the deadly cycle, until a mysterious office woman throws the world out of balance. This Is Not a True Storyunravels the history of Orientalist art, theatre, and the danger of fiction becoming reality.
- Small Journeys Before The Unbreakable Dawnsmall Journeys Before The Unbreakable Dawn (Late Night Dim Sum, 2019)
An Altman-esque night in Chicago where likely and unlikley pairs of people (including the Rabbit in the Moon) swirl into and out of a blustery, wintry night to find their story.
Chomet, Sun Mee
- Asiamnesia (Mu Performing Arts, 2007)
Asiamnesia is an exploration of what it means to be an Asian American
woman. This piece is evidence of what 6 creative, restless Asian
American women do in a room if given time, history books, pens, and
paper.
Chong, Candace
- Wild Boar (Silk Road Rising, 2017)
The play explores what happens when a controversial professor goes missing and his students seek to publicize the truth. Translation team includes David Henry Hwang
Chong, Ping
BIO: Ping Chong is a theater director, choreographer, video and
installation artist. He was born in Toronto, Canada and raised in New
York City's Chinatown. He is the recipient of an Obie Award, six NEA
Fellowships, a Playwrights USA Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a
1992 New York Theatre and Dance "Bessie" Award for Sustained
Achievement. His work has been presented at major museums, festivals
and theater through the Americas, Europe and Asia, and have included
The Games (with Meredith Monk), Angels of Swedenborg, Elephant
Memories, Nosferatu, and After Sorrow. In 1990, Chong began to create a
series of works exploring East-West relations past, present, and
future, with Deshima (Japan), Chinoiserie China), After Sorrow (Viet
Nam); his series of community residency-based documentary theater
explorations of immigrants, Undesireable Elements, have been created
and performed in Rotterdam, New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Ohio,
Washington, and Japan.
- Deshima (Mickery Workshop, 1990)
- Chinoiserie (Brooklyn Academy of Music, 1995)
- After Sorrow (La Mama, 1997) with Muna Tseng and Josef Fung
- SlutForArt (Playhouse 91, 1999) with Muna Tseng
- Pojagi (La Mama, 2000)
- Undesirable Elements (NY City's Artist' Space, 1992)
- Edda: Viking Tales of Lust, Revenge and Family (University Musical Society, 2000)
- Reason (Harvard, 2002)
- Kwaidan (Center for Puppetry Arts, 1998)
- Obon: Tales of Rain and Moonlight (Seattle Repertory Theatre, 2002)
Choudhury, Naveen
- Saner Than Her (Ma-Yi, 2014)
When a peculiar crime occurs in their home, three women, all facing
personal crises, question who among them has truly lost it. A comedic
crime mystery about three nervous breakdowns and a fish named Boyfriend.
- Girl Games
A team of female videogame developers create a violent new game geared toward young girls, implicating themselves in a crime spree.
Chow, Cara
- Sharon, John & Mrs. Wong (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 1999)
- Helping Henry Woo (JANM, 1999)
For Eddie, music isn't the food of love...Food...is the food of love.
For Lily, words...are the food of love. For Henry...well, Henry is
starving...
Chu, Andrew
Andrew
Chu is a graduate of Dartmouth College where he founded the
university's only active Asian American Theater Company, Far Off
Broadway Productions. In 2001, Andrew produced and directed a full
production of Mike Golamco's "Achievers". In addition, he was the
winner of both the 2001 Eleanor Frost One-Act Playwriting Contest and
2001 Loring Dodd Full-Length Playwriting Contest. He currently resides
in Manhattan where he is an active member of the Times Square
Playwrights, a non-profit theater organization that runs a weekly
playwriting workshop. Andrew recently had a reading of selected scenes
from his latest full-length play, "To His Sen$es".
- To His $enses (EWP, 2003)
In the rough-and-tumble world of investment banking, anything goes.
Confronted with the woman, who is at once his rival, his lover, and his
boss, Willy Lee must finally ask himself, "Where does the American
Dream end... and mine begin?"
Chua, Damon
Damon Chua is one of the most produced playwrights in his native
Singapore. This production marks not only the world premiere of his
play Film Chinois, but the first production of his work in the United States. His plays include the award-winning Ash
and Shadowless, Best Foot Forward, History of the Jade Chopsticks, The
Buried, Trine, Neon Souls Cold Lights, UFO Lands in Ang Mo Kio, and Imagine Sailendra.
He was the winner of the 1998 Asian-American Playwriting Competition
organized by ACT of Harvard University, and holds a Fulbright
nomination in dramatic arts. In addition, Damon produced the
full-length motion picture Perth, which has played at many film
festivals around the world including Cannes, Rotterdam, Locarno, Lyons,
Sao Paulo, Bangkok and Singapore, and was recently released by Tartan
Films in this country.
- Film Chinois (Grove Theatre Center, 2007)
The year, 1947. The city, Beijing. Location, a quiet restaurant in the
Diplomatic District. A beautiful girl sits smoking….” Thus begins Film
Chinois, a mystery set in a city just ravaged by World War II and
awaiting imminent invasion by the communists. The beautiful girl is
Chinadoll, an enigmatic woman with an unknown past and an even more
uncertain future. Is she a communist? A nationalist? Or just an
opportunist? Only time -- and a fate filled encounter with an
idealistic young American operative -- will tell.
- A Book by Its Cover
- Incident at Hidden Temple (Pan Asian, 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 Emperor's Nightingale (Pan Asian, 2018)
This is an adaption of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Nightingale" set in 18th Century China and brings to light the youthful exploits of the young Emperor Qianlong. He befriends a magical bird who helps him learn what he must do to be King
Chum, Vichet
Vichet Chum is a writer, actor, director and theater maker, originally from Dallas, Texas and now living in New York City. Regionally, he's worked at Trinity Repertory Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, the Huntington Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre and New Harmony Theatre. In NYC, he's worked at the Cherry Lane Theater, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, the Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row, Project Y Theatre, Woodshed Collective, Slant Theatre Project and the Incubator Arts Project. His plays have been workshopped at 2g Second Generation Productions, Weston Playhouse, Florida State University, Cleveland Public Theatre, All For One Theater and Amios. Most recently, his play KNYUM had its world premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in January 2018, and this summer, he will attend the New Harmony Project Writer's Conference as a writer in residence. He's a proud graduate of the University of Evansville (BFA) and Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company (MFA). vichetchum.com
- KNYUM (All for One Theatre Festival, 2013)
To supplement his meager artistic life, Guy works graveyard shifts at
the Hotel East Houston in New York City. Between the hours of 11pm and
7am, the hotel lobby transforms into a theater for Guy’s dreams and
nightmares. In this space, he encounters his parents, Ma and Ba and
their stories of sacrifice as survivors of the genocide in Cambodia.
Meanwhile, he attempts to learn Khmer to document his parents’ stories
and more immediately, prepare for his very first trip to Cambodia. The
hours drudge on as Guy tries to find relative answers to the questions
that plague him the most: Where are you from? Where are you going? With
the great pressure of his parent’s histories weighing on his guilt, Guy
searches for a bit of pardon to, at the very least, finish his shift.
- Bald Sisters (2g Productions, 2018)
Two bald sisters duke it out to put their mother to rest. The elder sister, Him lives in Texas with her husband, Nate and her recently deceased mother, Ma. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Sophea descends on the home in a flurry after discovering the news about their mother. As they argue about what the next step will be to say goodbye, tightly guarded secrets come to light from their history - ranging as far back as their time in the Cambodian genocide to their current, less-than idyllic lives.
Chung, Mia
is a member of New Dramatists and the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. She has
received awards and fellowships from Southern Rep,RISCA, TCG, and
others; and her work has been developed by the Bay Area Playwrights
Festival, Civilians¹ R&D Group, Doorway Arts Ensemble, Icicle Creek
Theatre Festival, Inkwell, Kennedy Center, Magic Theatre, Mu Performing
Arts, Page Salon, Playwrights Realm, and Stella Adler Studio.
- Catch as Catch Can (2018, Page 73 Productions)
The Phelans and the Lavecchias grew up together in working class New England, weathering good times and bad. But Tim Phelan's homecoming this winter sets off a spiraling crisis that strains their hold on each other—and themselves. In Mia Chung's Catch as Catch Can, six characters are brought to life by three actors playing across gender and generation, capturing father/daughter and mother/son in a family drama that doubles as a theatrical tour de force.
- You For Me For You (2012)
In the closed world of North Korea, Yuna's sister Minjee is desperately
sick. To save her, Yuna pays a Smuggler to help them flee North
Korea—but Minjee is too sick to make it across the border. Instructed
by the Smuggler, Yuna races across time and space to New York,
committed to returning for Minjee. Yet the free world is seductive and
confounding: life suddenly offers Yuna a distracting bounty of choice,
and time moves much faster than in North Korea.
- Exquisite Corpse
Miju moves from Korea to New Jersey with her GI husband, Tony, and
their son. The effort to build a life and make friends—as well as learn
English—has literally split Miju into pieces. She is even alienated
from her own tongue. This surreal "chorus" of Mijus struggle to express
themselves despite misinterpretation and cultural appropriation.
- Page Not Found (The Civilians' R&D Group reading series, 2011)
Three of "the best and the brightest" prepare to take their places in life.
- The Orphan of Zhao (Brandeis Theatre Company, 2008)
(an adaptation of the classic Chinese drama)
The streets of Jin are awash in the blood of the noble Zhao Clan. The
vicious slaughter ignites a succession of individual acts of virtue and
sacrifice—as the hope for retribution and a return to a humane social
order is pinned to the survival of a baby boy. The eternal swing of the
pendulum of justice—powered by the momentum of personal
courage—resounds in this new adaptation of a stirring and resonant
Chinese classic.
- We Spend Our Lives (Bay Area Playwrights Festival, 2004)
Mrs. Song asks her sister, Mrs. Kim, for money.
Chung, Philip
Bio:
Philip W. Chung is one of the founders and current Co-Artistic Director
of Lodestone Theatre. As a writer, his credits encompass theater, film
and television including the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
where he got his start. Upcoming projects include directing a
documentary about Charlie Chaplin’s Japanese American valet--Toraichi
Kono, the screenplay adaptation of Gail Tsukiyama's novel The Samurai's Garden to be directed by Justin Zackham (The Bucket List), the screenplay adaptation of Nicole Mones’ novel The Last Chinese Chef and other film and theater projects.
- Yellow Face (Los Angeles Theater Center, 1997)
A serial killer is targeting Asian Americans and slicing off their
faces. A Korean American forensic artist is hired to reconstruct the
faces of the victims. When the two make contact over the course of the
case, they will find they have more in common than meets the eye.
- Home is Where the Han Is (Seoul/Los Angeles, 1998)
A Korean immigrant, Mr Yim, finds himself on trial, representing the
entire Korean American community, on charges of treason "against
American history and culture." With the help of a half-Korean attorney,
Mr. Yim must prove that Korean Americans have provided valuable
contributions to American life or face the possibility of spending an
eternity in prison.
- Laughter, Joy & Loneliness & Sex & Sex & Sex & Sex (Lodestone, 2000)
A Korean American philosophy grad student finds himself in the middle
of a tangled triangle: an illicit romance with a teenaged student...a
secret love for his best friend...and no idea what to do! Enter the
original Gangsta of Love, CUPID, and the Goddess of the Soul, PSYCHE,
who match powers and styles in their attempts to help him find his one
true soulmate -- before time runs out.
- Dead of Night (Lodestone, 2000)
A grown woman, haunted by dreams of an evil clown, explores the
gruesome layers of a horrifying family secret with the help of her
psychiatrist.
- The Adventures of BYO Boy (Lodestone, 2001)
The all-Asian American boy band, BYO Boy, must team up with teen
singing sensation Girl E and sifu Keanu Reeves to stop Fu Manchu’s
diabolic plot to turn the entire world into “Oriental” stereotypes
modeled after himself.
- Aziatik Nation (Lodestone/Highways Performance Space, 2004)
A look at the 2004 presidential elections, 9/11, the War in Iraq,
same-sex marriage and other issues of the day from an Asian American
perspective.
- The Golden Hour (Lodestone, 2006)
Laura Park had the seemingly perfect life--a great job at L.A.'s top
law firm, a loving and successful boyfriend and a bright future full of
possibilities. But there was a hole in her life and she didn't know
why. Until one day when a near-death experience and a stranger's prayer
altered the course of her life.
- One Nation, Under God (Lodestone, 2006)
Paul Kim has rejected religion for science. But when an angel appears
to him and reveals that he has been chosen by God to commit a brutal
act of violence that will bring about the world's salvation, Paul must
choose between faith and reason.
- My Man Kono (Ford Amphitheatre, 2007/L.A. History Project, 2008)
The true story of Toraichi Kono, who worked as movie star Charlie
Chaplin’s personal valet for 17 years before being arrested as a
Japanese enemy spy on the eve of World War II.
- Grace Kim and the Spiders From Mars (Lodestone, 2009)
In college, Grace Kim had a nervous breakdown. Ten years later, she
lives with her parents still unable to face the outside world. But when
her sister returns to visit for the holidays with her unorthodox
fiancee, Grace's life undergoes a profound change. A play about falling
in love with your sister's future husband, beginnings and endings, and
what to do if you suspect you were born on the wrong planet. World
premiere scheduled for fall 2009.
Cipriaso, Celena
- Still Breathing (Peeling, 2003)
An innocent teenager begins to uncover the shadier layers of the mysterious youth who captivates yet evades her.
- Salesgirl (Desipina, 2004)
In Salesgirl, two strangers, at different points in their romantic relationship, examine the nature of love.
Cizmar, Paula
- Street Stories (East West/JANM, 1999)
Clemente, Pia
The first Filipino to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award.
- earthquake weather (EWP, 2000)
Coo, Clarence
- Proof Through the Night (Young Playwrights Conference, 1995)
- Bahala Na (Mu Performing Arts, 1996)
- Removing the Glove (1996)
Young Will has admitted that he is left-handed. How can he tell this to
his family? His friends? Afraid of repercussions, he's hid this sordid
fact about himself for years. He eats with his right hand. His parents
and his girlfriend don't know. He can't go on lying like this, but how
can he come out of the glove compartment? Although one person in ten is
left-handed, society hasn't caught up with the facts. The school's star
quarterback admitted to being ambidextrous and was kicked off the team.
Some still consider it a mental disease. There are rumors that the
President of the United States is himself a leftie, and this is why he
avoided the draft. Will our hero find the strength to reveal his true
nature and “Remove the Glove?
- Peace of Mind (2004)
- Braids (Mu Performing Arts, 2006)
From a temple in India to a salon in America, the journey of a single
strand of hair will reveal to four women from four different countries
the true value of beauty.
- Bahala Na (Let It Go) (Mu Performing Arts, 2007)
Spanning decades from the 1920’s in China to the 1990’s in America, BAHALA NA
is about a dying Chinese woman who conjures up memories of her life in
China and the Philippines, in hopes of transforming her gay grandson.
Her memories, steeped in conflicts about race, ethnicity, gender,
sexuality and generational differences, open doors to the past, grip
her heart, and lead her to an unexpected ending.
- People Sitting In Darkness (Ma-Yi, 2015)
In this comic adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" set in the early 20th-century Philippines, a small town prepares to stage a performance for their American occupiers. Their play, based on an American novel about a young boy and an escaped slave rafting down the Mississippi, will either earn the townspeople their freedom -- or more trouble from the US military.
- God of Wine (New Dramatist, 2018)
Set in 1990s and 2010s New York City, "The God of Wine" follows two narrative threads, set 16 years apart, within the same Brooklyn apartment. The play is inspired by the life and murder of British playwright Joe Orton.
Cooper, Will
- Jade Heart (2008, Chicago Dramatists)
Abandoned as an infant on a pile of vegetables in a Chinese
marketplace, a fragment of a jade heart hanging around her neck—the
only clue she has to discovering her origins—Jade grows up in America
in the home of her adoptive mother Brenda. Through dreams,
remembrances, and present action, she seeks to find out why she was
denied the life she was born to, and how she can become fully herself,
confident in the life she was given. Jade Heart is a moving story of
love and conflict between a mother and daughter, and of the daughter's
struggle to define herself a world that is familiar and yet incapable
of giving her everything she needs.
Cowhig, Frances Ya-Chu
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's play Lidless
received the Yale Drama Series Award, the Scotsman Fringe First Award,
the Keene Prize for Literature and the David Calicchio Emerging
American Playwright Prize. In 2011 she was awarded the Wasserstein
Prize. Her plays have been produced by Trafalgar Studios 2 in the West
End, Page 73 Productions in New York, InterAct Theatre Company in
Philadelphia and the Contemporary American Theater Festival in West
Virginia. Her work has been developed at the Hedgebrook Women
Playwrights Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, PlayPenn, the Alley
Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Ojai Playwrights Conference, the
Playwrights Foundation and Yale Repertory Theatre. Cowhig received an
MFA from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at The University of
Texas at Austin, a BA in sociology from Brown University and a
certificate in ensemble created physical theater from the Dell'Arte
International School of Physical Theatre. Cowhig was born in
Philadelphia, was and raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and
Beijing.
- The World of Extreme Happiness (Goodman Theatre, 2012)
When Sunny is born in rural China, her parents leave her in a slop
bucket to die because she's a girl. She survives, and at 14 leaves for
the city, where she works a low-paying factory job and attends
self-help classes to improve her chances at securing a coveted office
position. When Sunny's attempts to pull herself out of poverty lead to
dire consequences for a fellow worker, she is forced to question the
system she's spent her life trying to master—and stand up against the
powers that be. Savage, tragic and desperately funny, The World of
Extreme Happiness is a stirring examination of a country in the midst
of rapid change, and individuals struggling to shape their own
destinies.
- 410 [GONE] (Crowded Fire Theatre)
In 410[GONE] Cowhig
creates a buoyant underworld landscape run by punk operatic Chinese
gods and goddesses soaring with energy, humor, tricks, and avatars.
- Lidless
CQI
- The Little Adolfs (EWP, 2005)
Gang leader Mitchel Moreau rules Salvation High with an iron hand,
until a series of mysterious stories are published, villifying him in
excrutiating, damning detail. His violent hunt for the blackmailer
leads to a show-down that will change the school forever.
Damiano, Joey
- Fortune Wheel (East West, 2010)
John, a former U.S. Marine, has recently come home after serving in
Iraq. He wants what any self-respecting American desires: a good job, a
nice house, and an existence free of family drama. However, when John's
never-do-well mother Betsy moves in, traumas old and new threaten to
derail their lives. The story of a son and mom who combat alcoholism,
post-traumatic stress, an addiction to America's longest running
syndicated game show, and worst of all, each other.
Dang, Tim and Iwataki, Joel
- Beijing Spring: A Musical Odyssey (East West, 1999)
Beijing, 1989. The Pro-Democracy movement escalates into a
demonstration beyond anyone's imagination, particularly for those who
were right in the heart of it. The world watched and listened as the
human spirit rose to fight for something all of us take for granted:
"freedom."
Dattani, Mahesh
- On a Muggy Night in Mumbai (AATC, 2001)
On a Muggy Night in Mumbai
pertains to the gay community as well as Indian society as a whole
because it touches deeply-embedded societal expectations and prejudices
that keep individuals from leading fully authentic lives. It presents
the themes of love and betrayal through a dramatic range of characters
who are gay, bisexual and straight.
De Castro, Gilanie E.
- Biotica (EP, 2006)
Pasadena, CA, 1985. Genius begets genius at BIOTICA Industries ˆ the
world's first sperm bank where the donors are geniuses and celebrities.
As a group of scientists struggle to save BIOTICA from bankruptcy, they
turn to Darwin Sugarbee ˆ BIOTICA's first test tube baby ˆ as their
hope for survival.
de Castro, Thelma Virata
- Ours is Just Dirt (Fritz Theatre, 1995)
- Ushabti (Fritz Theatre, 1999)
- The Goddess of Flowers (SDAART, 2002)
- Botocan (SDAART, 2005)
A play based on the playwright's mother’s memoirs about growing up
during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines in World War
II. In this fictional account, a young woman must choose between
serving her family or seeking vengeance for a hidden crime.
- Meet the Family (Fritz Theatre, 2006)
Meet the Family
tells the story of a young Filipino American woman who brings home her
seemingly perfect match to meet her affluent parents, who have buried
their Filipino heritage in an attempt to capture the American
dream. Surprises are in store as fine food and spirits are served
amidst accusations of crime and conspiracy.
de la Cruz, Alison
Alison
De La Cruz is a poet, playwright, performance artist, event producer
and ‘ate’ (older sister). De La Cruz has performed her successful
one-woman show "Sungka" to sold-out houses throughout the West Coast,
including the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles and Bindlestiff
Studio in San Francisco. An experienced facilitator and presenter, De
La Cruz is frequently invited to perform and speak at colleges and
universities including UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC
Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Northridge,
Loyola Marymount University, Pitzer College, Scripps College, Claremont
Graduate School, the University of Puget Sound and Pomona College.
- Sungka (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 1999)
Alison De La Cruz's one-woman show, Sungka, blends spoken word,
storytelling and song. Using the Filipino shell game, Sungka, she
creates a world inhabited by lyrical and complex characters: An
obsessive high school drill team captain, a poetic softball player, a
wisecracking talent agent and a Spam-eating lounge singer.
- Naturally Graceful (Mark Taper, 2004)
Set in Southern California, Naturally Graceful
is a theatrical romp through girlhood crushes, dolphin dreams and
floating Aunties. In this poetic, funny, moving and powerful piece,
Filipina American performer Alison De La Cruz explores when moments
become memories etched in the body as stretch marks.
- Gems (East West, 2006)
What would it take to make you sing again, if you gave up on your
dream? How would you keep going if they asked you to stop being who you
are? GEMS. Their answers became the musical journey of 4 Filipinas and
a dream.
- Postal Americana (East West, 2010)
For the last five years Joanne has been sleep walking through her life.
She daydreams flashbacks of her childhood hero, Joseph the Mail Man,
and wakes in 2004, to the nightmare of losing her house and marriage.
Forced to move back in with her Dad and reconcile the losses of her
life, she seeks advice from the angel of Joseph Ileto. Is it
coincidence, signs from the universe, or simply 5 years of unopened
bills?
de Lara, Marita
- Happy Nail Tyme Nail (or You Pick Color) (EWP, 2006)
Explore the secret world of a family run, Van Nuys nail salon as owner
Gigi Van Tran battles market forces and longtime rival, Mimi Nguyen of
Dragon Nails.
Deen, Mashuq
- Barely Breathing (Desipina, 2006).
A one-act. Take two South Asian women, a dollop of sexual tension, set
it in suburban Connecticut, and send them on a first date. What they
want is true love...but what will they find?
- The Shaking Earth (Ma-Yi, 2015)
Inspired by the true events of 1984, when three days of Sikh massacres followed the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the play it set in a Hindu household where a closeted husband and his estranged wife both secretly offer refuge to Sikh neighbors, while their brother helps coordinate the violence going on outside. In present day, a survivor and her daughter living in the West struggle to find a way forward.
Del Rio, Bobby
BIO: As a theatre producer, he has produced Christian Values (the #3-selling hit of the 2001 Toronto Fringe), When Children Fall (hit of the 2000 SummerWorks festival) and the April 2003 hit comedy show Half-Chinx Taking Over the World
at the Tim Sims Playhouse (87% sold out houses during one of Toronto’s
worst snowstorms of the year). He co-produced the SummerWorks ’98 hit
play Half Life – as well as the Rochester, NY incarnation/remount. Other producing credits include: Name It Yourself! (SummerWorks ’99) and Ecstasy
(Blueprints Festival at Harbourfront). In September 2000, he received
the Fallen Angels Award for prolific producing of independent theatre.
- Name It Yourself! (Toronto Summerworks, 1999)
- Esctasy (Blueprints Festival at Harbourfront)
- When Children Fall (2g, 2002)
a poignant tale of broken hopes and betrayal
- Half Chinx Taking Over the World (2g, 2002)
A hilarious and witty perspective on the half-Asian celebrity phenomena infiltrating the entertainment industry
- Christian Values (2g, 2002)
an insightful look into the price of loyalty and integrity
- Half-Chinx Retaking Over the World: The Quest for Kristin Kreuk's Bootie ()
- Los Angeles ()
Dejoras, Sara
- Heartbeat of the Drum (Theater Mu, 2000)
A modern fable in which a fisherman is saved by the love of a young woman in his village.
DeMoville, Kemuel
- Cane Fields Burning (Kumu Kahua, 2011)
Ghosts, demons, and dark memories haunt Hawai‘i’s plantation fields in
this tale of a curse passed down through the generations. An old man
has died; as his son and grandson sort through his belongings, the
photograph of a beautiful woman exposes the violent secret buried in
the old man’s past. Winner of the 2010 Kumu Kahua/UH M?noa Playwriting
Contest, Cane Fields Burning uses the elegant power of Japanese Noh theatre to tell the story of a family struggling to escape its tortured history.
Der, Victoria Chong
- Like Me (Ferocious Lotus, 2016)
A bold new work on sex trafficking in Oakland and its youngest victims, told through the stories of four girls, their friendships, rivalries, and struggle for freedom.
Desai, Snehal
- Sita/Sati (Despina, 2009)
A cross between Jean Genet's The Blacks and Suzann Lori-Parks Death of
the Last Black Man, Sita/Sati tells the story of newly widowed Sita
Desi, an immigrant from India. Sita finds herself struggling between a
want to assimilate and integrate herself into the American landscape
and trying to hold onto as much of her Indian cultural heritage as
possible in a new land.
She joins with the company of actors in the play to challenge and
skewer the stereotypical views of Southasians. However, along the way
the ritual of Sati which at first is being presented as a lark, takes a
dark turn as the crowd gets caught up in the frenzy of ritual and
tradition and start calling on Sita to enter the fire and become an
actual Sati.
Dhingra, Dolly
- Unsuitable Girls (Lark Theatre, 2002)
In this comedy set in the East End of London, Chumpa Chamelli - a
secretary for Concrete Weekly - searches for a better man in a world of
not so arranged marriages.
- The Main Course ()
- Nowhere Fast ()
- One Night ()
- Sooked ()
- The Fortune Club (2005 Tricycle, London)
Based on a unspecified true crime. The play is set around a group of
friends who re-unite on New Year's Eve and lament on their struggling
existence. When it transpires that one of them has access to the credit
cards of the rich and famous, they hatch a plan to escape the rat race
forever.
Dias, Gary
- Chang (Kumu Kahua, 2007)
Chang
intertwines two stories; a 1937 love story that results in a murder,
and a present day detective story. Perhaps most interesting is
that they play is loosely based on actual police files from the
1930s.
Diel, Antoine, Sumagaysay, Edren Ng, Chonn Kiriyama Traci
- Romeo & Juliet/Pinay Style (hereandnow)
Diggs, Thomas H.
- The Indigo Curse (EWP, 2005)
A Japanese-British woman journeys to Hiroshima in hopes of lifting the
family curse. Secrets of the past and old family mythologies collide,
conspire, and eventually lead her in the dance of redemption.
Dizon, Louella
- The Color Yellow: Memoirs of an Asian American (La Mama Etc., 1991)
- Till Voices Wake Us (Ma-Yi, 1992)
Filipino girl retraces her roots when grandmother visits-magical and poetic
- The Sweet Sound of Inner Light (The Public, 1994)
- The Practical Heart
Du, Wesley
BIO: Wesley Du’s work has been presented as staged readings at the
Asian American Theater Company, Theater Mu, Second Generation and
Lodestone. His work has also been read at UCLA through the
Marianne Murphy Fellowship.
- Asian Massage Parlor (AATC, 2004)
The "Massage Parlor Play" is about five Asian women who work in an
Asian Massage Parlor in San Francisco. They each go through a
transformation and a journey on this one particular night where Suki,
the oldest, most experienced and mother figure of the group gets raped.
- Shui Jiao (Dumpling) (AATC, 2004)
Shui Jiao (Dumpling)
is a bold new work by 25-year-old newcomer Wesley Du, in which Daniel
Lai, a former boxer and Vietnam War veteran, is confronted with the
bitterness and mistakes of his past as he struggles to hold on to his
estranged wife and rebellious teenage son. Shui Jiao (Dumpling) is an initimate, comic and ultimately heartbreaking saga of a Chinese American family and post-war generational conflict.
- Jupiter and Nebula (Marianne Murphy Women & Philanthropy Play Reading Series, 2007)
A stark look at two loathingly unlovable people looking to find love in
each other and within themselves. Is there a limit to loving a
person? Is there such a thing as an act that can't be forgiven?
These and many other questions are explored in this
brutally honest one act.
- Going to the North Star (EWP, 2007)
Two high school classmates, one Asian and one Black, reunite after ten
years and begin a relationship where each one will have to sacrifice in
order to maintain their affair.
Dugal, Jyoti
- Pink Shadows (East West, 2013)
Sixteen and pregnant… Indian style. The hysterical telling of three generations of Indian women under one roof.
Dun, Dennis
- Giant Oranges (East West: Word Up!, 1999)
Giant Oranges
takes us for a ride as three generations of Chinese men take a road
trip on dusty California Highway 99 to Disneyland Hotel, where the
family members stay in a room where a relative once leaped to death.
Duong, Alex
- Unsung Melody (East West 2013)
After witnessing the death of her boss, an Orange County woman is
targeted by a notorious gang. At the same time, she must pull her
estranged younger brother away from the very gang that put a bounty on
her head.
Emmons, Elizabeth
- The Girls from Afar (Desipina, 2009)
The Girls From Afar
is about slavery in America, which did not disappear with the Civil
War. No longer institutionalized, it is hidden, tucked away behind
manicured lawns and monogrammed golf carts. If the public could hear
the clatter of the shackles in the streets, would it recoil it horror?
What if the signs are much less obvious? Two girls have come from afar
to work as domestics in a wealthy home, but what seems at first to be a
great opportunity becomes a lifestyle of brutality.
Eng, Alvin
- The Last Hand Laundry in Chinatown (La MaMa, 1996)
Musical.
- The Flushing Cycle
- The Last Emperor of Flushing
The sequel to the acclaimed memoir monologue, The Flushing Cycle, explores the irony of a child who struggled to adjust to Father Knows Best
Americana Flushing, only to find that struggle irrelevant in 21st
Century pan-cultural Flushing (NYC's second Chinatown). It's the end of
an era, sort of like The Last Emperor paying admission to enter The
Forbidden City, once his childhood home.
- The Mourning After (A-Train Plays, 2003)
Two years after the 9/11 attacks, Mimi Okamoto is returning home to her
native Far Rockaway, Queens, for the first time in 15 years. She is
lost on the subway-alone in a train car with Jackson, a young hip-hop
kid, who fiercely guards his privacy. Both are feeling the suspicious
shadows of a post-9/11 NYC and find surprising refuge in each other. The Mourning After
was first written as a ten-minute play for the 24-hour A-Train Plays
series on September 11, 2003. This is the first public reading of the
expanded play.
Eng, Nancy
- The Women of Tu-Na House (Pan Asian, 2010)
about the women (victim's by no means!) who occupy a massage parlour on
the Upper East Side, and who are searching for their own 'happy
endings'!
Escobedo, Dennis
- The Poet of Columbus Avenue (EWP: Paper or Plastic, 1999)
This delightful 90s romance, set in San Francisco, is a tribute to
Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, and other literary influences of the 60s.
Fortune cookies also play a part.
- Charlotte Second Chance
- It’s So Much Like Being Naked
Escueta, Mel
- Honey Bucket ()
The unknown story of Asian American stories in Vietnam.
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