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STAGED READINGS & PLAY DEVELOPMENT LABS

3 PLAY DEVELOPMENT/PREVIEW READINGS 2011 

  Pan Asian continues its tradition of fostering emerging Asian American Artists and new works with their Staged Readings play development series. Pan Asian Rep has selected three plays by emerging Asian-American playwrights. Each play will be guided by Artistic Associates Ron Nakahara and Ernest Abuba, culminating in staged public readings.
 

photo of Faizul Khan
 

Window Shadows
by Brian Faizul Khan
Directed by Count Stovall

October 10th, 2011 in the Bruce Mitchell Room
(520 8th Ave, 3rd floor) at 7:00pm


An inter-racial couple struggle to come to terms with their fears and their lives. Sharon is traumatized by an earthquake and wants a baby before it’s too late. Daniel wants his degree so he won’t be like his father with nothing at the end of his life. “There is no greater fear than fear itself.”

Brian Faizul Khan: appeared On Broadway in Comedians directed by Mike Nichols and Meeting by the River directed by Albie Marre; Off-Bdway, he was the Samurai in Rashomon and Gilgamesh in Gilgamesh. He co-Starred in the EMMY winning WQED-TV series Leatherstocking Tales “Last of the Mohicans” as Magwah in addition to spending a full season of repertory at Arena Stage, and appeared in many Off-Off-Bway shows. He has been away from the theatre since 1980, and only recently returned. As a playwright, he was awarded NEA Creative Writing Fellowship for his first play, The Shanty, which was produced at Theatre at St. Clements, and optioned for Broadway. Since June 2010, he has completed four new plays, Jolly Roger, Window Shadows, The Roti Shop- a West Indian Deli and Caviar with Rice and Beans-an Immigrant’s Journey. He continues writing novels and plays.

 
   

photo of Jeremy Tiang
 

A Dream of Red Pavilions
by Jeremy Tiang
Directed by Lu Yu

December 2nd, 2011 in the Bruce Mitchell Room
(520 8th Ave, 3rd floor) at 7:00pm

A tragic love story of two beings from the spirit world based on the classic Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin, Dream of the Red Chamber. Set in pre-Revolution 18th-Century China it traces the rise and fall of the aristocratic Jia family, exploring wealth, poverty, corruption and guilt, steeped in Buddhism.

Jeremy Tiang: trained as an actor at Drama Centre London after reading English at Oxford. A Dream of Red Pavilions was written with the support of London's Yellow Earth Theatre, and first given a staged reading at London’s Soho Theatre studio. Other work for the stage includes Polyglottalstop (Tabard Theatre, London), godshaped hole (Tristan Bates reading) and Operation Opera (Esplanade, Singapore). He has translated from the Chinese Quah Sy Ren’s The Assassin, the Medium and the Massage Girl, Han Lao Da’s Floathouse 1001 and Yeng Pway Ngon’s Bronze Statue. Jeremy won Singapore’s Golden Point Award 2009 for his short story Trondheim, and has just completed his first novel, MacDonald House. He recently attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. His work as a performer includes Peace Pagoda (Royal Opera House), Jingo (Finborough) and the Bollywood film Show Man. www.JeremyTiang.com

 
   

photo of Alvin Eng
 

Three Trees
by Alvin Eng
Directed by Kaipo Schwab

December 14th, 2011 in the Bruce Mitchell Room
(520 8th Ave, 3rd floor) at 7:00pm

Three Trees is a poetic, philosophical rumination about the relationship between sculptor Alberto Giacometti, his muse/model, Japanese existential philosopher Isaku Yanaihara, and Giacometti’s wife Annette. Alvin Eng was last seen at Pan Asian Rep’s 2005 Two Nights Only series with The Last Emperor of Flushing.

Last summer, Alvin was a Fulbright Specialist in Theatre/U.S. Studies at City University of Hong Kong. There, he taught a playwriting and performance workshop, “Our Town: HK/USA," with his wife, producer/director/actress, Wendy Wasdahl. In July, he made his Asian debut performing his memoir monologue play, The Last Emperor of Flushing (LEOF) at XiaoZhou People’s Hall in his family’s ancestral Guangdong Province, China. In “Emperor persona” he gave a commentary on NPR’s All Things Considered. LEOF excerpts were published in Performing Arts Journal (MIT Press). Alvin developed LEOF with Pan Asian Rep. and an Urban Artist Initiative/NYFA grant. He is thrilled to be working with Pan Asian again on Three Trees, his historical drama that explores the relationship between sculptor Alberto Giacometti and his muse-model, Japanese existentialist philosopher, Isaku Yanaihara. It is also the first work of ART/PLAYS, a trilogy of historical dramas that Eng is writing about artists and the nature of portraiture. www.alvineng.com
   


 


The three play readings are free and open to the public, with suggested donation of $10 collected at the door.

For reservations and more information email info@PanAsianRep.org or call 212-868-4030.  
 

3 PLAY DEVELOPMENT/PREVIEW READINGS 2010

Minh Ngoc Nguyen

Adeline Yen Mah

Anne Noelani Miyamoto

at 520 Eighth Avenue
(btw 36th and 37th Streets)
Third Floor, in the Bruce Mitchell Room

WE ARE
written and directed by Nguyen thi Minh Ngoc
Preview of selected scenes of a new play by the creator of THE MISSING WOMAN, part of Pan Asian Rep’s Vietnam Project II.
Starring Daniel Le, Nguyen thi Minh Ngoc
Nguyen thi Minh Phuong, Viet Nguyen,
Tiffany Rothman, Jennifer Ha Thanh, Chantal Thuy and Tran T Thuc Hanh
Reading Sat Oct 16 at 7pm



FALLING LEAVES

by Adeline Yen Mah, directed by Tina Chen
A Chinese Cinderella story - Born to the successful Yen family of pre-revolution Shanghai and Tianjin, but outcast from her family after her mother’s death, the play focuses on two pivotal meetings in 1988 and 1990 of the four older siblings as they struggle for answers and closure to events of the past.
Starring Raul Aranas, Nancy Eng, Ariel Estrada,
Ming Lee and Rosanne Ma
Readings Fri Nov 12 at 7pm & Sat Nov 13 at 3pm


AIR & ANGELS
written and directed by Anne Noelani Miyamoto
The ghost of Jack Mana visits his long-neglected wife, with just one day left to redeem himself.
Starring Nancy Eng, Kaipo Schwab and Keoni Scott
Readings Thu Dec 2 & Fri Dec 3 at 7pm


$10 suggested donation, collected at the door

Call Pan Asian Rep, 212-868-4030, to reserve a seat or for more information
   
  Development Lab Playwright bios:

Nguyen thi Minh Ngoc is a theatre director, writer, playwright, theatrical professor, and principal of Tran Huu Trang Theater (a traditional arts training school), journalist and co-founder of Small Theatre, an initiative to reinvigorate the performing arts in Vietnam. She has written and directed many plays and screenplays, including THE MISSING WOMAN (Pan Asian Rep), HAI NGUYET, which won the “A” prize of the National Cinema Association and was shown at the 3 Continents Festival in Nantes, France 1998, and the upcoming Vietnamese feature film that will be internationally released, “Oriental Pearls.”

Adeline Yen Mah was born in Tianjin, China. While living in Hong Kong, she won an international writing competition at the age of fourteen. She graduated as a physician from London Hospital Medical School, where she specialized in anesthesiology. Her first book, Falling Leaves, published in 1997, was a London Times and New York Times best-seller and was translated into eighteen languages. Her second book was a children’s book titled Chinese Cinderella, which received an award from Children’s Literature Council of Southern California for Compelling Autobiography. She has also written Watching the Tree, A Thousand Pieces of Gold and a book on Chinese history for young adults titled China: Land of Dragons and Emperors. Adeline Yen Mah lives with husband in California and London, England.

Anne Noelani Miyamoto is a playwright, director and actress. Awards include the 2010 Gurfein Fellowship from Sarah Lawrence College and the Writing Institute; her play THE MANGO TREE won the 2009 Hawai’i Playwriting Prize and FEETS won the 2008 15th Annual NJ Wordsmith Competition. While living in Edinburgh, she was awarded film script development grants from the Scottish Film Trust and the Edinburgh Film Workshop Trust and was selected to participate in Scotland’s national film writer’s conference with the BBC. Her newest play, AIR AND ANGELS was part Pan Asian Rep’s NEWWORKS 2010 in March and had a reading at the Marblehead Theatre, MA, this past summer. She was awarded writing fellowships to residences at Yaddo, Ragdale, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Columbia University.

DECEMBER READINGS 2009 

  at 520 Eighth Avenue
(btw 36th and 37th Streets)
Third Floor, in the Bruce Mitchell Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday December 11 at 7:00 pm
RANGOON
By Mayank P. Keshaviah
Directed by Kaipo Schwab
(followed by Q&A and Reception)

This is a brand-new, contemporary play that spans from the Bible belt to Rangoon, Burma. A family of Indian immigrants must deal with seductions of American life, while trying to keep its heritage and a compelling family story alive. RANGOON is both funny and tragic—it is a quintessential 21st century American tale.

Tuesday December 15 at 7:00pm
NEWS TO A MUSE

By Richard Chang
(followed by Q&A and reception)

"A Farcedy of Terrors" – Five journalists are trapped in a short-staffed newsroom during a freak storm and an epic financial crisis that threatens to destroy the world. A suspected terrorist attack drives the staff to seek safety in the ladies’ restroom where their individual closets are exposed and the truth is bared.

Friday December 18 at 7:00pm
"CHING CHONG CHINAMAN"
By Lauren Yee
Directed by May Adrales
(followed by Holiday Party) 

The Wongs are your average American family, but their lives change when a mysterious servant from China arrives in their home. “Ching Chong” is anything but clueless and is about to dance his way to Stardom and the American Dream!

RSVP by calling 212-868-4030 or emailing info@panasianrep.org

$10 suggested donation, collected at door

 

MAYANK KESHAVIAH (Playwright, RANGOON) is a Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter. Prior to moving to L.A. in 2005, he served on the board of South Asian Theatre Arts Guild Experiment (STAGE) in Washington, D.C. As part of STAGE, he directed REARRANGED MARRIAGE and PSYCHO for the annual South Asian Literary and Theatre Arts Festival (SALTAF). He also assistant directed LENNY & LOU, which opened Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's 25th Anniversary season. Since moving to Los Angeles, Mayank has worked as the Literary Intern on the world premiere of LEWIS AND CLARK REACH THE EUPHRATES at the Mark Taper Forum and in the Literary Department of Center Theatre Group. In 2007, his play THOSE WHO CAN'T received a workshop production as part of the USC School of Theatre’s Blueprints festival, and in 2008, his thesis play RANGOON was given a staged reading as part of the Under Construction festival of graduate playwrights.

KAIPO SCHWAB (Director, RANGOON) is an actor/director who has previously worked with Pan Asian Rep directing THE MANGO TREE, which was part of 2 + 3 NIGHTS ONLY, and starring in the title role of SHOGUN MACBETH in 2008. He has also worked with The Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, The New York Theatre Workshop, Hartford Stage Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Mr. Schwab is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and the Artistic Director of the Imua! Theatre & Film Company.

RICHARD CHANG (Playwright, NEWS TO A MUSE) has appeared in the New York Fringe Festival, Midtown Theatre Festival, Chinese Theatre Works, and Goodwin Theater, among others. His one-man show, GOY VEY! ADVENTURES OF A DIM SUN IN SEARCH OF HIS WANTON FATHER, developed within Pan Asian's workshop program and produced in full in 2002, was hailed by the Jewish Telegraph (UK) in a review headlined "The Greatest Show in Festival's History" at the 2007 Leeds Jewish International Performing Arts Festival. Richard can be seen in the film “New York, I Love You,” currently in theatres. He stars in "No Menus Please", an independent short which was shown on PBS-TV nationwide in February. Richard is a 2008 Fellow recipient from the Urban Artist Initiative/New York City.

LINDA BURSON (Director, NEWS TO A MUSE), Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, National Theatre Conference, has directed over 250 productions throughout the world, including Richard Chang's GOY VEY! - the "Best Production in History" of Leeds (England) Jewish International Performing Arts Festival. Among "Best Director" awards: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (NJ), SCAPINO! (KY), THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON (NY). Selected venues: Lincoln Center, International Fringe, CSC, Primary Stages, New Day Rep, East Lynne Theatre, Albuquerque Civic Light Opera, Chatham, Count Basie, Millbrook Playhouse. Honors include: Distinguished Women of American Theatre, Who's Who in Entertainment, Outstanding People of the 20th Century, International Who's Who of Professionals.

LAUREN YEE (Playwright, CHING CHONG CHINAMAN) is the recipient of a 2009 MacDowell Colony residency, a member of the 2009 Public Theater Emerging Writers Group, and a 2008/09 Dramatists Guild fellow. She was also a finalist for the Jerome Fellowship, the PONY Fellowship, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, and the Humana Festival’s Heideman Award. Lauren has received fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, the Edward Albee Foundation, the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, the New York Mills Arts Retreat; commissions from the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the O’Neill Studio at Yale, and PlayGround; and funding from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and Theatre Bay Area. Other awards include Kumu Kahua Theatre’s 2007 Pacific Rim Prize and the 2007 Yale Playwrights Festival. Lauren is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a recent graduate of Yale University. She is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at UCSD.

MAY ADRALES (Director, CHING CHONG CHINAMAN) has directed and developed work at Williamstown Theater Festival; The Public Theater; Second Stage Theatre; New York Theater Workshop; The Hangar Theatre; Long Wharf Theatre; Midtown International Theater Festival (Best Solo Show); Partial Comfort Productions (Time Out NY Critic Pick); New Jersey Repertory; Ensemble Studio Theater; New York University, Bard College, Fordham University and The New York International Fringe Festival. Awards: SSDC Denham Fellowship; Williamstown Theater Festival's Bill Foeller Fellowship; Van Lier Directing Fellowship, New York Theatre Workshop Directing Fellowship, SDCF Observership, and Drama League Directing Fellowship. She is an alumnus of the SoHo Rep Writers/Director's Lab and Women's Project Directors Lab and former Artistic Associate at The Public Theater. Currently, May is in residence at The Lark Play Development Center as the recipient of the TCG New Generations Grant. Faculty, Public Theater Shakespeare Lab. MFA, Yale School of Drama, directing.

 

DECEMBER READINGS 2008

 

 

at the Julia Miles Theater
424 W. 55th St (between 9th and 10th) 
 

Suggested Donation $10

Wednesday, December 10, 7:00pm
VOICES FROM OKINAWA
By Jon Shirota
Directed by Regge Life


With Calvin Ahn, Claro Austria, Chris Doi,
Nadia Gan, Akiko Hiroshima, Yoko Hyun,
Karen Tsen Lee and Ken Park

Followed by Q&A and wine and nosh in lobby

Friday, December 12, 7:00pm
DAPHNE DOES DIM SUM (MAI DAN!)
By Eugenie Chan
Directed by Ron Nakahara

With Wai Ching Ho, Glenn Kubota,
Claro de los Reyes, Bea Soong and Henry Yuk

Followed by Holiday Party in lobby

To RSVP please email info@panasianrep.org
Or call 212/868-4030

 
 
JON SHIROTA (Playwright, Voices from Okinawa) was born and raised on Maui, Hawaii. He is the author of two novels, Lucky Come Hawaii and Pineapple White which were both adapted into award winning plays. Among his many grants/ awards, Mr. Shirota received a creative Artists Exchange Fellowship from the Japan/US Friendship Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts (2005). The idea for Voices From Okinawa originated at an American literature class he was lecturing at the University of the Ryukyus.

REGGE LIFE (Director, Voices from Okinawa) is pleased to be directing for Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Recent credits include Ghosts for the Pearl Theater, A Piano Lesson for Virginia Stage, Second Line for the Passage Theater, and Little Women for Cornell University. Mr. Life was a Fullbright Journalist fellow in Okinawa where he met playwright Jon Shirota. Mr. Life has lived and worked in Japan receiving two Japan Foundation grants for his continuing work in developing Okinawan literature for screen and stage.

EUGENIE CHAN (Playwright, Daphne Does Dim Sum) is a 4th generation San Franciscan. Her work has been produced or developed at the Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Ma-Yi Theatre, Pan Asian Rep, and Cen­tenary Stage; on the West Coast at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Northwest Asian American Theatre, the Group Theatre, and East West Players. She has received commissions from the San Francisco and Wallace Foundations, and the Magic Theatre/Sloan Science Initiative. Eugenie is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and the Playwrights Foundation. She holds a B.A. in Literature from Yale and an M.F.A. from NYU’s Dramatic Writing program.

RON NAKAHARA (Director, Daphne Does Dim Sum) is Artistic Associate with Pan Asian Repertory Theatre and has directed, and acted in, numerous plays for the company. Notable productions at Pan Asian Rep include: The Legacy Codes, Rashomon, Forbidden City Blues, Aloha Las Vegas, Carry the Tiger to the Mountain, Private Lives, and The Teahouse of the August Moon, and most recently, Shogun Macbeth. He has worked at various NYC theatres including The Second Stage Theatre, NYSF/Public Theatre, LaMaMa, ETC., NAATCO, Ma-Yi Theatre, and Ensemble Studio Theatre.
     
     
     
     
 

December Readings 2007

image1here   Wednesday December 5, 7:00pm
THE SECRET OF O SONO – by Elsa Okon Rael
Directed by Ron Nakahara
Improvised Music by Jason Hwang
With John Baray, Paul Keoni Chun,
Chris Doi, Emi Fujinami Jones,
Wai Ching Ho, Carol Honda, David Ige, Shigeko Suga, Henry Yuk

O-Sono’s spirit cannot rest in fear her secret will be revealed. This play, based loosely on a 17th C. Japanese folk tale collected by Lafcadio Hearn, is composed in English using Haiku, linked-renga and choka forms of Japanese poetry.

Wednesday December 12, 7:00pm DUMPLING – by Wesley Du
Directed by Nelson T. Eusebio III
With Claro Austria, Louis Changchien, Chris Doi, Glenn Kubota, Ron Nakahara, Bea Soong

Daniel, a battle-scarred warrior who came into the world fist-first, must try and protect his son, Less, from the evils of MASH, poorly made dumplings and his mother. A heartbreaking comedy about family, friends and the fights that bind us together.

Friday December 14, 7:00pm
Scenes from THE MISSING WOMAN
Written and directed by
Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc
With Tiffany Rothman, Hanh T. Thuc Tran, Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc, Giovanni Sferrazza and John Nguyen (Vu)

A painter yearns for his subject matter who comes to life Performed in Vietnamese and English

Q&A Session with Artists, Wine and Hors D’oeuvres follow each reading Christmas Party on December 14!
 
 
     

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