Christine Toy Johnson, Lauren Yee, et al. Set for ASIAN AND...'s RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW
By: Kelsey Denette May. 04, 2012
Asian and... today announced Right Here, Write Now, an evening of readings that will take place at Cherry Lane Theatre on May 15th, Tuesday, at 8pm. Suggested donation is $10 (light refreshments to follow reading; reserve seats by emailing projectasianand@gmail.com). Created by Cleo Gray and Bobby Foley, Asian and... is an organization dedicated to millennial Asian American theater artists creating, producing, and promoting new works that tell truthful stories and promote ethnic diversity on NYC stages. This project was created as a direct response to the issues of underrepresentation of ethnic artists and stories, most recently addressed at the AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition) roundtable and open forums. The goal of this event is to raise awareness for the project and connect to an extended group of artists throughout the community. The evening will feature readings from a diverse collection of NYC playwrights by some of the city's most talented actors.
Associate produced by Stephen Stout, Satomi Blair, and Josephine Huang, the evening will feature works by Christine Toy Johnson (All American Eyes), Lauren Yee (Ching Chong Chinaman), Dustin Chinn (Ma-Yi Writer's Lab), Nandita Shenoy (Ma-Yi Writer's Lab), Donaldo Prescod (#serials@theflea), Daniel Ho (Don Quixote at Tiananmen Square), christopher oscar peña (however long the night), Kitty Chen (Eating Chicken Feet), Angela Hanks (EST/Youngblood), Marisa Marquez (Gated), and Leah Nanako Winkler (EST/Youngblood).
Participating directors include Christopher Carter Sanderson, Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan, and Brian Lee Huynh.
The evening will feature Eugene Oh, Bonna Tek, Satomi Blair, Denise Rogers, Andrew Eisenman, Tony Vo, Josephine Huang, Bobby Foley, Holly Chou, Cleo Gray, Jaygee Macapugay, Diane Phelan, Briana Pozner, and many more.
Cleo Gray (producer) was recently seen at the Flea Theater as Ismene in These Seven Sicknesses directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar and will be returning to the role in June. Other credits include: The Taming of the Shrew (Leviathan Lab's Shakespeare Quartets), shows by Tim Drucker & Randy Blair, Jon Caren, Angela Hanks, and Stacey Davidowitz (#serials@theflea), The Dining Room (Shanghai Theater Academy), u/s Lillith in She Kills Monsters (The Flea Theater). She graduated from Montclair State University with a BFA in Acting.
Bobby Foley (producer) was recently seen at The Flea playing Odysseus in These Seven Sicknesses and will be reprising the role in the June remount. Other recent credits include 15: Instant Vaudeville (2g), the long-running#serials@theflea (The Flea), and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Leviathan Lab). He graduated from Yale and also trained at LAMDA.
Christine Toy Johnson is an award winning playwright, actor and filmmaker. Her plays have been developed at the Roundabout, Crossroads, Weston Playhouse, Barrow Group, Leviathan Lab, Queens Theatre, Gorilla Rep, etc.; works inducted into the Library of Congress APA Performing Arts Collection in 2010. For many other details, please visit www.christinetoyjohnson.com
Lauren Yee was a MacDowell fellow, Dramatists Guild fellow, and Public Theater EWG member; and finalist for the Jerome, Princess Grace, PONY, and Wasserstein. Published by Samuel French, Ching Chong Chinaman was produced at Impact Theatre, Mu Performing Arts, Pan Asian Rep, and SIS Productions. Her work was also developed at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, PlayPenn, and Williamstown. BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD
christopher oscar peña is a playwright from California currently splitting his time between NYC and Chicago. His work has been developed or seen at The Public Theater, NYU Graduate Acting, INTAR, the UCSB Summer Theatre Lab, the Ontological Hysteric Incubator, Pavement Group (Chicago), Son of Semele (LA), The Flea Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and the New York Theatre Workshop. A recipient of the Latino Playwrights Award from the Kennedy Center, he has been an NYTW Emerging Artist Fellow, has been a visiting fellow at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and in 2011 traveled to London as part of the T.S. Eliot US/UK Exchange with the Old Vic New Voices where his play however long the night premiered on the Old Vic stage. He is the Lark Play Development Centers 2012 Van Lier Fellow. B.A.- UCSB / M.F.A. NYU/Tisch
Dustin Chinn is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. He's written for Vampire Cowboys, Second Generation Productions and the 52nd Street Project. Come to the Labfest reading of his latest comedy I Am Nakamura featuring Jennifer Lim and Francis Jue on May 19th (RSVP @ http://www.ma-yitheatre.org/events).
Marisa Marquez is an actor and writer who had an amazing time playing Vangie in Ralph Pena's critically acclaimedFlipzoids for Generator Theater Company in Juneau, Alaska. Last summer the production of her play GATED was nominated for 5 Midtown International Theater Awards. This summer Marisa and fellow writer, actor, and Leviathan Lab member Siho Ellsmore will have the world premiere of their show Yellow Brick Wall: Angry White Men Played by Two Happy Asian Girls in the New York Fringe Festival.
Nandita Shenoy's one-act plays Marrying Nandini, By Popular Demand, and Rules of Engagement have received full productions in New York City, and her full-length Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature received a workshop production in Silver Spring, MD. She is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers' Lab and holds a BA from Yale University.
Angela Hanks' plays include Big Tex (EST/ Youngblood), High Five (New York International Fringe Festival), breathe into this bag, Heloise Sails the Boat, and Myrna in Transit. Her plays have had readings and productions in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Santa Fe. She is a very proud member of Youngblood, a Lincoln Center Directors Lab alum, and a member of the Dramatists Guild. M.F.A. in Playwriting from the New School for Drama.
Leah Nanako Winkler is a founding member of Everywhere Theatre Group, and her work has been seen at Ontological Hysteric Theater/Incubator Arts Project, The Brick Theater, HERE Arts Center, 3LD Technology Center, Dixon Place, Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Magic Futurebox, New Georges, New York Theatre Workshop as well as venues in Philly, Florida and Indianapolis. Terra Nova Groundbreakers alum, current member of Youngblood. www.leahwinkler.org
Daniel Ho was born and raised in a small town in upstate New York. Out of sheer boredom, he began writing. His writing habit has since been enabled by Stageworks Theater, Capital Rep, and others. Most recently, he worked with Second Generation Theater, who staged a reading of his one act Don Quixote at Tiananmen Square, which is currently being developed as a full length by the Anthropologists.
Donaldo Prescod received an award for his original play The Commoners from the Fringe Festival in Marin. Other works include Patterns, which premiered at the SRO Theater in Monterey, CA and the collaboration piece God In The Machine. NY Credits: Currently running in the late night episodic, #serials@theFLEA, The 1's and 2's (now a full length).
Kitty Chen has been working in the theater since 1975 as actor and writer—and she's still here! She won an NEA playwriting fellowship for Eating Chicken Feet, her first play, and two New York Foundation for the Arts awards (Rosa Loses Her Face, 1989, and Blessings of Chairman Moo, 1998). She is still trying to complete Chairman Moo to her satisfaction, and is working on a new play, Missus Mustard. She has recently returned to acting and is very happy doing Linklater voice study and Shakespeare study.
Asian and... will host Right Here, Write Now, a night of readings at Cherry Lane Theatre on May 15th at 8pm. For more information, check out www.asianand.com. The Cherry Lane Theatre is located in the West Village at 38 Commerce Street (three blocks south of Christopher street, just west of Seventh Avenue).
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