Three Filipino Tenors to Play Staten Island, June 17

Snug Harbor Cultural Center welcomes the Three Filipino Tenors to Staten Island on Sunday, June 17 at 3pm, as part of the first-ever National Asian American Theatre Festival (NAATF).
 
"Coming from different, yet similar musical backgrounds, Antoine Reynaldo Diel, Randy Guiya, and Lito Villareal, known as the Three Filipino Tenors, blend their voices and talents to create an autobiographical musical program full of variety, beauty and heart," state press notes.
 
A sampling of additional productions to be presented as part of NAATF, at venues throughout New York City, includes The House of Bernarda Alba, performed by the NYC-based National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO); Pan Asian Repertory Theatre's Carry the Tiger to the Mountain; Arizona-based solo artist Denise Uyehara's Big Head; the live cooking show Cooking Kon Karimi Con Castro with California-based performance artist (and chef) Robert Karimi; Asian Arts Initiative's The Edge of the World from Philadelphia; and New York's Ma-Yi Theatre Company's return Off-Broadway limited engagement of Keo Woolford's I Land.
 
The participating theater companies and solo artists in NAATF represent the tremendous diversity of the ever-growing Asian American population in the U.S.: From states including, California, New York, Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, and Minnesota, the works presented in NAATF reflect the writers' and performers' ethnic heritages from such countries as Cambodia, China, Japan, Korea, Laos, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and of course, the United States.
 
NAATF was born out of a Theatre Communications Group (TCG) roundtable for theaters of color, after which, six of the top Asian American theater groups (Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, East West Players, Ma-Yi Theater, the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO), Second Generation, and Mu Performing Arts) decided to meet in June 2004 to discuss the state of Asian American Theater.
 
Lead sponsors of the Festival are Ford Foundation and JP Morgan Chase. Presenting sponsors are National Performance Network with funding from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Con Edison, and Time Warner, with media sponsorship from the Village Voice and NYTheatre.com. The festival is sponsored in part with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. 
 
The First National Asian American Theatre Festival runs June 11-24, 2007 at various venues throughout NYC. Tickets to NAATF events range from $18-$20; discount subscription packages are also available; call Theatermania.com at 212-352-3101 or (toll free) 866-811-4111. For additional information, visit www.NAATF.org