Ann Starbuck News

 The ten-week run of the United Solo Festival, featuring 150 productions from six continents, concluded on Sunday, November 22 at Theatre Row in New York, where the festival is a resident company. Beginning with its opening night on September 17, United Solo presented between two and five shows every day, in a vast array of categories. Over 80 of the shows were sold out, and nearly 30 were presented in the ENCORE program, which features companies returning to the festival after successful performances in previous years.

In June 1989, Ann Starbuck was an American student on a year's sojourn in China where she was also working as a production assistant for CNN. When pro-democracy demonstrations broke out in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, she suddenly found herself swept up in the middle of historic events while assisting camera crews; escorting a dissident to a news interview; making forbidden friendships. She was there and now shares her story to remind us how important it is to speak up for human rights.

At the young of age 21, Ann Starbuck faced a very grave situation on the other side of the world. A college student studying abroad and nearly fluent in Chinese, she had been recruited by the CNN Beijing Bureau to assist with language translation and navigating the local scene.