Asian Arts Initiative Kicks Off 2014 National Asian American Theater Conference Today

Asian Arts Initiative will serve as the host for the 4th National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival, presented by the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Actors (CAATA) this October, bringing the event to Philadelphia for the first time. The Conference and Festival (ConFest) will feature a series of Asian American theater productions open to the general public and offer conference attendees a full schedule of professional development programming under the 2014 theme "Home: Here? There? Where?" from today, Oct. 8-12, 2014.

Attended by theater professionals nationwide, the 2014 ConFest will be presented at multiple arts venues throughout Philadelphia. Ticketed Festival performances, held concurrently with the conference, are open to the public and include full-length feature performances, staged readings, and performance showcases. Participating venues include co-hosts FringeArts, InterAct Theatre Company, Painted Bride Art Center, and Underground Arts.

Asian Arts Initiative will present commissioned productions Chang(e) by New York City-based artist Soomi Kim and Tree City Legends created by Dennis Kim (a full schedule follows below). Chang(e) is an original theater work based on the performance artist and activist Kathy Change, a Philadelphia icon whose life ended in an act of self-immolation on the University of Pennsylvania campus in 1996. The multimedia staging reenacts Change's writings and performances to capture the spirit of a passionate and marginalized woman who battled her own cultural and psychological demons in a community that both enveloped and dismissed her. The production is the final installment of a trilogy of work inspired by Asian American visionaries, produced in collaboration between performer Soomi Kim and director Suzi Takahashi, with video by Gein Wong; lighting by Lucrecia Briceno; costumes by Machine Dazzle; and an original score by Adam Rogers.

Through hip-hop aesthetics, live music, urban folklore and traditional tales, Tree City Legends tells the story of a Korean American family navigating a mythological urban landscape. Devised as a modern parable, spoken word artist and musician turned playwright Dennis Kim uses multidisciplinary methods to portray themes of rootlessness and abandonment as four young men attend their brother's funeral. Marc Bamuthi Joseph directs the production, co-commissioned by Asian Arts Initiative and the San Francisco Bay Area-based YouthSpeaks, which recently produced the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam in Philadelphia.

An opening plenary on Oct. 9 at FringeArts and panel discussions and workshop sessions on Oct. 10 and 11 at Asian Arts Initiative take on subjects such as casting and representation of Asian American performers, building theater programs for Asian American youth, the future for women of color in theater, and taking Asian American performance beyond Los Angeles and New York. Schedule tracks for the theater conference include professional development, artistic practice and craft, new play readings, the exploration of the meaning of home for Asian Americans, and a neighborhood tour of Philadelphia's Chinatown.

Dedicated to advancing the field of Asian American theater, CAATA, of which Asian Arts Initiative executive director Gayle Isa is a founding board member, builds a national network of industry organizations and artists and celebrates the significant artistic contributions Asian American artists make to the national culture. The conference and festival serves as an essential platform for Asian American artists to convene as a community and explore issues of social, political, artistic and aesthetic importance. The 2014 ConFest is the fourth conference and festival since CAATA's inaugural 2006 convention in Los Angeles.

The ConFest theme "Home: Here? There? Where?" builds on the "The Way Home" reading series produced by Mu Performing Arts founder and CAATA board member Rick Shiomi at Asian Arts Initiative and InterAct Theatre in spring 2014. Through the lens of the Asian American experience of migration and the search for a sense of "place" and equity on personal, community and global levels, the ConFest will examine Asian Americans' relationship to broad definitions and meanings of home.

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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Full conference and festival schedule available at 2014.caata.net/program.

Chang(e) by Soomi Kim

ConFest Feature Production presented by Asian Arts Initiative

Run time: 90 minutes

InterAct Theatre Company

2030 Sansom St.

$25 general admission

$15 admission for independent artists and students with valid ID

Wednesday, October 8 at 8 p.m.

Friday, October 10 at 8 p.m.

Saturday, October 11 at 2 p.m.

Tree City Legends by Dennis Kim

ConFest Partner Production presented by Asian Arts Initiative

Painted Bride Art Center

230 Vine Street

$25 general admission

$15 admission for independent artists and students with valid ID

Thursday, October 9 at 8 p.m.

Friday, October 10 at 8 p.m.

Tickets and passes are available for purchase at 2014.caata.net/passes-tickets.

Individual Tickets to Feature Productions

$25 general admission; $15 admission for independent artists and students with valid ID

Individual Tickets to Partner Productions

$25 general admission; $15 admission for independent artists and students with valid ID

ConFest Pass

$250 ConFest Pass allows access to all conference events and festival productions; available at $150 for independent artists and students. Volunteers who contribute 15 hours will receive a free ConFest Pass; see 2014.caata.net/get-involved for more details and to sign up.

One-Day Conference Pass

$60 one-day conference pass allows access to all conference events and the Thursday, Oct. 9 performance showcase. A $35 pass is available for independent artists and students.

About the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA) - The Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA) envisions a strong and sustainable Asian American Theater community that is an integral presence in national culture -- evocative of our past, declarative of our present, and innovative towards our future. In September 2003, six Asian American theater companies -- Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, East West Players, Ma-Yi Theater, the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO), Second Generation, and Mu Performing Arts -- attended a convening sponsored by Theater Communications Group which led to the first National Asian American Theater Conference, which took place in Los Angeles in June 2006. The first National Asian American Theater Festival took place June 2007 in New York City, featuring over 25 performing artists and companies. Conferences and Festivals have since been hosted in Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles. Our mission is to advance the field of Asian American Theater through a national network of organizations and artists. We collaborate to inspire leaning and sharing of knowledge, and resources to promote a healthy, sustainable artistic ecology.

About Asian Arts Initiative - A meeting place, an idea lab, a support system, and an engine for positive change, Asian Arts Initiative strives to empower communities through the richness of art. We believe in a universal human capacity for creativity, and we support local art and artists as a means of interpreting, sharing, and shaping contemporary cultural identity. For more information, call 215-557-0455 or visit www.asianartsinitiative.org.

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