A4 Launches Theater Career Roundtable Event 6/25

The Asian American Arts Alliance announces the launch of a new initiative to support Asian Americans pursuing careers in the arts. Table Dish, A4's new professional development series, will bring experts in specific disciplines together with aspiring professionals in a roundtable setting to answer questions, provide advice, and create networking and mentoring opportunities.

The first event will focus on the field of theater where established professionals (artistic directors, actors, directors, theater designers, playwrights, and producers) will dish out career advice and lead candid discussions about different career paths and opportunities. The roundtables are designed to provide emerging and mid-career professionals the opportunity to network and build relationships with peers and mentors, offer a genuine way for A4 established professional community members to give back, and help nurture Asian American artists and arts leaders to ensure a robust pipeline of talent.

The event will take place from 6:00-8:30 pm in the A4 offices at 20 Jay Street in DUMBO and be composed of three 30-minute sessions. Participants will be assigned to a total of three different tables. Professionals will remain at the same table while small groups of individual participants will move around every 30 minutes to meet with different leaders to ask questions and make connections. Participating theater professionals include: Pun Bandhu, actor; Clarence Coo, playwright; Nelson Eusebio III, director; David Henry Hwang, playwright; Jane Jung, producer; Diana Oh, actor; Suzette Porte, producer; and Jeanette Yew, set designer. There is a $15 nonrefundable fee to register. Participants can register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/table-dish-theater-tickets-62375541925

Pun Bandhu is an award-winning actor and two-time Tony Award-winning producer. As an actor, he was seen on Broadway in WIT and Off Broadway with Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Soho Rep, The Public Theater, and Playwrights Horizons, among others. TV guest-stars include FBI, Gotham, Blindspot, House of Cards, Difficult People, Madam Secretary, The Report, and a recurring role on Blue Bloods. Film credits include Michael Clayton, Burn After Reading, The Judge, and Can You Ever Forgive Me? Pun is the recipient of the Colorado Theatre Guild's Henry Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play and New Dramatist's Bowden Award. As a producer, Pun co-founded the Film Lab's 72 Hour Shoot Out and ZenDog Productions, which won Tony Awards for producing the first revival of Glengarry Glen Ross and the musical Spring Awakening. ZenDog also produced a documentary film, Real Fake, about forgery in the art world. He co-founded and serves on the Steering Committee of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (www.aapacnyc.org), an advocacy group for Asian actors, and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Yale School of Drama, where he earned his MFA in Acting.

Clarence Coo is a recipient of a 2017 Whiting Award and the 2012 Yale Drama Series Prize. His plays include The Birds of Empathy, Beautiful Province (Belle Province), People Sitting in Darkness, and The God of Wine. His work has been developed at the Atlantic Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. He has received fellowships from the Dramatists Guild, the Rita Goldberg Playwrights Workshop at the Lark, NYFA, and the Playwrights Realm. He received his MFA in Playwriting at Columbia University. Currently, Coo is a resident playwright at New Dramatists, a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and the manager of academic administration of Columbia's MFA Writing Program. More info at https://newdramatists.org/clarence-coo

Nelson T. Eusebio III is a freelance director, producer, and award-winning filmmaker. He is the former artistic director of Leviathan Lab, an Asian American creative studio. In 2008 he co-founded Creative Destruction, a NYC-based theater collective. He has directed and developed work at theaters throughout the country, including The Public Theater/NYSF, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, The Old Globe, PlayMaker's Repertory, and Ma-Yi Theatre Company. Nelson has been a resident artist at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Target Margin Theatre Institute, and Mabou Mines. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and the Rhodopi International Theatre Collective. Nelson was a recipient of the 2009-11 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors and the Phil Killian Directing Fellowship at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He holds a BA in Drama from UC Irvine and an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama. He is a former U.S. Marine. More info at www.nelsoneusebio.com

David Henry Hwang's stage works includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival), and Disney's Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also America's most-produced living opera librettist, whose works have been honored with two Grammy Awards, and has worked as a writer/consulting producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair since 2015. Hwang is currently penning the live-action feature adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios as well as a feature film for actress Gemma Chan. Hwang serves as head of playwriting at Columbia University and as chair of the American Theatre Wing. His newest work, Soft Power, with composer Jeanine Tesori, premiered in 2018 at Center Theatre Group and will open in New York this fall. More info at www.DavidHenryHwang.com

Jane Jung is a manager and producer for individual artists, artist-led companies, and theater projects. She is director of planning and operations at Ping Chong + Company, where she was previously general manager from 2010-2014. From 2014-2017, she was managing director of The Civilians where she oversaw all administrative, fundraising, general management, and producing areas of the company. She has worked as a producer with Kaneza Schaal, Gung Ho Projects, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Little Lord, and the Women's Project, and produced new work that was presented at the New Ohio Theatre's Ice Factory Festival, The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival, City Center Stage (ii), and the Bushwick Starr.

Diana Oh is a multi-hyphenate generative artist-performer, musician, singer, songwriter, director of their own work, maker of installations, performances, concerts, and parties, an open channel to the art that feels good to their body. Passionate about decolonizing & queering processes, Diana is driven most by pleasure, mutual care, and keeping things heart-centered. Oh is a Refinery29 Top LGBTQ Influencer, the first queer Korean-American interviewed on Korean Broadcast Radio, a Sundance Institute Fellow, TOW Fellow, Asian American Arts Alliance Van Lier Fellow in Acting, Venturous Capital Fellow, Elphaba Thropp Fellow, writer with The Public Theater's Mobile Unit, and a member of The Public's Emerging Writers Group. Oh is the creator of CLAIRVOYANCE, a yearlong series and concert with installations; The Infinite Love Party: an intentional barefoot potluck dinner, dance party, and sleepover for QTPOC and their Allies; and Asian People Are Not Magicians on mic.com. They star as Devon in the YouTube series Queering. More info at www.dianaoh.co

Suzette Porte is currently working with SDC, the theatrical union for professional stage directors and choreographers throughout the United States. She was previously the associate director of Ma-Yi Theater Company, and was the primary producer of all productions, workshops, and readings. Suzette has worked as a producer, events coordinator, and fundraiser with Baltimore Centerstage and Tribeca Film Institute, among others. She received the Wai Look Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts by the Asian American Arts Alliance. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew is a multi-faceted NYC-based theater designer in both lighting and projection. She has designed for theatre, dance, opera, musical and music performances, and installation. Recent (lighting): KPOP! (Henry Hewes Award, LIT Design Award, Lortel, and Drama Desk nominations), Aya Ogawa's Ludic Proxy (Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund), Gloria: A Life, Company XIV's Rococo Rouge and Nutcracker Rouge (various Drama Desk nominations), Kristine Haruna Lee's Suicide Forest, Matthew Paul Olmos' So Go the Ghosts of Mexico Part One (Best Lighting Design nomination), Eve Ensler's Fruit Trilogy (NYC premiere), Oneohtrix Point Never's MYRIAD at the Park Avenue Armory, and Erik Ehn's commemorative cycle Soulographie: Our Genocides. Projection: Relevance, Informed Consent, and Top Girls with Liesl Tommy, Aya Ogawa's Ludic Proxy (Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund), The Civilians' Paris Commune and In the Footprint, Elizabeth Swados and Cecilia Rubino's From the Fire (winner of the 2011 MTM: UK Musical Theatre Awards for Best New Production), and NPR's WATER +/- with Kenny Leon. Member of Woodshed Collective, assistant arts professor in Lighting Design with NYU Undergraduate Drama, and NEA/TCG Career Development Program recipient. More info at jeanetteyew.com