Feature: KRISTINA WONG FOR PUBLIC OFFICE at Kirk Douglas Theatre
Blurs the Line Between Performance Art and Politics
Live from the Kirk Douglas Theatre launched last weekend with the multicamera virtually staged production of Kristina Wong FOR PUBLIC OFFICE, which premiered online October 30 and continues on demand through November 29, 2020. Written and performed by Kristina Wong, the production is directed by Diana Wyenn, and was devised by Wong and Wyenn to explore Wong's leap from potential reality TV stardom to hyperlocal politics.
Kristina Wong FOR PUBLIC OFFICE is a 75-minute comedic performance that crosses the aesthetics of campaign rallies, church revivals, and solo theater shows to tell the story of what it means to run for local office, the history of voting, and the impact artists can have on democracy. The subject matter reflects Kristina Wong's experience as an actual elected representative of Koreatown, Los Angeles. But before she created this raucous show about her current stint in Public Office, Wong was a scrappy performance artist with a bright future in reality television. But the system she used to ridicule is now one in which she has become involved. So, is she more effective as a performance artist or a politician? And is there actually a difference between performance art and politics?
Along with her new career in community politics, Kristina Wong is a world-traveling performance artist, comedian and writer who has been presented internationally across North America, the UK, Hong Kong and Africa. Most recently, her solo theatre show "The Wong Street Journal" was presented by the US Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. Her commentaries have appeared on American Public Media's Marketplace, PBS, VICE, Jezebel, Playgirl Magazine, Huffington Post and CNN. She's been awarded artist residencies from the MacDowell Colony, New York Theatre Workshop and Ojai Playwrights Festival. Her work has been awarded with grants from Creative Capital, The MAP Fund, Center for Cultural Innovation, National Performance Network and a COLA Master Artist Fellowship from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Kristina Wong is the artist-in-residence at the San Diego Airport where she is exploring the site as a literal purgatory in a border town. She is also currently the artist-in-residence at the Dream Resource Center working with undocumented immigrants and their allies on an original theatre piece. As a member of the newly formed CTG Creative Collective, Kristina Wong is one of a dozen inspiring, innovative and highly collaborative artists shaping the contours of the theatrical landscape of the future, and she received the 2019 Dorothy and Richard E. Sherwood Award, Center Theatre Group's $10,000 award supporting boundary-pushing artists.
"An entertainer, public speaker, educator, and performance artist, Kristina Wong can now add public servant to her long resume. Wong has always addressed fraught social themes in her work, but now she is actively dedicated to making social change, as she freely blurs the lines between artist, activist and elected political representative." -LA WEEKLY, Best of Los Angeles Arts Issue
And what better time than now to push for change through artistic activism, making people laugh at the absurdity of our political, social and media landscapes from someone who has been personally involved in each of them? I encourage you to listen, laugh and learn from Kristina Wong - and imagine what you could do at your own local level and then act on it.
Kristina Wong FOR PUBLIC OFFICE was made possible by a 2019 Center Theatre Group Sherwood Award and a 2018 City of Los Angeles Career Artist (COLA) Fellowship, and is being presented in partnership with The Broad Stage. The recording of the multicamera virtually staged production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre is free to Center Theatre Group subscribers and supporters, as well as members of The Broad Stage, on demand through November 29, 2020. All others can access the event for $10. To view the production, make reservations at www.centertheatregroup.org/digitalstage/videos/kristina-wong/.
Photo Credit: Tom Fowler Photography
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