Review: Impeccable World Premiere of HENRY ONG’S final play ASCENT

Ascent playwright Henry Ong. Photo courtesy of Skylight Theatre.

Henry Ong (1949-2018), as American Theatre wrote in his obituary, “was the quintessential Los Angeles playwright - a first-generation Asian American, he was interested in exploring the immigrant experience and conducted writing/oral history workshops in many diverse L.A. communities.” A beloved and powerful figure in the Los Angeles theatre community for more than thirty-five years, Ong was working on his final play Ascent with his friend and acclaimed director, choreographer, dramaturg, and creative producer Diana Wyenn, who shepherded the play’s development with him from 2016-2018, and now helms its thoroughly magnificent world premiere production at the Skylight Theatre in Los Feliz Village.

These famous people are Shari Barrett, Stella Ong, and Patrizia Barretto.

And I miss seeing Henry on opening nights at theaters all around Los Angeles, wishing he was still here to ask me "Who are these famous people" before taking a glorious photo with his ever-present camera of me with others to share online afterwards. So I thank his sister, Stella Ong (pictured above with me and my friend Patrizia Barretto with whom Henry took many photos) for creating a photo opportunity at Skylight which includes her brother's famous question to honor his memory.

Trieu Tran portrays Qian Xuesen. Photo by Angel Origgi

Ong’s play is based on the true story of Qian Xuesen (1911-2009), the brilliant aerospace engineer who helped launch America’s space age until Cold War paranoia forever changed the course of his life. The story begins in 1935 as Xuesen, a promising young engineering student in China, decided to go to America to further his education thanks to receiving a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship from M.I.T.

Jorge-Luis Pallo and Trieu Tran (as Qian Xuesen) discuss aerospace engineering.
Photo by Angel Origgi

After leaving his father behind, as well as his young girlfriend who has decided to follow her family to Europe to study opera, Xuesen quickly advanced through the ranks at MIT and then Caltech due to his incredible analytical mind focused on aerospace engineering. He became a pioneer of the American space age, co-founding JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and helped the United States of America win World War II.

(L-R) Russell Edge, Trieu Tran, Iris Liu and Jorge-Luis Pallo
Photo by Randy Wong-Westbrooke

But as extreme nationalism swelled in the U.S. and the Cold War began in the mid-1950s, Xuesen soon found himself accused of being a Communist spy, simply because he was born in China and had worked with other suspected communists on the American rocketry program. Caught between war and politics, America and China, and incarcerated for over five years on Terminal Island in little more than a jail cell while awaiting deportation, what happened to him next shaped the future of both his new and native homelands.

Qian Xuesen's devoted wife Jiang Ying must deal with rising anti-Communism hate while her husband is detained on Terminal Island.
(L-R) Russell Edge, Iris Liu and Jorge-Luis Pallo
Photo by Angel Origgi

But why would the American government want to send such a dedicated space age technologist back to a communist country, now sided with Russia during the Cold War, allowing Xuesen to take his massive knowledge of the American space program with him? That’s the question Henry Ong attempted to answer by letting us see both sides of the situation to examine how racial prejudice overruled reason, allowing a founding father of American rocketry to later become known as the father of Chinese rocketry – giving that country nuclear capacity.

(L-R) Iris Liu, Trieu Tran 
Photo by Randy Wong-Westbrooke

The four-person cast is brilliantly led by Trieu Tran who authentically shares all the emotions, successes and disappointments suffered by Xuesen to the point of making you feel as if you really understand his heart and soul as well as his importance in the world, and the lovely Iris Liu as his opera-singing and devoted wife Jiang Ying who sticks by her husband for better or worse. The deep-felt love between these two characters is ever-present in their scenes together, allowing us to understand how their partnership supported Xuesen to succeed no matter the obstacles he faced.

Versatile actors Russell Edge and Jorge-Luis Pallo portray all the other characters in the play, including every person who came in contact with Xuesen and Ying during their entire lives - from school administrators to aerospace engineers, government officials to their children, all the while moving set pieces on and off stage to reflect scene changes and switching costume pieces designed by Mylette Nora for each character they portray, often in a matters of seconds. And each character was presented with unique physicality and vocal variation, making each a standout and totally unique.

Randy Wong-Westbrooke’s scenic design; lighting design by Joey Guthman.
Photo by Patrizia Barretto

But the most striking element of the production, other than Wyenn’s incredible direction, is Randy Wong-Westbrooke’s scenic design which features a half-dome representation of a rocket engine with a two-step platform upon which, or in front of, all the scenes take place, with Yuki Izumihara’s projection design featured at its center to reflect various locales, even among the stars. Lighting designer Joey Guthman, sound designer John Zalewski, and props designer Brittany White each add their technical wizardry to the overall magnificence of the production. Kudos also to casting director Shyree Mezick, production stage manager Jacob Padilla, and assistant director Shuwen Cao.

Qian Xuesen (Trieu Tran) enjoys playing golf in America. Photo by Angel Origgi

Producers Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Robert Meadow, and the playwright’s sister Stella Ong, joined by associate producer Matthew Black, wanted to cement Ong’s place in Los Angeles theatre history with this production to cap off his amazing career. And they have succeeded beyond any expectation I had prior to seeing it. Its world premiere is made possible with generous support from Carrie Menkel-Meadow and Robert Meadow, as well as individual donors and STAR, the Skylight Theatre Artist Residency program.

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