New York Mandarin Playback Presents BETWEEN THIS CITY AND ME

New York Mandarin Playback (NYMP), the first Mandarin-speaking playback theatre in New York City, celebrates its 3rd anniversary by acting out the stories about metropolitan living experiences in the improv show BETWEEN THIS CITY AND ME.

Different from traditional theatre production, NYMP follows what Jonathan Fox created in 1970s the forms of playback theatre-the show has no script or rehearsal, the only "script" is audiences' personal experience and stories.

"Everyone is so unique and everyone's story matters" said Lena Gu, the President of NYMP.

Founded in 2016, NYMP is an experimental collaboration that aims to serve the Mandarin-speaking community in New York. The backgrounds of the actors vary-from psychology, literature, nursing, finance, education, and theatre. Starting as a workshop, now NYMP has become a theatre group with a growing reputation in Chinese, Taiwanese, and Asian-American communities.

"We are not professionally-trained actors, but we are able to 'embody' your stories by opening our minds and listening to you non-judgmentally," said Yu-chen Lin, one of the Founders.

Besides the celebration of its third anniversary, NYMP's BETWEEN THIS CITY AND ME is also an echo to the 8th International Playback Festival. "It's time to be together," claimed Ilya Bezrukov, the Moscow-based playbacker who launched the event and invited playback theatre groups from all over the globe to showcase themselves at 7pm (the local time) on May 25, 2019.

"Just like the white fog lifted from the morning Manhattan, and the rosy skyscrapers glittered in sunset, our daily lives in this city are so colorful and I am ready to hear other's sharing," said Kevin Lin, the actor of NYMP.

BETWEEN THIS CITY AND ME opens at 5/25, 7pm EDT in Simple Studios, midtown Manhattan.