Capital Stage to Present THE CHINESE LADY Beginning This Month

Capital Stage will continue its 18th season with the third production of the 2022/23 Season: the award-winning play by Lloyd Suh entitled THE CHINESE LADY. Michelle Talgarow, previously seen in VIETGONE at Capital Stage, will be making her directing debut with the company. The cast will feature returning actor Rinabeth Apostol (VIETGONE, THE GREAT LEAP - A Virtual Production, SMART PEOPLE), and will be introducing Leon Goertzen to Sacramento audiences. Performances will be available as live performances and virtually on demand from January 25 through February 26, 2023, with a Press Opening on Saturday, January 28 at 8:00 pm. Tickets & Subscriptions are available now at capstage.org.

Inspired by the true story of the first Chinese woman to step foot in America, Lloyd Suh's critically acclaimed play is a tale of dark poetic whimsy and a unique portrait of the United States as seen through the eyes of a young Chinese girl. In 1834, 14-year-old Afong Moy sailed into New York Harbor and was immediately put on display for a paying public who were mesmerized by her exotic ways and horrified by her tiny bound feet. As audiences follow Moy's travels through America as a living exhibit for decades, THE CHINESE LADY tells her story while also casting a powerful lens on the long history of Anti-Asian ugliness and exoticization in America.

THE PLAYWRIGHT

Lloyd Suh is the author of The Chinese Lady, Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery, American Hwangap, The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!, Jesus in India, and others, produced with Ma-Yi, Magic Theatre, EST, NAATCO, PlayCo, Denver Center, Milwaukee Rep, ArtsEmerson, Children's Theatre Co, and more, including internationally at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and with PCPA in Seoul, Korea. He has received support from the NEA Arena Stage New Play Development program, Mellon Foundation, NYFA, NYSCA, Jerome, TCG, Dramatists Guild, and residencies including NYS&F and Ojai. He is an alum of Youngblood and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and was a recipient of a 2016 Helen Merrill Award, the 2019 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the 2020 Horton Foote Prize, and the 2022 Steinberg Playwright Award. From 2005-2010 he served as Artistic Director of Second Generation and Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and has served since 2011 as the Director of Artistic Programs at The Lark, and since 2015 as a member of the Dramatists Guild Council.

DIRECTOR

Michelle Talgarow (she/hers) is thrilled to be back at Capital Stage with a director's cap on. She performed in Capital Stage's production of VIETGONE in 2019. Michelle is a Kalmyk/Filipina theatre maker in the Bay Area for over 25 years. Her most recent directing credits are, MAN OF GOD with Shotgun Players in Berkeley where she is also an artistic company member, and BALIKBAYAN BOX with TheatreFIRST, written by Jeffrey Lo, director of VIETGONE. Michelle is also a proud member of the all AAPI Bay Area theatre collective, Ferocious Lotus. Michelle is currently an adjunct professor at University of San Francisco.

THE CHINESE LADY is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc. New York.

Co-world premiere presented at Barrington Stage (Julianne Boyd, Artistic Director; Branden Huldeen, Artistic Producer), Pittsfield, MA, July 2018

Commissioned by and co-world premiere presented by Ma-Yi Theater Company (Ralph B. Peña, Artistic Director) in New York City  Developed with support of the Roe Green Award at Cleveland Play House.