Crowded Fire Theater Opens THE HUNDRED FLOWERS PROJECT World Premiere, 10/29

Crowded Fire Theater concludes its "Season of Revolution" with the world premiere of THE HUNDRED FLOWERS PROJECT by San Francisco playwright Christopher Chen.

"This season Crowded Fire Theater has presented plays that offer a powerful portrait of possession, invasion, and revolution with a breathtaking theatricality," says Artistic Director Marissa Wolf, "We are excited to announce that THE HUNDRED FLOWERS PROJECT by Christopher Chen has been awarded The 2012 Rella Lossy Playwrights Award administered by the San Francisco Foundation."

Co-produced by Crowded Fire Theater and Playwrights Foundation THE HUNDRED FLOWERS PROJECT by Christopher Chen opens on Monday October 29 (Previews Oct. 25, 26, 27) and runs through November 17 at Thick House, 1695 18th St. in San Francisco.

Christopher Chen's THE HUNDRED FLOWERS PROJECT takes place during a politically charged election year in the U.S. and a collective of "Generation D" actors are collaborating on a new play conveniently titled "The Hundred Flowers Project" about one of the most defining socio-political phenomena of the 20th Century: Mao Tse Tung and the birth of modern China. In an effort to connect the power of today's media to the propaganda employed throughout China's Cultural Revolution, they expertly exploit 21st Century multimedia tools of the masses. As their play-within-a-play, "The Hundred Flowers Project" becomes a world-wide high-tech spectacle, events from the actors' real lives mysteriously begin to infiltrate the story. And when the play spins out of control, this earnest troupe of players unexpectedly finds itself in serious danger. As the play takes on a life of its own, paralleling Mao's revolutionary movement figuratively and literally, we are left to wonder just who-or what-has taken over their narrative?

The show runs October 29 - November 17 with Press Night set for Monday, October 29 (Previews Oct. 25 & 26). Special Performance with Rella Lossy Playwrights Award and Reception is set for October 27. Performances run Wed-Saturdays 8 PM with Opening Night Monday, October 29 8PM. 

Prices range from $10-$35 progressively during the course of the run. Crowded Fire offers Pay-What-You-Can Preview performances and student/senior/group rates. Tickets: Visit www.crowdedfire.org for more information and to purchase tickets. Box Office by phone 415-746-9238.

THE HUNDRED FLOWERS PROJECT was one of the high points of the 2012 Bay Area Playwrights Festival readings. Directed by Desdemona Chiang, the cast for this premiere production includes Crowded Fire Resident Artist Cindy Im, along with Will Dao, Anna Ishida, Charisse Loriaux, Wiley Naman Strasser and Ogie Zulueta. Featured designers include Maya Linke (set design), Heather Basarab (light design), Miyuki Bierlein (costume design), Wesley Cabral (video design), Brendan Aanes (sound design), with dramaturgy by Crowded Fire Resident Artist Sonia Fernandez.

"The meta theater embedded in the script [TTHE HUNDRED FLOWERS PROJECT by Christopher Chen] showed a fresh and challenging voice. This script broke the fourth and fifth wall of the theater formally, but it was also in the end a moving, beautiful play with great characters. I think this is where theater can be the most potent, taking the theater moment and flipping it to reveal truths about our lives, catching the audience off guard and allowing them to see the world differently." remarked Mark Russell, the Director of the Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theatre in New York and the juror for 2012 Rella Lossy Playwrights Award. The award is administered by the San Francisco Foundation.

"For me, Mao's reign marks the start of the modern era, where supreme power is given to those who can control the narrative of mass consciousness." states Christopher Chen "By mingling technology with history, I aim to draw parallels to our chaotic, Facebook-a-tized mass consciousness, and the current and upcoming power struggles over its narrative."

Christopher Chen (Playwright) Chen's plays include Into the Numbers, The Window Age and Aulis: An Act of Nihilism in One Long Act. His work has been produced and developed at Central Works, Beijing Fringe Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Silk Road Theatre Project, Lark Play Development Center, hotINK Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theatre, Theatre Mu, Fluid Motion, Bay One Acts/Instrumental Theatre, Cutting Ball Theater, Just Theatre, Asian American Theater Company, and Crowded Fire Theater, co commissioner and producer of The Hundred Flowers Project with Playwrights Foundation. Honors include 2nd Place in the Belarus Free Theater International Competition of Modern Dramaturgy, a Ford Foundation Emerging Writer of Color Grant, finalist status for the Jerome Fellowship, and the Rella Lossy Playwriting Award (for The Hundred Flowers Project ). He is a resident playwright at the Playwrights Foundation, a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, and holds an M.F.A. in playwriting from S.F. State.

Desdemona Chiang (Director) Chiang is a stage director based in San Francisco and Seattle. She is Associate Artistic Director of Impact Theatre in Berkeley and Co-Founder/Associate Artist of Azeotrope, a Seattle-based artist consortium. She has directed at Crowded Fire Theater, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Balagan Theatre, SIS Productions, and Cornish College of the Arts. Assistant Directing/Dramaturgy: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playmakers Rep, ACT Seattle, Arizona Theatre Company. Ms. Chiang is a former Drama League Directing Fellow and a TCG Young Leader of Color. She is an Associate member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and an alumna of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and Directors Lab West. BA, Integrative Biology and Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies: University of California at Berkeley. MFA Directing: University of Washington School of Drama.

Sonia Fernandez (Dramaturg) is a scholar, translator and dramaturg specializing in new work. She has worked with various Bay Area and San Diego theater companies, including Playwrights Foundation, Brava, Cutting Ball, Magic, Moxie, Playwrights Project, PlayGround and Crowded Fire, with which she is a proud company member. Recent projects include production dramaturgy for The Dybbuk and assistant directing on Lauren Yee's Hookman at UC San Diego; new play dramaturgy for M by Karen Li with Playwrights Project. Upcoming: The Fantasy Project a dance theater piece with Anya Cloud and The Bereaved by Thomas Bradshaw with Crowded Fire. A doctoral student at UCSD, Sonia's research focuses on humor, race and spectatorship. Sonia received her A.B. in English from Princeton and Master's in Theater from SF State.

ABOUT THE RELLA LOSSY PLAYWRIGHTS AWARD: This award honors the memory of the late Rella Lossy, a lifelong lover and champion of the American theatre and playwriting. She published several plays, served as the theatre editor of Bay Area Review, and was a founding member of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. She was also an actress, poet, and supporter of the arts in Bay Area. This competitive award is given annually in perpetuity from an endowment created by Dr. Frank Lossy, Rella's devoted husband. The Rella Lossy Playwrights Award is by nomination only.

The San Francisco Foundation (TSFF) is the community foundation serving the Bay Area since 1948, granting more than $800 million over the past ten years. TSFF brings together donors and builds on community assets through grantmaking, leveraging, and leadership development to make a greater impact in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and San Mateo counties. By focusing on people, organizations, neighborhoods, and policy, advocacy, and organizing, the Foundation addresses community needs in the areas of community health, education, arts and culture, community development, and the environment.

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