Finborough Theatre to Present SHANGRI-LA

Part of the Finborough Theatre's summer season of new writing, the world premiere of a first play by an exciting new playwright, Shangri-La by Amy Ng opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 12 July 2016 (Press Nights: Thursday, 14 July and Friday, 15 July 2016 at 7.30pm).

Shangri-La is not a myth. Shangri-La is a place. The Himalayan foothills of China's Yunnan Province were officially renamed 'Shangri-La' in a successful bid for the tourist dollar.

Bunny, a young indigenous woman, has witnessed her family's livelihood destroyed by mass tourism. She dreams of escape - as a globe-trotting photographer. Nelson, her liberal Chinese boss, dreams of a new kind of tourism that's sustainable and enables genuine cultural exchange. Their white Western clients yearn for escape, for the touch of something authentic. These desires collide head on in Shangri-La.

What happens when the only thing you have to sell is your culture? When the only way to free yourself is to betray your roots? Based on her personal experiences, new playwright Amy Ng lays bare the contradictions and private pain of cultural tourism.

Shangri-La is Amy Ng's first full length play. It was developed at the Tricycle Theatre and received a staged reading at Vibrant 2014 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights. It is directed by acclaimed director Charlotte Westenra.

Playwright Amy Ng trained on the Royal Court Theatre's Critical Mass Programme and the British East Asian Writers' group supported by The Young Vic. Short plays include Special Occasions (St. James Theatre and Arcola Theatre) and A Little Night Music (Bread and Roses Theatre and The Space). Stag ed readings include Acceptance as part of Vibrant 2015 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights . Prelude to a Feast won the Oxford University Film Foundation competition for Best Short Screenplay. Amy is also a historian with a research interest in multinational empires, imperial decline, and nationality conflict, and the author of Nationalism and Political Liberty (Oxford University Press)

Director Charlotte Westenra recently co-created the scenario for Christopher Wheeldon's Strapless for The Royal Ballet. She studied Drama at the University of Manchester and trained at Augusto Boal's Centre of the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro. Charlotte was Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse 2004-05 and directed Kiss of the Spider Woman and Lower Ninth for the theatre, as well as working as Associate Director to Michael Grandage for Frost/Nixon and to Jamie Lloyd for Piaf (Donmar Warehouse and Vaudeville Theatre). She went on to work at theatres including the Tricy cle Theatre, Trafalgar Studios and Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, and is currently an Associate Artist at the Gate Theatre where her productions include Sunset Baby . Theatre elsewhere includes The Return of the Soldier (Jermyn Street Theatre), Venice Preserv'd (Spectators' Guild), The 24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala (The Old Vic), Blair's Child ren (Cockpit Theatre), Titanic (Scene s from the British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry, 1912) (Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast) and Brazil and Casablanca (Secret Cinema). Charlotte has been reco gnized for numerous awards, including a 2006 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre as Associate Director to Nicolas Kent for Bloody Sunday - Scenes From The Savile Inquiry . She received a nomination for a 2006 WhatsOnStage Theatregoers' Choice Award for Gladiator Games; the same play was nominated for a 2007 Olivier Aw ard for outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for its run at Stratford East.

Producer Matthew Schmolle is Executive Director and lead producer for The Working Party Theatre Company, creating professional quality theatre in community settings. They are currently producing a series of commissions in Lewisham and launching BROADCAST - Radio Drama for Punks, Pirates and Teddy Boys www.theworkingpartyuk.org. He has produced for The Big House, Blackboard Theatre at The Vaults, The Spectators Guild and Emergency Exit Arts, and worked for Iris Theatre, Immediate Theatre and Old Vic New Voices.

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