Flushing Town Hall To Present Asian And Asian American Storytelling This Fall

Flushing Town Hall will present virtual Asian programming this fall with a focus on highlighting stories of Asian/ Asian American experience. The season will kick off with a play reading of Jaime Sunwoo's Specially Processed American Me on September 2, and featuring Spica Wobbe's Hand in Hand storytelling through shadow theater in September and October, and Marcus Yi's Lucky 88 premiere on October 4. These stories range from tracing one's roots and discovering family stories, as well as experience building a new life in America.

The series of events begin with a play reading and talkback of Jaime Sunwoo's Specially Processed American Me, presented by Queens Council on the Arts' Artist Commissioning Program (ACP) and Flushing Town Hall, on September 2 from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM EDT.

The play is a surreal autobiographical performance using SPAM, the canned meat, as a portal into her Asian American upbringing and her family's experiences of the Korean War. It investigates SPAM's legacy in the military, its significance in the Asia-Pacific, and its influence on Asian cuisine through music, shadowplay, and cooking. Oscillating wildly between absurd humor and sober tragedy, Specially Processed American Me is a thought-provoking exploration of one of America's most misunderstood foods.

This event is free though RSVP's are required. Registered attendees will receive an email with the watch link. Learn more information at http://www.flushingtownhall.org/acp-live.

The play was written by Jaime Sunwoo, directed by Karim Muasher, and dramaturgy and stage management is by Alex Lee. Music, lyrics, and stream tech are by Matt Chilton. Performances are by Jaime Sunwoo, Juella Baltonado, Arielle Rabano, Yurina Kutsukake, Adrianna Mateo, Eunji Lim, and Nathaniel Basch-Gould. Stage directions are read by Vanessa Rappa. Visual designs are provided by Jaime Sunwoo, Kyu Shin, and Cinthia Chen.

Jaime Sunwoo is a Korean American multidisciplinary artist from Brooklyn, New York. She combines video, audio, sculpture, and storytelling to create sensory performances in galleries, theaters, and public spaces. She studied art at Yale University, and is an alum of the Laundromat Project for socially engaged art. Her work has been seen at JACK, Abrons Art Center, BAX, The Tank, Flux Factory, Open Source Gallery, DUMBO Arts Festival, and Art in Odd Places. She is one of the hundred women artists commissioned for Park Avenue Armory's 100 Years | 100 Women. She was a resident artist for HB Studio Rehearsal Space Residency and received awards from the Queens Council on the Arts' Artist Commissioning Program and the NYC Women's Fund for Specially Processed American Me, a performance reflecting on the significance of SPAM in the Asian American community.

On October 4 at 2:00 PM EDT, Queens Council on the Arts and Flushing Town Hall, as part of the Artist Commissioning Program, will present a two-hour virtual showcase of Marcus Yi's Lucky 88 Food Court the Musical, a new musical theatre piece. Inspired by all of the food courts in Flushing, this new musical uses the food court environment to explore the multi-faceted lives of people that the average American might not otherwise get a chance to know. To learn more, visit http://www.flushingtownhall.org/acp-live.

The show focuses on three food stalls and the people that work there: 60-year-old Shen Zha Wang at the hand pulled noodle stall struggling to put his son through law school; 50-year-old widow Mei Ling Fu at the dumpling stall who is ready to start dating again; and 50-year-old Si Ling Xiu at the boba tea stall hiding her cancer diagnosis from her daughter.

Marcus Yi is an award-winning musical theater writer and composer based in New York. He was the winner of 11th Annual NJ Playwrights Contest (Musical), was named one of Indie Theater Now's 2014 People of the Year, an inaugural member of the 92nd Street Y Musical Theater Development Lab Collective, and 2018 member of Prospect Musical Theater Lab. His work has been produced by the National Asian Artists Project, Yangtze Rep, Prospect Theater, Pan Asian Rep, and Ingenue Theater. His musicals have been seen at the New York Times Center, Green Room 42, The Duplex, and National Opera Center.

Finally, starting in late September and all through October, Spica Wobbe will present Hand in Hand: Storytelling Through Shadow Puppetry, a three-part series with performance and workshops in English and Mandarin. In the performance (for audiences age 10 and older), a mother holds her daughter's hand, which conveys how the previous generation took care of the next generation. Through shadow puppets, light, music and storytelling, it also tells how a self-taught artist, Ms. Shia Zhaozhi, used her paintings to document her life stories growing up in Taipei, Taiwan.

Follow the performance, there will be a storytelling workshop and a shadow theater workshop, and participants will have a chance to create their own story and bring it to life with shadow puppetry.

Spica Wobbe (Shu-yun Cheng) is a puppetry artist - and a Flushing Town Hall Teaching Artist - originally from Taiwan. Her work has been seen in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Holland, Germany, Israel, Austria and the U.S. Now based in NYC, she works as a puppetry designer, performer and educator. She received her M.A. in Educational Theater from New York University in 2003. She established Double Image Theater Lab in 2011 to create cross-cultural productions that explore the world of the past and the present. Spica received the Exemplary Teaching Artist Award from New York University in 2014. She is a two-time recipient of the Jim Henson Foundation grant and is a 2015 Sandglass Theater New Vision Series Resident Artist. Spica was the featured artist in Shadow, Light... Hide & Seek Exhibit at WenShan Theater in Taipei in 2015 and "Heaven of Puppets Exhibit" at Taipei Puppet Museum in 2016.

Both the storytelling workshop and the shadow theater workshop encourages participants to create their original stories, make shadow puppets and perform together with their family members.

Hand in Hand will be presented in English on September 30, and October 7 and 13; and in Mandarin on October 1, 8 and 15. All presentations will be at 7:00 PM. To learn more about the program and updates on how to RSVP, please visit: http://flushingtownhall.org/hand-in-hand. Although it is highly encouraged that people attend all three events in the series, audiences can select any number of events (and content will still be understandable).

Global Music Month

Flushing Town Hall also is participating in the Global Music Month 2020 online festival for a month-long celebration of international music this season. The festival featuring concerts, presentations and panels, running from August 29th through October 1st. GMM 2020 combines 19 different U.S. and Canadian festivals and presenters' events under one banner for a celebration of international music. Each online event is unique -- with no repeat performers - offering a mix of livestreams and archived performances. globalmusicmonth.org

Fans of Flushing Town Hall can watch a replay of the highly popular 2018 Global Mashups concerts, each of which paired two, very different ensembles together on stage for a collaborative and spontaneous jam session. The 2018 mashups to be streamed weekly include: Egypt meets Haiti, featuring Zikrayat and Agoci Band; Mexico meets Guinea, featuring Banda de los Muertos and Mandingo Ambassadors; The Balkans meet El Barrio, featuring Raya Brass Band and again, Spanglish Fly; and Texas meets Peru, featuring Brian Clayton and The Green River Band and the Corina Bartra Afro Peruvian Band.

Flushing Town Hall will close the month on September 29 with a psychedelic, Korean folk music performance from Coreyah. Since their 2010 debut, Coreyah has pioneered a new style of Korean music that blends genres of contemporary ethnic and popular sounds while still maintaining the distinctive characteristics of traditional Korean instruments. Coreyah will perform LIVE music from their latest album "Clap & Applause," showcasing their long-standing effort to infuse pop into traditional music through bold, youthful style, heartfelt lyrics, and a psychedelic sound. Learn more at http://www.flushingtownhall.org/coreyah.

For details on all Global Music Month events, visit http://www.flushingtownhall.org/global-music-month. And, learn more about the Global Mashup replays at http://www.flushingtownhall.org/global-mashups-2018-replay.

Flushing Town Hall's facilities are temporarily closed to the public in accordance with COVID-19 safety regulations. Flushing Town Hall's latest statement pertaining to COVID-19 can be found here.