Mia Chung's CATCH AS CATCH CAN Delays Opening Night Due to COVID-19

Playwrights Horizons' production of Mia Chung's Catch as Catch Can, directed by Daniel Aukin, has delayed its opening night due to COVID-19. After recently cancelling performances October 26-29, the show will now open on November 9.

Set deep in blue-collar New England, Catch as Catch Can centers on the Phelans and the Lavecchias as they welcome home a recently-engaged prodigal son-setting off an evolving crisis that reshapes their lives, and the play itself.

In this surprising, theatrically demanding work, actors double in roles of father and daughter, mothers and sons. As the families gather for the holidays, the weight of familial expectations bears down on the younger generation; such community pressure and the very meaning of family finds heightened expression in a theatrical high-wire act, as the actors acrobatically play across gender, generation, and race.

Catch as Catch Can originated when Chung was commissioned to create a one-act based on interviews with two actors-one of Irish American origin, the other Italian American. Chung asked one of the actors about his mother and met with a curt, unyielding response: "Ma, yeah. She's tough." Chung was further struck when the second actor had virtually the same verbatim response. Chung recalls, "It was clear: 'you don't talk about the sacred cow of 'Ma.'" Attempts to extract further understanding of their mothers flatly failed, prompting Chung's impulse: "I'm going to make them play their mothers."

Catch as Catch Can originally premiered to acclaim by Page 73 Productions. Directed by Daniel Aukin (Admissions, Fool For Love, Bad Jews), the upcoming Playwrights Horizons production features a revised script and an entirely new creative team-an opportunity to bring a new and unique production of Chung's beguiling play to life. Throughout Catch as Catch Can, two off-stage characters-a Korean and a Korean American-have a pivotal impact on the lives of the Phelans and Lavecchias. With an Asian American cast embodying the play's Irish- and Italian-American roles, this production amplifies the play's keen demonstration of the slipperiness of identity and creates a unique lens to examine ambient projections and stereotypes of race, culture, class, and difference.

The cast includes Cindy Cheung (Playwrights: Log Cabin; The Civilians' The Great Immensity) as father Lon Lavecchia and daughter Daniela Lavecchia; Jon Norman Schneider (Awake and Sing!, The Oldest Boy) as mother Roberta Lavecchia and son Robbie Lavecchia; and Rob Yang (Succession, American Rust) as mother Theresa Phelan and son Tim Phelan. The creative team features Matt Saunders (Scenic Designer), Enver Chakartash (Costume Designer), Marika Kent (Lighting Designer), and Bray Poor (Sound Designer). Stage management includes Genevieve Ortiz (Production Stage Manager), Zach Brecheen (Assistant Stage Manager), and Eva Shannon-Dabek (Stage Management Fellow).