Pan Asian Rep Launches 34th Season With WE ARE, FALLING LEAVES et al., 10/16

Tisa Chang, Artistic Producing Director announces that Pan Asian Repertory Theatre will launch their 34th season with readings of three new plays by women playwrights representing voices from Vietnam, Chinese America and Hawaii: WE ARE (Oct 16 at 7:00pm) by Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc; FALLING LEAVES (Nov 12 at 7:00pm and 13 at 3:00pm) by Adeline Yen Mah; and AIR AND ANGELS (Dec 2 and 3 at 7:00pm) by Anne Noelani Miyamoto. All readings are open to the public with a suggested $10 donation, and are held at ART/New York spaces, 520 8th Ave, 3rd Floor. Reservations required,contact Pan Asian Rep: 212-868-4030 or info@panasianrep.org.

WE ARE is a world premiere that builds on Pan Asian's two-year collaboration with playwright/director Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc. The production features a Vietnamese cast including Tran T. Thuc Hanh, Daniel Le, Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong, Tiffany Rothman, Jennifer Ha Than and Chantal Thuy. Fusing western style Greek chorus, Vietnamese legend and traditional theatrical techniques and southern style of opera, WE ARE introduces 5 powerful female characters in 5 chapters. Portions of the material will be performed in Vietnamese with English narration, integrating movement, music and video to tell the story of Vietnamese women and girls sold into marriage abroad.

Inspired by the New York Times Best Seller, FALLING LEAVES is a Chinese Cinderella story by Adeline Yen Mah. Born to the successful Yen family of pre-revolution Shanghai and Tianjin, outcast after her mother's death and enduring neglect, the story's heroine ultimately finds love and success in the west. The play chronicles two pivotal meetings in 1988 and 1990 of four siblings as they struggle for answers and closure to destructive events of the past. The production will be directed by film and stage star, and Pan Asian veteran director, Tina Chen (Fairy Bones with Lucy Liu; Tea by Velina Houston). The cast stars Pan Asian senior artists Raul Aranas (Miss Saigon, Tooth of Crime) and Rosanne Ma (China Doll, Joy Luck Club); and Nancy Eng (Secret of O-Sono); Ariel Estrada (Kwatz!, Shogun Macbeth); and Ming Lee (Joy Luck Club, Pacific Overtures).

AIR AND ANGELS, written and directed by Anne Noelani Miyamoto, explores Hawaiian language, legend and culture. It is the story of the ghost of Jack Mana, who visits his long neglected family seeking redemption with only one day left before he crosses into the netherworld. AIR AND ANGELS stars Kaipo Schwab (Shogun Macbeth) as Jack.

Founded in 1977, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre is the East Coast's largest producer of Asian American theatre. For 33 years, our investment has been in our artists, and we create Asian classics and new works under the highest standards of professional excellence. Under the continued leadership of Tisa Chang, the company's renowned Masterpieces from China, Japan, India, Korea, Cambodia, Tibet, and Asian America hold a mirror to history and society with searing questions. We continue our artistic tradition of opening doors for Asian American artists and service to diverse communities, and we build new bridges nationally and internationally with Vietnam Project II: Past and Present.

Pan Asian is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State's 62 counties; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; Queens Council member Peter Koo; Shubert and Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundations. Educational programs are supported, in part, by MetLife Foundation and Con Edison.

WE ARE is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Visit http://www.panasianrep.org/index.shtml for more information.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:
Nguyen Thi Minh NGOC (Playwright/Director, We Are) is a theatre director, writer, playwright, theatrical professor, and principal of Tran Huu Trang Theater (a traditional arts training school), journalist and co-founder of Small Theatre, an initiative to reinvigorate the performing arts in Vietnam. She has written and directed many plays and screenplays, including The Missing Woman (Pan Asian Rep), "Hai Nguyet," which won the "A" prize of the National Cinema Association and was shown at the 3 Continents Festival in Nantes, France 1998, and the upcoming Vietnamese feature film that will be internationally released, "OrientAl Pearls."

ADELINE YEN MAH (Playwright, Falling Leaves) is the author of Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter, an ALA Best Book for Young Readers and a Publishers Weekly Best Book. Her other books include the New York Times best-seller Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter; A Thousand Pieces of Gold: A Memoir of China's Past Through Its Proverbs; and Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Traditions, and Spiritual Wisdom. Ms. Yen Mah was born in Tianjin, China.

ANNE NOELANI MIYAMOTO (Playwright/Director, Air and Angels) Born and raised in Hawai'i, she has lived most of her life in New York City. Plays include The Mango Tree (winner ‘09 Hawai'I Prize and archived in the Hamilton Library Univ. in the Pacific/Hawai'iCollection); Feets (winner the ‘08 15th Annual NJ Wordsmith Competition), and most recently Air and Angels, which was staged in part by Pan Asian Rep as part of the NEWWORKS 2010 series, and workshopped at the Marblehead Little Theatre. She was a Woolrich Fellow at Columbia University and awarded writing residence fellowships to Yaddo, Ragdale and Virginia Center for the Arts.
Tina Chen (Director, Falling Leaves) is a Golden Globe, Emmy and Drama Desk nominee. She has directed a number of plays at various theaters in New York, including for Pan Asian Rep Lucy Liu's debut in Fairy Bones and Tea. On Broadway, she co-produced the play Passion by Peter Nichols (starring Frank Langella), and received a Drama Desk Award nomination as part of the producing team for The Rink by Terrence McNally (starring Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli).