Cast Set for Lisa Sanaye Dring's KAIROS at East West Players

East West Players will present Kairos, by Lisa Sanaye Dring and directed by Jesca Prudencio. East West Players produces Kairos as a part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The dystopian love story, supported in part by the S. Mark Taper Foundation, is the first production of East West Players' 2024 Season. Kairos premieres at the David Henry Hwang Theater April 4 through April 28, 2024 with opening night on Sunday, April 7, 2024. 

About Kairos

Kairos, by Lisa Sanaye Dring (Rogue Artists Ensemble & EWP's Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin, La Jolla Playhouse's SUMO) and directed by Jesca Prudencio (EWP's Interstate: A New Musical & Man of God), is the story of two people falling in love during a tectonic shift in society. Their nascent relationship is tested by the advent of Prometheus, a procedure that grants immortality to a select few. What happens to commitment, meaning, and care when linear time breaks open? At once a dystopian science-fiction play and a dark-comedy love story, Kairos is a deeply sensitive investigation of two humans whose ideal “happily-ever-after” is terrifyingly outpaced by relentless technological and societal upheaval.
 
Lisa Sanaye Dring, a longtime member of the East West Players community as both a performer and teaching artist, makes her EWP playwriting debut as the inaugural production of our mainstage 2024 Season. Kairos was originally developed as part of the Geffen Playhouse's Writers' Room 2021/2022. 
 
Kairos is produced at East West Players as part of a National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere. Other Partner Theaters are Know Theatre of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) and Theatre Nova (Ann Arbor, MI). For more information, please visit nnpn.org. This production is supported in part by the S. Mark Taper Foundation.
 
Tickets to Kairos may be purchased online at eastwestplayers.org or by calling (213) 625-7000.

Cast & Crew

The cast of Kairos is led by Sylvia Kwan* (ABC's Grey's Anatomy, EWP's Vietgone, Signature Theatre's King of the Yees) as Gina and Gerard Joseph* (Geffen Playhouse's The First Deep Breath; Antaeus Theater Company's SHE, Everybody, &90027: Griffith Park) as David. Kairos features Ren Hanami* (EWP's Company, Performance Anxiety, & Canton Jazz Club; CBS's Star Trek: Picard; Disney's Bunk'd) as Woman and William L. Warren (The Road Theatre Company's Scintilla, The McCadden Place Theatre's The Language Archive, Long Beach Playhouse's Sister Act & Seven Guitars) as Man. Julie Zhan (The CW's Walker: Independence, FOX's The Resident) understudies the role of Gina while Zachary Bones (Howard Ho's RESET, Ghost Road Company's Super Duper) understudies the role of David.
 
The creative team includes direction by Jesca Prudencio^ (EWP's Interstate: A New Musical & Man of God), assistant direction by Tyree Marshall (EWP's Spring Awakening), scenic design by Yi-Chien Lee (EWP's On This Side of the World, Diversionary Theatre's Dragon Mama, Sierra Madre Playhouse's King of the Yees), properties design by Zane Wayneright (Kirk Douglas Theatre, Disney), costume design by Ashphord Jacoway (EWP's The Sitayana (Or How to Make an Exit), EWP Theatre for Youth's Tam Tran goes Washington, Artists at Play's Two Mile Hollow), lighting design by Szu-Yun Wang (EWP's On This Side of the World; Long Beach Playhouse's RENT, Urinetown, Company, Sister Act), sound design & original music by Steven Leffue (Diversionary Theatre's TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX, Cygnet Theater's Angels in America, Parts 1 & 2, La Jolla Playhouse's Waiting for Godot), stage management by Brandon Hong Cheng* (EWP's Spring Awakening, Interstate: A New Musical, Assassins, Man of God; CTG's Our Dear Dead Drug Lord), and assistant stage management by Irene DH Lee (EWP's Spring Awakening).

Artist Biographies

Lisa Sanaye Dring (Playwright) is a writer and director from Hilo, Hawaii and Reno, Nevada. She wrote SUMO in EWP's writing group, which was recently produced by La Jolla Playhouse and Ma-Yi Theater Company. She has recently worked with Meow Wolf and was a member of The Geffen Writers' Room. Lisa was honored as a recipient of the 2020/21 PLAY LA Stage Raw/Humanitas Prize. She has been a finalist for the Relentless Award, the O'Neill Playwrights' Conference, the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, and a 2x finalist (one honorable mention) for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin, a piece she co-wrote with Chelsea Sutton for Rogue Artists Ensemble and East West Players, was nominated for 7 Ovation Awards including Best Production (winner of 5). Lisa's work has been developed/produced by The New Group, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Circle X, SCF @ Son of Semele, Playwrights' Arena, Rogue Artists Ensemble, UCSB Launch Pad Series, CalArts, The Motor Company, Theatre of NOTE, and Skylight Theatre. Lisa was a member of writers groups at Boston Court, Circle X, Chalk Rep, and The Vagrancy and has been awarded fellowships at MacDowell, Blue Mountain Center, and Yaddo. Lisa was awarded the 2021 Dorothy and Granville Hicks Residency at Yaddo, which honors one promising young writer a year. She received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Interactive Programming for a piece she co-wrote and co-directed with Matt Hill called Welcome to the Blumhouse Live. lisasanayedring.com
 
Jesca Prudencio (Director) is a director and choreographer dedicated to creating theatrical experiences that humanize issues and challenge form. Selected theater: Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play (Old Globe, Craig Noel Award Outstanding Director); Bald Sisters by Vichet Chum (Steppenwolf); Little Amal, Mobile Happiness Bazaar, PDA, and Can We Now? (La Jolla Playhouse WOW Festival); Kit Yan & Melissa Li's Interstate (Mixed Blood, East West Players); Lauren Yee's The Great Leap (Steppenwolf); Vietgone, Actually (San Diego Rep); Calling (La MaMa ETC); Man of God (East West Players); A&Q (Pineapple Lab, Philippines); FAN (B-Floor, Thailand). Film: American Quartet (Filmelodic, NYC), Birdhouse (Fluffle Productions, NYC). Her immersive interactive productions It's A Ship Show! and We Fancy are currently running on Virgin Voyages cruises internationally. Jesca is Head of Directing at SDSU's School of Theatre, Television, and Film; inaugural Julie Taymor World Theater Fellow. Education: BFA from NYU Tisch, MFA from UC San Diego. jescaprudencio.com

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