DAYBREAK World Premiere Headlines Pan Asian Rep's 41st Season

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre has announced today its 41st Season of "expanding on themes of social justice and historical amnesia" with the return engagement of the critically acclaimed play No-No Boy by Ken Narasaki, adapted from the novel by John Okado, directed by Ron Nakahara, and the world premiere of the new play Daybreak by Joyce Van Dyke, directed by Lucie Tiberghien.

The 41st Season will begin the company's multi - year process for growth and transition towards a visionary new future with national and international collaborations.

Following a critically acclaimed engagement in 2016 No-No Boy by Ken Naraski, adapted from the groundbreaking novel by John Okada, and directed by Ron Nakahara, in tandem with Day of Remembrance, returns for a special limited run in February. Set after World War II as Japanese Americans return to the West Coast, the play follows draft resister Ichiro Yamada after he is released from prison and struggles to come to terms with the consequences of his choices, while the rest of the community tries to get back on its feet after a war that has uprooted them all. "'No-No Boy' is an extraordinary and essential play... I can only urge everyone who cares about how theater connects to this country's past and future to catch Pan Asian Rep's 'No-No Boy' wherever whenever you can," declared John Stoltenberg from DC Metro Theatre Arts. The return engagement begins February 7, 2018 and will continue through February 18, 2018 at The Studio Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street).

The world premiere of Daybreak by Joyce Van Dyke, directed by Lucie Tiberghien, is a powerful new play that highlights Armenian-American history. Set in three-time periods, the play is inspired by the true stories of two women friends, survivors of the Armenian genocide and using memory, dreams, music, carries the story of these women into the 21st century to celebrate the endurance of the human spirit. Performances begin April 21, 2018 for a limited engagement through May 13, 2018 at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). Opening Night is set for April 26, 2018.

Tisa Chang shared, "We are proud to collaborate with Joyce Van Dyke to bring the world premiere of Daybreak to diverse groups in New York City with a prestigious award of $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts. Daybreak's Opening Night on April 26 is during a week of meaningful Armenian commemoration."

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre will host the 2017 Golden Unicorn Gala Dinner on Thursday, November 9, 2017 at The Golden Unicorn in Chinatown (18 East Broadway at Catherine Street). The 2017 Honorees are Ron Nakahara (Actor/Director), Andrea Louie (Art & Community Advocate) and a Special In Memoriam to
Edward Sakamoto, whose plays were produced at Pan Asian Rep (Yellow Is My Favorite Color, Manoa Valley, Life of The Land, Aloha Las Vegas, and Fishing for Wives).

For additional information on Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, or to purchase tickets, please visit the website www.panasianrep.org, or via email at info@panasianrep.org. or by calling (212) 868-4030.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Ken Narasaki (Playwright, No-No boy) is an actor/writer and former Artistic Associate and Literary Manager at East West Players. As a playwright, his Innocent When You Dream won the 2007 Kumu Kahua Pacific Rim Playwrights Award, and was Critic's Choice by the LA Times and Pick of the Week by the LA Weekly in 2007; It was presented at the Smithsonian in February, 2008 for the Day of Remembrance of Executive Order 9066. The Mikado Project (in collaboration with Doris Baizley) won the 2008-09 Pacific Rim Playwriting Award and was produced by the Lodestone Theatre Ensemble in 2007; it has been adapted as an independent film by Chil Kong. Ghosts and Baggage was produced by Zygote at the Los Angeles Theater Center in 1998, and had staged readings at EWP, JANM, Mu Performing Arts (Minneapolis), and Audrey Skirball Kenis Theatre Projects. His work has been published in Disorient Journal and Prick of the Spindle. His adaptation of John Okada's No-No Boy received a 2009 California Civil Liberties Grant, and was produced by Timescape Arts Group at the Miles Memorial Theater in Santa Monica in 2010 and at Pan Asian Rep in 2014 and 2016.

Ron Nakahara (Director, No-No Boy) has been an actor/director in New York City since 1979 and was designated a Senior Artist with Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in 1987 and is an Artistic Associate. Ron has directed one-woman shows at Don't Tell Mama and The Duplex, and has worked extensively with and directed the Asian-American performance group SLANT at La MaMa ETC, and NYSF Public Theatre. His other directing credits in New York include NAATCO, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. His regional credits include The Studio Theatre (Washington, DC), Hartford Stage Co., Fulton Opera House (Lancaster, PA) where his production of Miss Ever's Boys won him a best director award, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, New York State Theatre Institute, Hangar Theatre (Ithaca,) Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Virginia Stage Company (Norfolk,) and Actor's Theatre of Louisville. In addition, Ron has also directed for New York University and Virginia Commonwealth University. He has served on several NEA panels and was one of the first recipients of an NEA/TCG Directing Fellowship. He is a member of SDC, SAG-AFTRA, and AEA.

Joyce Van Dyke (Playwright, Daybreak) was inspired to write Daybreak by the stories of her Armenian maternal grandparents. An early version of the script under the title Deported/A Dream Play received a workshop production in Boston. In 2015, Daybreak was produced by Tufts University, and was also translated into Armenian, funded by the Armenian Ministry of Culture. The script has had staged readings in London, Yerevan, and numerous U.S. venues. Joyce's other plays dealing with Armenian culture and history include A Girl's War, produced by Golden Thread Productions (2009), New Repertory Theatre (2003), and Boston Playwrights' Theatre (2001), winner of the Gassner Award and the Boston Globe's "Top Ten" plays of 2001; and the commissioned play, Friends of Armenia, produced at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall (2015). Her new play, The Women Who Mapped The Stars, co-commissioned by The Poets' Theatre and Central Square Theater, will have its world premiere at Central Square Theater in 2018, inaugurating The Brit D'Arbeloff Women in Science Production Series. Other plays include The Oil Thief, commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre / Sloan Project, produced by Boston Playwrights' Theatre, and winner of the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script (2009). She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow, and teaches playwriting and Shakespeare at Northeastern and Harvard.

Lucie Tiberghien (Director, Daybreak) Upcoming: Terminus, Gabriel Jason Dean, (NYTW Next Door). In development: Resurrection City, A new musical by Stew (Passing Strange). New York credits: The Other Thing, by Emily Schwend (Second Stage); Soldier X by Rehana Mirza (Ma-Yi Theater Company); Don't Go Gentle by Stephen Belber (MCC); Blind and The Pavilion by Craig Wright (Rattlestick Theater Company); Hoodoo Love by Katori Hall (Cherry Lane Theater); A Small Melodramatic Story and Geometry of Fire by Stephen Belber (LAByrinth Theater Company, Rattlestick); Regional: Queens for a year, TD Mitchell, Hartford Stage, Pen/Man/Ship and The Ashes Under Gait City by Christina Anderson (Portland Playhouse, Contemporary American Theater Festival); Blueprints to Freedom by Michael Benjamin Washington (La Jolla Playhouse, and Kansas City Rep); Love in Afghanistan by Charles Randolph Wright (Arena Stage, DC); The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar (Milwaukee Rep); Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes (Arden Theater); Blood and Gifts by JT Rogers (La Jolla Playhouse); Great Falls and Flag Day by Lee Blessing (Humana Festival, CATF). Education: Webster University, Geneva, Switzerland, BA in International Studies. www.lucietiberghien.com

Tisa Chang (Pan Asian Rep Founding Artistic Producing Director) has led the company since inception promoting stories seldom told and voices seldom heard. She is theatre professional for 5 decades as actor, dancer director and highlights include: 2015's Sayonara; 2007'sThe Joy Luck Club, intercultural epic Cambodia Agonistes which toured nationally and to Cairo and Johannesburg, Kwatz! The Tibetan Project, and Rashomon which was invited to Havana Theatre Festival in 2003. She innovated premieres, in English and Mandarin Chinese of the Peking opera, Return of the Phoenix, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, celebrating its 41st Milestone, was founded in 1977 by Tisa Chang and core artists at La Mama with the help of the late Ellen Stewart, where she used Artistry in Action to counter stereotyped casting, and to broaden the theatrical vocabulary of American theatre. PAN ASIAN REP is regarded as a pioneer for artistic excellence and service - with an Off-Broadway Season, Training/Outreach, Play Development- and is recognized by diverse communities, press and the American theatre mainstream. Mel Gussow of The New York Times described it as "A Stage for All the World of Asian -Americans" and wrote that "Before Pan Asian Rep, Asian Americans had severely limited opportunities in the theater..." The company has nurtured thousands of artists and is a "who-is-who" of Asian American theatre history, with notable alumni/ae including Lucy Liu currently seen on CBS TV's Elementary, and Daniel Dae Kim on Hawaii 5-0.

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