Mia Chung's CATCH AS CATCH CAN to be Presented at Playwrights Horizons in October

Playwrights Horizons will present Mia Chung's Catch as Catch Can, directed by Daniel Aukin, running October 14 - November 20 and opening November 1. 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.

Says Daniel Aukin, "This play is an extraordinarily thrilling marriage and collision of form and content, and I can't think of another play I've worked on that has that in such a thrillingly extreme way."

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).

"My plays' formal explorations are always driven by what I believe is the most effective way to encounter both the story and the experience of that story," says Mia Chung. "With Catch as Catch Can I wanted the audience's experience of what they're watching to mirror that felt by the characters; the character doubling articulates and enhances the propulsion of the play. I believe in performance, I believe in the actor's capacity to inhabit a character to the extent that an audience may stop seeing that the actor is a man, or is Asian, or is 30 years younger than the role they're playing. The cognitive dissonance is by design."

Playwrights Horizons Artistic Director Adam Greenfield says, "Playwrights Horizons rarely produces plays that have already premiered Off-Broadway, but Catch as Catch Can is a masterful play, an extraordinary accomplishment in writing that demands attention from the widest audience. The unraveling of these two families, the Phelans and the Lavecchias, is perfectly held by the form Mia has created to deliver it. But she barely lets us notice the brilliance of the play's structure-the characters are too well-written, and the story is too meaty. Catch As Catch Can deserves a prominent place in the American canon."

Playwrights Horizons' Commitment to Health and Safety

To best protect artists, audiences and staff, wearing face masks will continue to be required during performances at Playwrights Horizons. Please make the same change I made in the Downstate press release re: discontinuing vaccination status. The company has outlined all current updates in their health and safety policy.

The theater's ventilation system complies with the CDC's standards (MERV-13 filters), high-touch surfaces are being cleaned regularly, and paperless ticketing is offered for all performances.

Though the organization will no longer be conducting vaccination checks at the door, Playwrights Horizons encourages anyone interested in getting vaccinated to visit this site for guidance.

Performance Schedule and Ticketing

Catch as Catch Can runs October 14 - November 20 and opens November 1.

About Mia Chung (Playwright)

Playwrights debut. Off-Broadway: Catch as Catch Can (Page 73). Regional and international: You For Me For You (Woolly Mammoth, Royal Court, National Theatre Company of Korea). Awards, commissions, and residencies: Clubbed Thumb, Helen Merrill Award, Huntington, Loewe Award in Music-Theatre, Ma-Yi Lab, MTC/Sloan, New Dramatists, NYTW, Playwrights' Center, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Commission, Playwrights Realm, South Coast Rep, SPACE/Ryder Farm, Stavis Award, TCG.

About Daniel Aukin (Director)

Daniel Aukin is a New York based director. He has directed world premieres by Sam Shepard, Melissa James Gibson, Joshua Harmon, Abe Koogler, Dan LeFranc, Michael Friedman, Itamar Moses, Amy Herzog, Mark Schultz, Mac Wellman, Quincy Long and Maria Irene Fornes. Formerly the Artistic Director of Soho Rep. in New York (1998-2006) where he developed and produced premieres by Richard Maxwell, Young Jean Lee, Thomas Bradshaw, Adam Bock, Anne Washburn and Jordan Harrison among many others.  He has participated in development programs at Sundance Theater Lab, the O'Neill Playwrights' Conference and New York Stage and Film. Upcoming: Emily Feldman's The Best We Could (A Family Tragedy) and David Adjmi's Stereophonic. He has three Obie Awards.

About the Cast

Cindy Cheung (Lon Lavecchia/Daniela Lavecchia) Playwrights Horizons: Log Cabin, Iowa. Also: Golden Shield (MTC), Tiny Beautiful Things (Long Wharf), The Great Immensity (Civilians/Public), Middletown (Vineyard), The Seagull, Antigone (NAATCO), Sugar House...(Ma-Yi), Sides...(Ma-Yi/Miyagi). Film/TV: The Sinner (Netflix, October 2022), The Flight Attendant, Billions, Awkwafina, Thirteen Reasons Why, High Maintenance, Bull, Blue Bloods, New Amsterdam, Love Boat Taipei (upcoming), Mistress America, Obvious Child, Children of Invention, Lady In The Water.

Jon Norman Schneider (Roberta Lavecchia/Robbie Lavecchia) Playwrights debut. Select stage credits: The Chinese Lady (The Public), Henry VI Parts 1-3 (NAATCO), Awake and Sing! (NAATCO/The Public), The Oldest Boy (LCT), Lunch Bunch (Clubbed Thumb), Every Brilliant Thing (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Vietgone (Alley), King Lear (Northern Stage), among others. Film/TV: Bitter Melon, Manila is Full of Men Named Boy, The Normals, HBO's Angel Rodriguez, The Endgame, Jessica Jones, Veep.

Rob Yang (Theresa Phelan/Tim Phelan) Playwrights debut. New York and regional credits: A Midsummer Night's Dream (CSC), The Shanghai Gesture (Mirror Rep/Julia Miles), Bingo With The Indians (World Premiere/The Flea), The Coast Starlight (La Jolla), Chimerica (US Premiere/Studio Theatre, DC). Film/TV: Succession (HBO), The Resident (Fox), The Americans (FX), Living With Yourself (Netflix), The Now (Quibi/Roku). Upcoming: BBC's The Capture (Season 2), Searchlight Pictures' The Menu, American Rust (Showtime/Amazon), Rabbit Hole (Paramount+).

About the Creative Team

Matt Saunders (Scenic Designer). Recent Off Broadway: Daddy (New Group & Vineyard, Drama Desk Award), Pipeline (Lincoln Center), Venus (Signature), Futurity (Soho Rep and Ars Nova), Good Person of Szechwan (Foundry and the Public), The Tempest (Public Theater / Delacaorte). Over 100 regional credits including: Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, Huntington Theatre Compay, Long Wharf, Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep, Wilma Theater and Kennedy Center. Training: MFA, Yale School of Drama. Saunders is a Pew Fellow and a Hodder Fellow at Princeton Univeristy. Associate Professor of Design at Swarthmore College.

Enver Chakartash (Costume Designer) is a British-born Turkish Cypriot costume designer. Enver's work has been presented internationally at numerous venues including: BAM, The Public Theater, Steppenwolf, Centre Pompidou, the Barbican and the Sydney Opera House. Most recently, Enver designed English (Atlantic Theater Company/Roundabout Theatre Company); Wolf Play (Soho Rep.); and Is This A Room on Broadway.

Marika Kent (Lighting Designer). Seagull (Elevator Repair Service), Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me (The Wooster Group), Measure for Measure (Shakespeare & Company), Gem of the Ocean; School Girls, or the African Mean Girls Play (Portland Center Stage), Reconstructing (The TEAM), Generation Rise; Generation NYZ (Ping Chong + Co, The New Victory), Jazz Singer (Abrons Arts Center), Chimpanzee; Fly Away (Nick Lehane), No Child; Memphis; Peter and the Starcatcher (Cape Fear Regional Theater), Roan @ The Gates (Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage).

Bray Poor (Sound Designer). Playwrights: as a sound designer, Completeness, Maple and Vine, The Flick, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, Play for Any Two People; as an actor, Demonology. Broadway: Take Me Out, True West, The Glass Menagerie, The Real Thing, In the Next Room, American Plan. Other Off Broadway: recently, the audio-only, bilingual Romeo y Julieta at the Public, shows at New York Theater Workshop, Second Stage, The Signature Theater, the Public, and others. Regionally, all over the country, as well as productions in England and the Netherlands. Obies for Sustained Excellence in Sound as well as for Annie Baker's John.

Stage Management

Genevieve Ortiz (Production Stage Manager). Playwrights Horizons: What to Send Up When It Goes Down (with BAM, also at Woolly Mammoth, A.R.T, Under the Radar at The Public, The Movement Theatre Company). Off-Broadway: Patience (Second Stage); Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (Soho Rep/Sol Project); 7 Minutes (Waterwell); Hercules, Pretty Hunger (The Public); Recent Alien Abductions (PlayCo); The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd (The Playwrights Realm); Is God Is (Soho Rep)

Zach Brecheen (Assistant Stage Manager). As a Stage Management Fellow at Playwrights Horizons: Corsicana, Tambo & Bones, Wish You Were Here. Additional credits: KATE (Connelly Theater), Annie Hamilton: Looking For Papa (Cherry Lane Theatre), Sandblasted (The Vineyard), and Elf on the Shelf (1st National Tour).

About Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons is a writer's theater dedicated to the development of contemporary American Playwrights, and to the production of innovative new work. In a city rich with cultural offerings, Playwrights Horizons' 51-year-old mission is unique among theaters of its size; the organization has distinguished itself by a steadfast commitment to centering and advancing the voice of the playwright. It's a mission that is always timely, and one that's necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country.

Playwrights Horizons believes that playwrights are the great storytellers of our time, offering essential contributions to civic discourse and illuminating life's greatest paradoxes. And they believe in the singularity of a writer's voice, valuing the broad, eclectic spectrum and diversity of American writers. At Playwrights Horizons, writers are supported in every stage of their growth through commissions (engaging several of today's most imaginative playwrights each year), New Works Lab, POP Master Class series, Soundstage audio program, the Lighthouse Project, and Almanac, the organization's digital magazine.

Playwrights Horizons presents a season of productions annually on their two stages, each of which is a world, American, or New York premiere. Much like Playwrights Horizons' work, their audience is risk-taking and adventurous; and the organization is committed to strengthening their engagement and feeding their curiosity through all of its programming, onsite and online.

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