Pan Asian Rep & Poetic Theater to Host Post Performance Conversation With Veteran Poets at MEMORIAL

Pan Asian Repertory and Poetic Theater Productions will host a conversation with Armed Service Veteran poets following the matinee performance of Memorial, by Livian Yeh, on Sunday, January 29th, 2023 at 2:30 p.m. The event will feature poetry readings by three veteran poets - Jan Barry, Dahlia Damoiselle and Jenny Pacanowski - and a commemoration of Vietnam Peace Day (January 27) which recognizes the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. For more information, please visit www.panasianrep.com.

"We, at Poetic Theater Productions are honored to find opportunities to collaborate on projects as important as Memorial," states Jeremy Karafin, Poetic Theater, Artistic Director. "Too often our country eagerly sends our young adults to war providing very little in terms of processing trauma, healing, and reintegration into civilian life. Programs like ours in partnership with the legendary Pan Asian Rep, fuels a higher purpose for theater to serve as a place to have challenging conversations within a greater supportive space for community connection, growth, and healing."

Launching its 46th Milestone Season, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre is presenting the world premiere of Memorial, a new play by Livian Yeh, directed by Jeff Liu, which is supported, in part, by a prestigious award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The cast features Glenn Kubota as Hideo Sasaki, Angel Lin as Maya Lin, Rachel Lu as Julia Lin, Robert Meksin as Wolf von Eckardt, and James Patrick Nelson as Colonel James Becker.

The world premiere of the new play Memorial written by Livian Yeh surrounds Maya Lin, the 21-year-old architect who is forced to defend herself to veterans and the United States Congress when her "untraditional" memorial design was selected to commemorate Vietnam veterans on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Is democracy about compromise and working together?

The creative team includes Sets by Sheryl Liu, Costumes by Karen Boyer, Lighting by Victor En Yu Tan, Sound by Da Xu, Projections by Gregory Casparian, and Graphics by Brit Godish. The Production Stage Manager is Kristine Schlachter with Assistant Stage Manger Ingrid Pierson.

The world premiere engagement began performances, Thursday, January 19, 2023 for a limited engagement through Sunday afternoon, February 19, 2023 at Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street, west of 10th Avenue). The show had an official opening on Sunday, January 22 (Lunar New Year).

Memorial plays the following performance schedule: Tuesday - Saturday at 7:00pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm.

HOW TO PURCHASE TICKETS:

Tickets for Memorial are priced at $60. Senior/Miliary/Student discounts available. $30 Rush Tickets are available at the Box Office 1 hour prior to the performance. Tickets may be purchased by visiting the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre website at www.panasianrep.org.

For additional information, please visit the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre website at www.panasianrep.org, or via email at info@panasianrep.org.

ABOUT THE VETERAN POETS

Jan Barry is an award-winning journalist and poet whose books include A Citizen's Guide to Grassroots Campaigns, Life after War & Other Poems and (co-editor) Winning Hearts & Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans, among other works. A U.S. Army veteran of Vietnam, his poetry presentations have ranged from the New York Public Theatre to high school and elementary school classes and as a featured artist in Poetic Theater Productions' Veteran Voices program. A participant and poetry reading coordinator at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival at the NJ Performing Arts Center and the New York City Poetry Festival, he coordinates Warrior Writers workshops for veterans and family members in the New Jersey-New York area.

Dahlia Damoiselle is a queer, transgender writer of Vietnamese heritage. A child of war refugees, her work centers on legacies of violence in times of conflict. She has published in Blunderbuss Magazine, McSweeny's, Slice Magazine, Foreign Policy, Time Magazine, The Daily Beast, and Columbia Journal, among others. She lives with her two cats in Brooklyn, NY, and she serves as an adjunct English lecturer at CUNY Brooklyn College. Dahlia Damoiselle is a Poetic Theater Productions' Veteran Voices Advisory Board Member.

Jenny Pacanowski is Poetic Theater Productions' Veteran Voices Program Director. She is also the Founder and Director of Women Veterans Empowered & Thriving, a reintegration program utilizing writing and performance to empower experiences and facilitate skills to thrive in daily life. In the Army while deployed to Iraq, Jenny was a combat medic and provided medical support for convoys with the Marines, Air Force, and the Army. She also did shifts in the Navy medical hospital. She is a professional poet, performer, public speaker and playwright. Jenny has been featured on WFMZ, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Turner Classic Movies, Thriver Thursday's with Robin Roberts, and "The Chew" on ABC. She has spoken at Ithaca College, Syracuse University, NYU, Drake University, Haverford College and other institutions throughout the country. Jenny collaborated with multiple organizations including Poetic Theater Productions, Lucid Body House Impact theatre, Decruit, Aquila Theatre and other veteran artist-based organizations. As a playwright, her play, Dionysus in America, was featured at the Vortex theatre in Austin Texas receiving a great review from Broadway World. Jenny Pacanowski is passionate about awareness, education, and sharing the veteran experience with society. The reconnection from military to civilian culture is essential to our veteran's health and well-being. She believes successful reintegration programming such as Women Veterans Empowered & Thriving are essential to diminishing the plague of suicide, addiction, and homelessness in the veteran community.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, celebrating its 46th Milestone Season, is the most veteran Asian American theatre company on the East Coast. Tisa Chang founded Pan Asian Rep in 1977 at Ellen Stewart's La Mama ETC with the vision to promote equity and access that Asian Americans artists can equally follow, focusing on stories of probing social justice issues with distinctive Off-Broadway Productions, Tours, National Outreach, and Community Service. 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: Ako, Ernest Abuba, Tina Chen, Philip Gotanda, Wai Ching Ho, David Henry Hwang, Daniel Dae Kim, Lucy Liu, Ron Nakahara, R.A. Shiomi, Lauren Yee, and Henry Yuk.

Pan Asian Rep Programs are made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; and major support from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mary Li Hsu Charitable Trust, NY Community Trust, Shubert Foundation, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels, Lucille Lortel Foundations; and many generous individuals.

Poetic Theater Productions' Veteran Voices Program

Amplifying the voices of U.S. Veterans and their families through theatrical performances, showcases, and workshops, Veteran Voices builds bridges between veterans and civilians, storytellers and audiences, professional artists, and those discovering their voice for the first time. The program recognizes that veterans' stories have fundamentally shaped the landscape of theater in the past and so aims to revitalize their essential inclusion in today's genre of poetic theater.

Poetic Theater Productions (Artistic Director, Jeremy Karafin) has worked with poets of all kinds writing poetic plays, choreopoems, hip hop theater, theatrical poetry, and poetic performance of all kinds producing hundreds of productions, festivals, showcases, workshops, and readings since its inception in 2010. Poetic Theater Productions seeks to define the modern genre of "poetic theater" by connecting and fostering a community of artists who are passionately creating relevant and accessible work and reinvigorating a conscious theater of language. Poetic Theater Productions is also the home of the Poetic License festival, Breaking Our Silence, and Generation Now programs and presents regular community focused programming in collaboration with NYTW in addition to its residencies at Judson Memorial and the Wild Project. Poetic Theater Productions is a member of ARTNY and The Field.

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