Pan Asian Repertory Theatre Announces NUWORKS 2022 Experimental Series

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre will present NuWorks 2022, the annual experimental series of self-created work from innovative and diverse artists exploring an eclectic range of genres and techniques using poetry, text, dance and music. Featuring new works by diverse artists Ernest Abuba, Sean-Joseph Choo, Saiya Floyd, Jeffrey Han, Amy Pan, Shigeko Sara Suga, Mandarin Wu, and Da Xu. NuWORKS 2022 is supervised by Chongren Fan (Citizen Wong), and curated by playwright Damon Chua (The Emperors Nightingale), The Production Liaison is Sabrina Morabito with Lighting Design by Josh Martinez-Davis.

Performances begin in repertory Tuesday, June 28, 2022 at 7:00PM and will conclude with a special Encore performance on Sunday afternoon July 3, 2022 at 3:00PM at Studio Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street).

NOW ON SALE: General Admission tickets are priced at $25 and available online.

NuWORKS 2022
Schedule of Events

PROGRAM A
Premieres Tuesday, June 28, 2022 at 7:00PM
Second performance Friday, July 1, 2022 at 7:00PM

Highlighter Girl

Written by Amy Pan
Directed by Jonathan Wong Frye

Featuring Dion Denisse Peñaflor as Anna and Zoe Dongas as Emily.

When Emily's English 101 assignment call for her to create a superhero, she discovers commonality with her creative younger sister in exploring the paradoxes of the Asian-American experience.

Amy Pan (Playwright) is an NYC-based playwright who's studied at the University of Kentucky and the London Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her co-written play, Motherland, just won "Outstanding Production" in The National Women's Theatre Festival 2021 Fringe Festival. Her 10-minute play Highlighter Girl was an Audience Choice winner the previous year (2020). Highlighter Girl was produced in the University of Kentucky's mainstage production New Works Now (2018). Prior to this, her works Not Nineveh (2017) and One Dandelion Wish (2017) have been produced in the university's Studio Season. Her 10-minute play Rainbow was also a semifinalist in Actors Theatre of Louisville's New Voices Competition 2013.

*

Pleased

Written by Mandarin Wu and Xa Du

Performed by Mandarin Wu

A montage of memories and dreams and nightmares all smeared together featuring an experimental vaudeville song and dance solo.

Mandarin Wu (Playwight/Performer) is a theatre performer, singer, dancer, choreographer/director. Da Xu is a multi-faceted artist, audio/visual designer and creative technologist. Mandarin and Da first collaborated in 2006 to Within X Minutes, and later Stringing Stones. They were both pivotal members of Los Angeles Movement Arts (LAMA), a collective of multi-faceted artists who produced annual shows Momentum and Catalyst (nominated for Best Series in 2011 Lester Horton Awards). After a decade of individual artistic pursuits, journeying throughout the US and Asia, the two artists are once again back in collaboration to share their stories as Americans of Asian descent.

Xa Du (Playwright) is a multi-faceted artist and creative technologist, focusing largely on audio/visual work and developing tools to bring the two disciplines into a single form. On the commercial front, Da has published photography work in the Chinese edition of GQ and Grazia. He has created and performed live visuals for companies like Alienware Computers and LuLuLemon. He toured extensively with the seminal Chinese rock band ??(SheTou), as their photographer and live visual collaborator. Da returned home to the US in 2017, and now centers on his personal artistic output. He was selected for the 2021 Westben International Performer-Composer Residency.

* * *

PROGRAM B
Premieres Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at 7:00PM
Second performance Saturday, July 2, 2022 at 3:00PM

BAUDELAIRE: Dear Mother

Written By Ernest Abuba and Shigeko Sara Suga

Directed by Shigeko Sara Suga
Assistant Director: Jenna Atkinson
Stage Manager: Sabrina Morabito

Featuring Ernest Abuba as Baudelaire and Voice of Baudelaire, Dinh James Doan as Young Baudelaire, Ricardo Osorio "El Niño" as Baudelaire (Spirit), Shigeko Sara Suga as A Figure, Bird "Ricardito" as Flamenco Guitarist/Singer, Alain Bene as Voice of Baudelaire (French)

Based on the poems of 19th century French poet Charles Baudelaire, this piece embodies the last of a trilogy (Baudelaire: Spleen; Baudelaire La Mort).

Ernest Abuba is an award-winning actor, playwright, director on stage, film, and TV, and last seen in The Oldest Boy at Lincoln Center Theatre. Plays he has written include Kwatz! The Tibetan Project, Eat A Bowl of Tea, An American Story, The Dowager, Dojoji: The Man Inside the Bell, Cambodia Agonistes, PapaBoy, Nightstalker, Lier Rex, and co-created Baudelaire: La Mort with Shigeko Suga. He is the author/co-director of six Educational Short Screenplays aired/produced by WING Productions CBS/PBS and is the voice of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama on the audiobook The Art of Happiness. Recipient of an Obie, a Rockefeller Playwright Residency, five New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grants for Playwriting and Directing, and a Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS) Grant.

Shigeko Sara Suga, is a senior artist of Pan Asian Repertory Theatre and has performed in over 140 local and international theatrical productions in the past mainly with Pan Asian Rep, Ellen Stewart's Great Jones Rep and Yara Arts Group. Her recent credits include John Gabriel Borkman online play reading as Mrs. Borkman, News From Fukushima as Yu (Reporter), a feature length documentary in multiple international film festivals, and Endlings as Haenyeo (Korean sea diver) at New York Theatre Workshop. http://www.shigekosuga.com

*

Expect-Asians

Written and Performed by Jeffrey Han

Directed by Anne Tamanaha Mesa

*Expect-Asians* centers on a young Asian-American named Jack and his quest to find his identity amidst his father's standards and acceptance by his peers.

Jeffrey Han is a performer based out of Los Angeles, California. He is excited to be making his New York debut in NuWorks 2022 with his original solo-show, Expect-Asian. Before landing in LA, he earned his MFA in performing arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Notable credits include Scrimmage with East West Players, and a touring production of The Taming of the Shrew_ with The Festival Players in the United Kingdom. Jeffrey enjoys practicing martial arts and listening to country music while stuck in LA traffic. For more, go to www.jeffreyhan125.com.

* * *

PROGRAM C
Premieres Thursday, June 30, 2022 at 7:00PM
Second performance Saturday, July 2, 2022 at 7:00PM

Five Star First Date

Written by Saiya Floyd

Directed by Sienna Aczon
Assistant Director: Mariel Sanchez

Featuring Saiya Floyd as Anna, Sienna Aczon as Mina.

Two gig workers show up at a date expecting to vet potential romantic partners for their employers. When sparks fly, will they have time to get their job done and explore their growing connection?

Saiya Floyd is a Japanese American writer based in Brooklyn. She graduated from Boston University with a degree in Film and Television, and received additional training with Pan Asian Repertory Theatre's Lab, and with East West Players. Her scripts have been recognized by WeScreenplay, ScreenCraft, Final Draft Big Break, and the Austin Film Festival. This is her NuWorks and NYC acting and writing debut. She would like to thank her family for their love and support.

*

I <3 my AAPI grandparents
Written and Performed by Sean-Joseph Choo

i <3 my AAPI grandparents is a celebration of identity, the performing arts, and 'ohana.

Sean-Joseph Choo is a multi-ethnic, multi-hyphenate artist dedicated to the stories and people of Hawai'i. Recent acting credits include K?pili in Stories of Oceania (Honolulu Theatre for Youth), Ferdinand in Love's Labour's Lost (Hawaii Shakespeare Festival), and Lovey in Lovey Lee (Kumu Kahua Theatre). He also recently guest-starred as Penna on "Magnum P.I." He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists, improvhi, the Playwright Development Committee at Kumu Kahua Theatre, and a fellow of the inaugural 2021 Creative Lab Hawai'i Playwrights Immersive Program. www.seanjosephchoo.com

* * *

SPECIAL ENCORE PERFORMANCE
Premieres Sunday, July 3, 2022 at 3:00PM

Pleased

Written by Mandarin Wu and Xa Du
Performed by Mandarin Wu

*

I <3 my AAPI grandparents
Written and Performed by Sean-Joseph Choo

For additional information, please visit the website at www.panasianrep.org/nuworks-2022.

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Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, celebrating its 45th 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, Shubert Foundation, NY Community Trust COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels, Lucille Lortel Foundations; and many generous individuals.

 

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