Pan Asian Repertory Theatre to Present NUWORKS 2024 This Month At Theatre Row

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre will present NuWorks 2024, 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. NuWorks 2024 takes place over eight days with 4 programs of new work by a diverse group of writers including Howard Ho, Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa, Nina Ki, Kenjiro Lee, Patrick Lee, azumi O E, Joy Regullano, and Cody LeRoy Wilson.

NuWorks 2024 is supervised by Chongren Fan, curated by playwright Damon Chua (Warrior Sisters of Wu), and features lighting design by Ayumu Poe Saegusa. Juni Li is the Stage Manager and Sabrina Morabito is the Assistant Stage Manager.

Performances begin in repertory on Saturday, June 22, 2024, and continue through Sunday, June 30, 2024, at Theatre Row (410 W 42nd St) in Theatre One. General admission tickets, which are priced at $30, are currently on sale at www.bfany.org/theatre-row/shows/nuworks-2024/.

NuWorks 2024 Schedule of Events

PROGRAM A

Premieres Saturday, June 22 at 7:00PM
Second performance Thursday, June 27 at 7:00PM

L'opera!
Written by Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa

Directed by Jeff Liu & Kalina Ko
A fun-loving, Japanese and Filipino American opera singer gets into The Juilliard School…. then loses his voice.

Kurt Kanazawa (he/him) is an accomplished actor and opera singer, born on the ancestral homelands of the Tongva and Chumash Nations, of Japanese (yonsei) and Filipino (Ilocano) descent, and a graduate of The Juilliard School (GD), Manhattan School of Music (MM), and Columbia University (BA). As an actor, he has worked with the LA LGBT Center, Rogue Artists Ensemble (upcoming: Lisa Sanaye Dring's Happy Fall), Detroit Public Theatre, LA Theatre Works, Boston Court Pasadena, IAMA Theatre, Artists At Play, and the Ojai Playwrights Conference (where, additionally, he was a member of the reading committee). TV/Film credits include Grey's Anatomy, Bosch: Legacy, The Lincoln Lawyer, A Life in Pieces: the Diary and Letters of Stanley Hayami (Tribeca Festival, Festival de Cannes, Japanese American National Museum permanent collection) and No No Girl (directed by Paul Daisuke Goodman). As an opera singer, his credits include the New World Symphony, The Industry-LA, NCPA-Beijing, and Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires).

Parity
Written by Howard Ho

Directed by Austin Ku & Jully Lee

Performed by Jully Lee

Parity was a law of physics until a Chinese American woman Chien-Shiung Wu , Queen of  Nuclear Research disproved it against all odds.

Howard Ho is a playwright and composer. Parity is his Pan Asian Rep NuWorks debut. In 2023, his play Reset was produced by Moving Arts and was an O'Neill Finalist. Other works include Various Emporia (O'Neill Finalist), Where I'm From (Samuel French OOB Finalist), End of the Line (Samuel French OOB Finalist, currently licensed by MTI), Beethoven's Third (Samuel French OOB Finalist), Jie Jie (Best of the Best of PlayGround 2024). He's a Youtuber (youtube.com/HowardHoMusic) with over 125,000 subscribers and has been recognized by Lin-Manuel Miranda for his music analysis videos. He has sound designed over 50 productions, earning Ovation Award and SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominations. He holds degrees from UCLA and USC.

PROGRAM B

Premieres Sunday June 23 at 3PM
Second Performance Friday, June 28 at 7PM

Wash N Fold
Written by Patrick Lee

Performed by Kendrick Carter and Robert Zhu 

A heartwarming chance encounter between two strangers who are polar opposites, but find commonality and healing.

A quintessential New Yorker, Patrick Lee is a vibrant storyteller making waves on both sides of the Pacific. While celebrated for his awards-winning journalistic feats and indie film ventures, his heart truly beats for the stage. Through plays like, There is Always Sunshine on the Stage, An Old Lady Who Says She Knows Kung Fu and Nights Without You, he delves deep into the AAPI experience, while igniting crucial dialogues. In 2018, he also collaborated with the Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company on The Odyssey of the Little Dragon.

Body Count
Written and performed by Joy Regullano
Directed by Fran de Leon

A comic riff through a female Asian American lens of shitty relationships, sexuality, and family dysfunction.

Joy Regullano is a writer / actor / comedian based in LA. TV writing credits: Monsters at Work (based on Monsters, Inc.) on Disney+, Jelly, Ben & Pogo (a PBS Kids web series), Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight (Netflix / DreamWorks), The Healing Powers of Dude (Netflix), several Sesame Workshop digital shorts, and she was a Sesame Street writing fellow. TV acting credits: “Barry,” “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Modern Family,” “Speechless,” and “Supernatural.” Her YouTube sketch White Fetish went viral with 1M+ views. She was recently nominated for an Emmy for writing on Sesame Street's Word of the Day series. Check out the concept album for her Asian American comedy musical Supportive White Parents, now available on all streaming platforms!

PROGRAM C

Premieres Tuesday June 25 at 7PM

Second Performance Saturday June 29 at 7PM

Peach Boy
Written by Kenjiro Lee

Directed by Alexandra Darcy Haddad

Performed by Kana Seiki and Kenjiro Lee

The puppet version of Momotaro, a boy born from a peach, who sets off on a quest to the island of Onigashima to fight the wicked oni, assisted by a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant in traditional Japanese kamishibai storytelling.

Kenjiro Lee is a Korean/Japanese American playwright, puppeteer, director, and occasional performer with an interest in the cerebral and the absurd. Selected works include Seoul City Sue, NO FAN SERVICE: An Unauthorized Sequel to an Anime about Giant Robots, and Ninja Tea. He has presented work through Paper Kraine Productions, Harriet Tubman Effect, the Fled Collective (NYC), and the Road Theatre Company (Los Angeles). Alum of the Under Construction 3 Playwriting Group (Road Theatre, LA), 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, and Serials (The Flea and The Tank). Member of the Dramatists Guild' and Puppeteers of America.

OriGen Story
Written By Nina Ki
Directed by Chris Yejin
Performed by Zoë Kim and Sarah Shin
Dramaturgy by Amrita Ramanan
A biomythographical play collage about the life experiences of queer Korean playwright, Nina Ki.

Nina Ki (xe/she/they) is a Queerean (Queer + Korean) American playwright living in Brooklyn. Xe graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2008 with a BFA in Dramatic Writing, and xer plays have been read, recorded, and presented nationwide, including with Clubbed Thumb, Ma-Yi Theater Company, MCC Theater, The Parsnip Ship, Yale Summer Cabaret, and Queens Theater. Xer play “Moon Bear” was given special consideration for the Relentless Award, and xer play “Ravage” was a finalist for the Playwrights Realm's Fellowship. Xe was also an inaugural member of The Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writer's Group and a member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writer's Group, and is currently a member of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group and Ma-Yi's Writers Lab.

PROGRAM D 

Premieres Wednesday June 26 at 7PM
Second Performance Sunday June 30 at 3PM

Solitude

Created and performed by azumi O E
A Butoh-infused dance creation that explores identity and ancestral memories through visceral metaphor and expressionistic symbolic lighting.

Born in Kyoto, Japan, azumi O E is a Butoh dancer based in New York City. As the former Assistant Choreographer/Principal Dancer for Butoh Master Katsura Kan and Vangeline Theater, she excels in choreography, collaboration, and experimental projects. Renowned for mesmerizing, innovative, and playful movements, azumi incorporates performance art, soundscape, lighting design, and video projection. She has collaborated with renowned artists like sculpture artist MARCK, composer Takuya Nakamura, and bassist/vocalist Tim Dahl. Her extensive experience includes prestigious residencies at the John Hopkins PEABODY Institute in 2023 and as a 2024 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography. azumi explores the connection between inner and outer human dimensions through live performances demonstrating her mastery of Butoh.

Halfanese Two Halves of a Whole Idiot
Written and performed by Cody LeRoy Wilson
Sound design by Cameron Williams
A stand-up roller coaster meets clowning show as Cody shares his journey to New York City where he finds himself, his Asian identity, and... his dad?

Cody LeRoy Wilson is a Vietnamese Appalachian actor and playwright from West Virginia and is thrilled to be returning to the NuWorks where he previously premiered his one man show Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather? during the Pan Asian's NuWorks 2023. His other New York credits include Handbagged at 59E59 Theatre, Midsummer and Titus Andronicus with New York Shakespeare Exchange-Regional credits include Curious Incident of the Dog at Night and Book of Will at Roundhouse Theater, Miss Saigon at Western Playhouse, and As You Like It and Measure for Measure at Hudson Valley Shakespeare. His TV/Film credits include Russian Doll, Hello Tomorrow, Impractical Jokers, Money Monsters and Gravedigger Pilot.

Please visit www.panasianrep.org/nuworks-2024 for additional information.

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