Ping Chong + Company Realizes Developing Vision For Ping Chong's Legacy With NOCTURNE IN 2020

Ping Chong + Company (PCC), founded by the influential theater-maker Ping Chong and increasingly a home for a diverse, intergenerational group of affiliated artists, presents Nocturne in 2020.

Exemplifying PCC's vision for a legacy embodied by the next generation of the company's social-justice-Committed Artists employing Chong's methodologies and oeuvre to create new work, this anthology evening features four pieces created by multidisciplinary emerging artists of color in residence and a remount of Ping Chong's Nocturne in 1200 Seconds, originally presented at the 1998 Hong Kong Arts Festival. Nocturne in 2020's process and structure derive from a concept from the festival, whose title was Journey to the East. In it, 12 Chinese diasporic artists working across disciplines (including Ping Chong) were commissioned to create 15-minute-long works, with the restriction that they were to use the same table and two chairs, with two actors of their choice in each work. With the additional mandate that the works be inspired by source material related to a real historical event, Nocturne in 2020 brings a new generation of theatre-makers' bold and politically resonant interpretations of this simple prompt together in a collaborative event.

Ping Chong said, "Nocturne in 2020 is the first time that Ping Chong + Company has invited younger theater-makers of diverse ages and cultures to share an evening of chamber works with me. This presentation of documentary-inspired works represents a unique and vital artistic dialogue between generations. In a time of division in our nation, reaching across demographics and cultures is an important step toward connection."

Ping Chong's Nocturne in 1200 Seconds is a series of seemingly unrelated monologues alternating between two enigmatic "FIGURES" on stage. The work, created out of slightly altered and recycled found texts, obliquely examines the dark side of human nature.

The artists featured in Nocturne in 2020 are Edwin Aguila and Zakaria Khafagy, working as a duo; Kenya Bullock; Irisdelia Garcia; and Chaesong Kim. Since December, the group has been meeting regularly to read and reflect on archival material related to Nocturne in 1200 Seconds; share and respond to the source material that lays the foundations for their pieces; and work with Ping Chong and PCC Staff on their concepts and artistic process. Ping Chong + Company will engage lighting, projection, and sound designers to work on each piece, and have given each artist a commission fee and a production budget, working with them to develop skills in producing and marketing their work and collaborating with a production team.

Jane Jung, Managing Director of Ping Chong + Company, said, "As an artist, Ping Chong learned that constraints can be the basis of great discovery and creativity. The Nocturne in 2020 artists are working together within a common set of parameters to create a cohesive new work from divergent historical sources. These parameters also extend to the producing aspect, which is important because we believe that allowing for each artist to be fully engaged in-and empowered to make decisions about-the budgeting and production process is an important part of making the work."

Irisdelia Garcia's qué bien te ves is an exploration of relationships, womanhood, and love framed by the non-consensual sterilization of Puerto Rican women by the US government in the 1930's. Inspired by the community, artists, and public art in Trenton, NJ, Kenya Bullock's The Grid is an installation and performance in which a dancer struggles to answer the questions that Trentonians are asking, "Why am I not sitting at the table?" "What table am I trying to get to?" "Is language and criminal background more important than talent and ability?" "Whose table is it?" "Why not build our own table?" Zakaria Khafagy and Edwin Aguila's Eatin' takes place in the late 1980's in the South Bronx and features two characters building a drug business that destroys their community and themselves, while exploring the idea of eating and what it means to "eat." Chaesong Kim's me in the nutcracker follows the Nutcracker ballet as a cultural signifier through a series of found objects, sparkly animations and Barbie videos, and tackles questions of cultural appropriation, cultural colonization and femininity.

All shows will take place at Downtown Arts (70 E 4th Street), April 16-18 and 23-25 at 7:30pm. Tickets, $15-25, can be purchased at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nocturne-in-2020-tickets-94707967079.

Nocturne in 2020 is conceived by Ping Chong + Company and written and directed by Ping Chong, Kenya Bullock, Irisdelia Garcia, Zakaria Khafagy, Edwin Aguila, and Chaesong Kim. The performers include Christopher Caines, Adebowale Oluwajuwon Adebiyi, Jordan Reed, Isaiah Stavchansky, Jennet Jusu, Chaesong Kim, Edwin Aguila, and Zakaria Khafagy. The Production Supervisor is Courtney Golden, lighting and projection design is by Hao Bai, and sound design is by Nathan Rubio.

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