(NEW YORK, NY) -- Pan Asian Repertory Theatre presents a special virtual event: NuWorks 2021, the annual experimental series of self-created work from innovative artists exploring an eclectic range of genres and techniques using poetry, text, dance and music. Featuring new works by diverse artists Annie Ngar-Lai Cheung, Shebana Coelho, Tyler Dobies, M.J. Kang, Jo Shui and Shigeko Sara Suga. NuWORKS 2021* is curated by playwrights Damon Chua (The Emperors Nightingale), Richard Chang (Citizen Wong), and Project Directors Ernest Abuba and Chongren Fan.
A one price pass ticket is available for $30 that will allow access to all six performances. Virtual performances begin Monday, June 21, 2021 at 5:00pm and will be available on demand through Wednesday, June 30, 2021. To make a reservation, click here. A link will be sent with confirmation of purchase.
NuWORKS 2021: All screenings available beginning Monday, June 21, 2021 at 5:00pm and available on demand through Wednesday, June 30, 2021.
Once I was a Stone, una piedra, ek pathar - Created and Performed by Shebana Coelho. A solo work about a stone lost at sea that finds its way home, only to face a new world that upends old notions of race, place and purpose. The play is a mixture of poetry, monologues, and dance drawn from flamenco, kutiyattam and bharatanatyam - in English with fragments of Hindi and Spanish. Running time: 45 minutes
Shebana Coelho is a performer and writer, originally from India, and currently living in New Mexico. Her solo plays include The Good Manners of Colonized Subjects, Once I was a stone, una piedra, ek pathar and the sun and shade of desire (in development). She received a Fiction Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Fulbright Grant to Mongolia. She facilitates creativity workshops and story consults as part of Faraway is Close, resonant cross-cultural encounters to Write Journey Embody the stories under the skin.
Shop In Peace - Written and Directed by Jo Shui, featuring Ariel Estrada, Emma Lipschutz, Trevor Swann and Jen Yip. Dramaturg: Weldon Wong Powers. Shop In Peace is a compilation of scenes exposing the pervasive racism that Asian Americans face even while doing something as routine as shopping. Running time: 20 minutes
Jo Shui, writer/actor, is thrilled to be working with Pan Asian Rep again! Writing credits: True Asian Hottie (Pan Asian Rep's NuWorks Festival, Downtown Urban Theater Festival), Family Dreams (Pan Asian Rep's NuWorks). Acting credits Tea (Pan Asian Rep), Mouse (Greg Pak Film), “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” (recurring roles). Member of AEA, SAG/AFTRA.
We Must See These Things - Created and Performed by Tyler Dobies. Videographer: John Quincy Lee. We Must See These Things is a conglomerate of stories made from existing in a world that doesn't see you (or sees you too much?) told through spoken word and verbatim performance. Running time: 34 minutes
Tyler Dobies (he/him) is an actor, singer, and poet based in NYC. He is the product of aspen trees, dirt roads, liberal arts, homeschooling, and the feeling of not being good enough. Tyler holds a BFA in Acting/Directing from Pacific Lutheran University and a MM in Vocal Performance from NYU.
Asians Dating - Written and Directed by M.J. Kang, featuring Eva Ding, Barron Leung and M.J. Kang. Stage Manager: Katie Scibelli; Dramaturg: Hayley Silvers. Asians Dating is a light-hearted portrayal of two recently divorced professionals who are trying to navigate love, life and cats while being Asian. Running time: 21 minutes
M.J. Kang is a playwright, actor, director and storyteller based in Los Angeles. She's currently in the playwrighting group at Company of Angels and has been commissioned by AFO, Shotgun Players, Silicon Valley Shakespeare. She is part of the writer’s team for the anthology film, Moving Day, produced by Cotton Bush Productions and Restorative Stories at The Barrow Group. Her improv troupe, Killer Kimchi, will be performing at Twin Cities Horror Festival. She's won three Moth story slams among many other story slams.
DOTS - Created and Performed by Annie Ngar-lai Cheung. Teetering dangerously between tragedy and comedy, Annie takes you into the high-achieving but insecure world of a lawyer turned actress.
Annie Ngar-lai Cheung is a trilingual, experienced Hong Kong actress with over 40 performance credits in the last decade. Former full-time actress at Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and former artiste at Hong Kong Television Network Limited. Performed in Hong Kong, China, Macau, Los Angeles and London. Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Mrs. Muller in Doubt by John Patrick Shanley at the Hong Kong Drama Awards in 2013. Her first solo show DOTS was staged in Camden Fringe 2018, the Actors Centre in 2019 and featured as one of the programs at SDEA Theatre Arts Conference 2021. She recently starred as Dr. Rieux in The Plague by Neil Bartlett (after Albert Camus’ La Peste), a world premiere Cantonese production commissioned by the 49th Hong Kong Arts Festival 2021.
Une Saison en Enfer - Selected poetry from A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud, performed in English with dialogue in French and songs in Spanish. Adopted and Directed by Shigeko Sara Suga. Featuring Dinh James Doan, Zach Lusk, and Shigeko Sara Suga. A love affair gone wrong - Arthur Rimbaud's agony after being shot by his lover Verlaine and to be ostracized by the whole literary society in France.
Shigeko Sara Suga, a senior artist at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, 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.
NuWORKS 2021 is curated by playwrights Damon Chua (The Emperors Nightingale), Richard Chang (Citizen Wong), and Project Directors Ernest Abuba and Chongren Fan.
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, celebrating its 44th 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 Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; City Council member Margaret Chin; and major support from 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.
