Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers and commentators for media covering New York theatre announced today its award winners for the 2014-15 season in 24 categories.

Alex Sharp as Christopher and the cast of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Photo by Joan Marcus

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time received five awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Director of a Play, (Marianne Elliott), Outstanding Set Design (Bunny Christie), Outstanding Lighting Design (Paule Constable), Alex Sharp (Outstanding Actor in a Play).

A scene from “An American in Paris.”
(© 2014 Angela Sterling)

An American in Paris won four including named Outstanding New Broadway Musical, with Christopher Wheeldon winning for Outstanding Director of a Musical and Outstanding Choreographer and an acting win for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.

Ruthie Ann Miles. Photo by Paul Kolnik

The King and I and Hamilton each received three awards. The King and I garnered three awards including Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Ruthie Ann Miles (Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical) and Outstanding Costume Design (Catherine Zuber). Hamilton adds to its awards tally with Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, Outstanding Book of a Musical and Outstanding Score. Between Riverside and Crazy was named Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play.

Congrats to all of the winners listed below.

Broadway’s Michael Cerveris, Nick Cordero, Raúl Esparza, Katie Finneran, Montego Glover, William Ivey Long and Jefferson Mays will serve as gala award presenters at the upcoming 65th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony on May 21st (4PM) at the legendary Sardis Restaurant. In addition to being acclaimed stage performers, the stars are also former recipients of the esteemed Outer Critics Circle Award.

Celebrating its 65th season of bestowing awards of excellence in the field of theatre, the Outer Critics Circle, is an association with members affiliated with more than ninety newspapers, magazines, web sites, radio and television stations, and theatre publications in America and abroad.

Outer Critics Circle

2014-2015 Award Nominations

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY

The Audience

*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* – Winner

Wolf Hall

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL

*An American in Paris* – Winner

It Shoulda Been You

The Last Ship

Something Rotten!

The Visit

Stephen McKinley Henderson, Victor Almanzar, Elizabeth Canavan, Michael Rispoli, Liza Colón-Zayas, Rosal Colón, and Ron Cephas Jones; photo by Carol Rosegg.

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY

*Between Riverside and Crazy* – Winner

The City of Conversation

The Nether

Rasheeda Speaking

The Village Bike

Renée Elise Goldsberry plays Angelica Schuyler, Lin-Manuel Miranda plays Alexander Hamilton, and Phillipa Soo plays Eliza Hamilton in Hamilton.
(© Joan Marcus)

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL

A Christmas Memory

Disenchanted

The Fortress of Solitude

*Hamilton* – Winner

Lonesome Traveler

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

*Hamilton* – Winner

It Shoulda Been You

The Last Ship

Something Rotten!

The Visit

OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

*Hamilton* – Winner

It Shoulda Been You

The Last Ship

Something Rotten!

The Visit

Johanna Day, Fran Kranz, Annaleigh Ashford, James Earl Jones, Richard Thomas, Will Brill and Byron Jennings. Photo by Joan Marcus

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

The Elephant Man

Fashions for Men

The Heidi Chronicles

Skylight

*You Can’t Take It With You* – Winner

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

Into the Woods

*The King and I* – Winner

On the Town

On the Twentieth Century

Side Show

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY

Stephen Daldry The Audience

*Marianne Elliott The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* – Winner

Scott Ellis The Elephant Man

Scott Ellis You Can’t Take It With You

Jeremy Herrin Wolf Hall

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL

Scott Ellis On the Twentieth Century

Thomas Kail Hamilton

Casey Nicholaw Something Rotten!

David Hyde Pierce It Shoulda Been You

*Christopher Wheeldon An American in Paris* – Winner

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER

Joshua Bergasse On the Town

Andy Blankenbuehler Hamilton

Warren Carlyle On the Twentieth Century

Casey Nicholaw Something Rotten!

*Christopher Wheeldon An American in Paris* – Winner

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN

(Play or Musical)

*Bunny Christie The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* – Winner

Bob Crowley An American in Paris

Scott Pask Something Rotten!

David Rockwell On the Twentieth Century

Michael Yeargan The King and I

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN

(Play or Musical)

Gregg Barnes Something Rotten!

Bob Crowley The Audience

William Ivey Long On the Twentieth Century

Christopher Oram Wolf Hall

*Catherine Zuber The King and I* – Winner

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN

(Play or Musical)
*Paule Constable The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Winner

Jeff Croiter Something Rotten!

Rick Fisher The Audience

Natasha Katz An American in Paris

Japhy Weideman The Visit

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY

Reed Birney I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard

Bradley Cooper The Elephant Man

Stephen McKinley Henderson Between Riverside and Crazy

Ben Miles Wolf Hall

*Alex Sharp The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* – Winner

Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in ‘The Audience’ (Photo: Joan Marcus)

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Greta Gerwig The Village Bike

Jan Maxwell The City of Conversation

*Helen Mirren The Audience* – Winner

Elisabeth Moss The Heidi Chronicles

Tonya Pinkins Rasheeda Speaking

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Christian Borle Something Rotten!

Brian d’Arcy James Something Rotten!

*Robert Fairchild An American in Paris* – Winner

Peter Gallagher On the Twentieth Century

Tony Yazbeck On the Town

Kristin Chenoweth stars in ‘On the Twentieth Century’ on Broadway (Photo: Joan Marcus)

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

*Kristin Chenoweth On the Twentieth Century* – Winner

Leanne Cope An American in Paris

Tyne Daly It Shoulda Been You

Kelli O’Hara The King and I

Chita Rivera The Visit

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY

Paul Jesson Wolf Hall

*Richard McCabe The Audience* – Winner

Alessandro Nivola The Elephant Man

Nathaniel Parker Wolf Hall

Bryce Pinkham The Heidi Chronicles

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY

*Annaleigh Ashford You Can’t Take It With You* – Winner

Patricia Clarkson The Elephant Man

Francesca Faridany The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Julie Halston You Can’t Take It With You

Lydia Leonard Wolf Hall

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

John Cariani Something Rotten!

Josh Grisetti It Shoulda Been You

*Andy Karl On the Twentieth Century* – Winner

Paul Alexander Nolan Doctor Zhivago

Max von Essen An American in Paris

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Heidi Blickenstaff Something Rotten!

Victoria Clark Gigi

Megan Fairchild On the Town

*Ruthie Ann Miles The King and I* – Winner

Mary Louise Wilson On the Twentieth Century

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE

Joe Assadourian The Bullpen

*Jim Dale Just Jim Dale* – Winner

Tom Dugan Wiesenthal

Cush Jumbo Josephine and I

Benjamin Scheuer The Lion

DISGRACED playwright Ayad Akhtar at The Drama Book Shop in New York on January 22, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

JOHN GASSNER AWARD

(Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)

*Ayad Akhtar The Invisible Hand* – Winner

Halley Feiffer I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard

Elizabeth Irwin My Mañana Comes

Markus Potter Stalking the Bogeyman

Benjamin Scheuer The Lion

***Please note: Disgraced, Fun Home and Hand to God received nominations and/or awards from Outer Critics Circle in previous seasons and therefore were not considered for this year.

2014-15 Outer Critics Circle Executive / Nominating Committee

Simon Saltzman (President)

Mario Fratti (Vice-President) Patrick Hoffman (Corresponding Secretary)

Stanley L. Cohen (Treasurer) Glenn Loney (Historian & Member-at-Large)

And Aubrey Reuben & Harry Haun (Members-at-Large)

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
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Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

I had a fancy time at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala, FANCY THAT, A Project Extravaganza, held at the Edison Ballroom on May 4, 2015, thanks to my hosts Denise Burse Fernandez and her husband Peter Jay Fernandez, who are among the countless professional theater artists who have mentored and nurtured kids of The 52nd Street Project for more than two decades.

(seated) Selena Evans, Robert Evans, MaameYaa Boafo, Jeremiah Abiah, Denise Burse Fernandez, (standing) Akwasi Taha, Marva Hicks, Peter Jay Fernandez, Garth Kravits attend The 52nd Street Project’s Fancy That Benefit at The Edison Ballroom in New York on May 4, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

The gala dinner raises money for The 52nd Street Project’s theatrical and educational programming and this year Edie Falco hosted the evening, which kicked off with a cocktail hour, followed by a seated dinner, a live auction and a suite of performances.

Lewis Black, Nancy Giles, Jessica Hecht, Judy Kuhn, Mark Linn-Baker, Tim Blake Nelson, and Frank Wood were among the 330 attendees who packed the elegant retro Edison Ballroom. The gala was a smashing success, drawing the largest crowd in a couple of years.

The 52nd Street Project’s Fancy That Benefit at The Edison Ballroom in New York on May 4, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Ms. Falco acted as emcee and reminisced about her experiences volunteering for the Project over the past 15 years. The focus of the entertainment portion of the evening was original songs with lyrics by Project kids on the theme of “Fancy,” set to music and performed by professional adult artists.

The performance got started with “The Not So Fancy Bulldog” with lyrics by Ethan Zenteno, age 10, music by Peter Lerman and performed by Tony nominated Bryce Pinkham with backing vocals by Kendal Hartse and Akron Watson.

Next was “What You Had To” with lyrics by Stasia Bree Quiñones, age 17, composed and performed by soul singer/songwriter Stephanie McKay.

Following this came “Super Regular Harmless Turtle Squad” with lyrics by Justin Bannister, age 13, composed by Broadway legend David Yazbek and performed by Kendal Hartse, Taylor Trensch and Adrienne Warren.

Then there was “What is Space?” by Jayda Camacho, age 13, composed by singer/songwriter Elizabeth Ziman and performed by Tony winner Lena Hall.

Concluding the evening was “Lifestyle” with lyrics by Chamel Rodney, age 17, and set to music by Nick Blaemire, and performed by Mr. Blaemire with 2015 Lucille Lortel Award winner Jacob-Ming Trent and Broadway star Matthew Saldívar.

The kids introduced their songs, commenting on the inspiration for each, sat at the corner of the stage while there work was performed, and took a bow with the singers at the end.

Lyricists Justin Bannister, Ethan Zenteno, Jayda Camacho, Stasia Bree Quiñones and Chamel Rodney take a bow after the performances of their songs at The 52nd Street Project’s Fancy That Benefit at The Edison Ballroom in New York on May 4, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Written by John Sheehy, the show was directed by Jonathan Bernstein, with musical director Kimberly Grigsby on piano, Freddy Hall on guitar and John Epcar on percussion, lighting design by Greg MacPherson, sound design by Drew Levy, set and prop design by George Babiak, Stephanie Berger, Iris Brown and Crystal Thompson, with stage management by Colleen Sherry.

The income from the evening exceeded expectations, topping $310,000 or over 20% of the Project’s annual expenses. All of the Project’s year-round programming is free to the children who participate and the presentations of the Project’s theatrical programming (28 performances of 8 productions each year) are free and open to the general public at their Five Angels Theater, 789 Tenth Avenue, in Manhattan.

Willie Reale, Denise Burse Fernandez and Peter Jay Fernandez attend The 52nd Street Project’s Fancy That Benefit at The Edison Ballroom in New York on May 4, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

About The 52nd Street Project
The 52nd Street Project (The Project) was founded in 1981 by actor/playwright and 1994 MacArthur Fellow Willie Reale in response to a deepening need to improve the quality of life for New York’s inner-city children. Reale, an actor, playwright, and company member of the Ensemble Studio Theater (EST), used his company privileges to reach out to the children of the neighborhood by creating theatrical endeavors specifically for them. This was done with the cooperation and support of EST and its across-the-street-neighbor, the Police Athletic League’s Duncan Center. The Project is now an independent not-for-profit organization that creates over eighty new plays and serves over 125 children every year.

The 52nd Street Project has been a place where many preeminent theater-makers have volunteered their efforts to mentor kids from Hell’s Kitchen. To name just a few: Billy Crudup, Peter Dinklage, David Lindsay-Abaire, Frances McDormand, Cynthia Nixon, Oliver Platt, Theresa Rebeck, Jose Rivera, Martha Plimpton and Lili Taylor.

The Project is about making children proud of themselves. The Project is not about teaching children to act, although they will learn to. It is not about teaching them to write plays, although they will learn that as well. What it is about is giving a kid an experience of success. It is about giving a kid an opportunity to prove that he or she has something of value to offer, something that comes from within that he or she alone possesses, something that cannot be taken away.

In 2010 The 52nd Street Project, opened a theater—the first of their own—at 789 Tenth Avenue between 52nd & 53rd Streets.

Related articles:
Photos: Willie Reale, Frances McDormand, Lewis Black, Bela Fleck, Renee Goldsberry, Duncan Sheik, Lisa Benavides, Abigail Washburn, Tim Blake Nelson at The 52nd Street Project Benefit
Multimedia: The 52nd Street Project Benefit Photos: Michael Cerveris, James Monroe Inglehart, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Matthew Morrison, Greg Naughton and Kelli O’Hara

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3
Hamilton tops Lucille Lortel Award Nominations along with Into the Woods, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Invisible Hand, The Nether and The Fortress of Solitude
Tony Award® Nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed to star in Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ, directed by Amy Morton, at Atlantic Theater Company, May 20-June 28
THE KING AND I Broadway Revival Cast Recording Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles- now available for pre-order, release date on June 2
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
Hamilton leads 2015 Drama Desk Awards Nominations with 13, along with An American in Paris, Something Rotten!, The Visit, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
81st Annual Drama League Awards Nominations
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama 
2014-15 Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations; Something Rotten!, On the Twentieth Century, An American in Paris garner most nods
ABC Renews “Fresh Off the Boat” and Picks up Ken Jeong’s “Dr. Ken”
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Photos: Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Spring Exhibition, CHINA: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, May 7–August 16
George Takei Receives Distinguished Medal of Honor at Japanese American National Museum’s 2015 Gala Dinner; JANM Acquires Japanese American Incarceration Artifacts once slated for public auction
White House Blog: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; ‏White House Summit on AAPIs is May 12
President Barack Obama’s Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2015
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
Production Photos: Tony Award Winners Chita Rivera and Roger Rees star in Terrence McNally’s THE VISIT
Photos: David Byrne, Alex Timbers, Jaygee Macapugay, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Adam Guettel, Sarah Saltzberg and More Celebrate Jose Llana’s Lincoln Center American Songbook Debut
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Thom Sesma, Emily Padgett, J. Elaine Marcos and Thai Superstar Bie Sukrit lead the cast of the world premiere of WATERFALL at The Pasadena Playhouse, May 29 – June 28 and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, October 1-25
Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Christine Toy Johnson is at the helm of Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater’s production of  Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar, starring Tony nominee Alan Campbell (Sunset Boulevard) and featuring Satomi Blair, Jacob Heimer, Rachel Casparian and Ben Berry.

Seminar begins preview performances on Thursday, May 14th at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, 2357 Route 6, Wellfleet, MA 02667. Opening night is May 16th, and the show runs Thursdays to Mondays through June 13 at 8pm. Click here for more information and here for tickets.

Campbell received a 1995 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard opposite Glenn Close, Betty Buckley, and Elaine Paige. He also received the Drama-Logue Award for his performance in Sunset Boulevard‘s American Premiere in Los Angeles. Campbell starred in Susan Stroman’s 2000 Tony Award winning Contact at Lincoln Center. Other stage credits include David Mamet’s Race, Death and The Maiden, and 12 Angry Men, as well as Christopher Durang’s Adrift In Macao. Campbell is currently playing the role of Sam Carmichael in Broadway’s hit musical, Mamma Mia!.

Christine Toy Johnson Photo by Bruce Alan Johnson

Director Christine Toy Johnson brings over twenty-five years of experience as a theater professional to Seminar, working in all venues of the industry including Broadway, Off-Broadway, national tours, regional theatre, film, television, commercials and the concert stage. Johnson is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, published journalist, producer, public speaker, and an activist for diversity and inclusion.

A provocative comedy from Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck, Seminar is a story of four aspiring young novelists who sign up for private writing classes with Leonard (Alan Campbell), an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting Broadway comedy. Seminar contains brief female nudity and adult situations.

Seminar opened on Broadway on November 20, 2011 with Alan Rickman in the role of Leonard (replaced by Jeff Goldblum on April 1, 2012), closing after 191 performances.

Directions from Hyannis:
Take Route 6 East to the Orleans rotary, continue straight through South Wellfleet. There will be a left turn lane and a blue sign for WHAT, just past Shepley’s.
If you miss the first turn off, our driveway is accessible from the plaza next door.
If you have gotten to the light at PJ’s you have gone too far.

From Provincetown or Truro:
Take Route 6 West towards Orleans.
Continue passed the stoplight at PJ’s and Cumberland Farms.
On the right, just passed Cove Road and the Antique Store plaza is our driveway.
There is a blue and white sign for WHAT at the start of our driveway.

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3
Hamilton tops Lucille Lortel Award Nominations along with Into the Woods, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Invisible Hand, The Nether and The Fortress of Solitude
Tony Award® Nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed to star in Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ, directed by Amy Morton, at Atlantic Theater Company, May 20-June 28
THE KING AND I Broadway Revival Cast Recording Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles- now available for pre-order, release date on June 2
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
Hamilton leads 2015 Drama Desk Awards Nominations with 13, along with An American in Paris, Something Rotten!, The Visit, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
81st Annual Drama League Awards Nominations
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama 
ABC Renews “Fresh Off the Boat” and Picks up Ken Jeong’s “Dr. Ken”
Photos: Aasif Mandvi, Sheetal Sheth, Jimmy O. Yang, Raymond J. Lee, Tobias Wong and more celebrate HBO’s AAPI Heritage Month Screening of Jonathan Yi’s “East of Main Street: Taking the Lead” Documentary 
Photos: Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Spring Exhibition, CHINA: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, May 7–August 16
George Takei Receives Distinguished Medal of Honor at Japanese American National Museum’s 2015 Gala Dinner; JANM Acquires Japanese American Incarceration Artifacts once slated for public auction
White House Blog: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; ‏White House Summit on AAPIs is May 12
President Barack Obama’s Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2015
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Thom Sesma, Emily Padgett, J. Elaine Marcos and Thai Superstar Bie Sukrit lead the cast of the world premiere of WATERFALL at The Pasadena Playhouse, May 29 – June 28 and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, October 1-25
Joe Mantegna receives Lifetime Achievement Award for Film and Television from The Riverside International Film Festival
Sinatra: An American Icon Exhibit on View through September 4 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
“Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men” on view at Museum of the Moving Image through June 14; Required Viewing: Mad Men’s Movie Influences Film Series Screenings through April 26
Crossings TV to Televise A New Season of Bold Contemporary Content from the Film Lab
11th annual 72 Hour Shootout™ Filmmaking How-To Workshop: Writing the Best Script on April 16; Enter to Win a Free 72 Hour Shootout Registration
11th annual 72 Hour Shootout™ Filmmaking Workshops on March 19 and April 16; Enter to Win a Free 72 Hour Shootout Registration
Asian American Film Lab Receives Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Community Benefit Grant
Disney Developing Live-Action ‘Mulan’
“Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong,” – Retrospective of Disney Legend at MOCA through September 13
Dining out at élan with Artist Arlan Huang; New Paintings on view at Trestle Gallery
Award Winning Actor Raul Aranas Talks THE BLACKLIST, NAAP’S OLIVER!, Songwriting and the Zen of Cycling
Signature Theatre Company’s Founding Artistic Director James Houghton To Step Down After 2015-16 25th Anniversary Season
Photos: National Black Theatre Festival 2013; NBTF runs August 3-8, 2015 and will include Act III – A Celebration of Life Reception saluting the late theatre icon Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.
Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Rick Shiomi. Photo by Lia Chang

The McKnight Foundation has named Minnesota playwright, director, producer, theater artist, and musician Rick Shiomi as the 2015 McKnight Distinguished Artist, in recognition of artistic excellence spanning four decades. Now in its 18th year, the annual honor includes a $50,000 cash award and recognizes individual Minnesota artists who have made significant contributions to the quality of the state’s cultural life. McKnight will honor Shiomi at a private reception later this year.

“Given the breadth, scope, and importance of Rick Shiomi’s artistic legacy, there is no single yardstick by which to measure his impact,” said McKnight president Kate Wolford. “It is multifaceted, trailblazing, and extends well beyond his commitment to Asian American theater in the Twin Cities, and we at McKnight are honored to celebrate his accomplishments with this award.”

A seminal leader of the Asian American theater movement since the 1980s, Rick Shiomi has written, produced, or directed over 50 plays during his career. He is perhaps best known as co-founder of St. Paul’s Theater Mu, dedicated to bringing Asian American voices to the stage.

Rick Shiomi shares his 2012 Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement with his Mu Performing Arts family backstage at the State Theater in Minneapolis, MN. on September 24, 2012. Photo by Kurt Moses

Rick Shiomi at a book party in New York for Asian American Plays for a New Generation on July 29, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

Shiomi founded Theater Mu in 1992 and served as artistic director from 1993 through 2013. Under his leadership, Theater Mu became Mu Performing Arts and grew from a small start-up in an area where Asian American theater was almost nonexistent into a nationally recognized company. (The organization’s name comes from the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character for the shaman/artist/warrior who connects the heavens and the earth through the tree of life.) Shiomi is the recipient of an Ivey Lifetime Achievement Award (2012), a Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision (2007), and a Minnesota State Council for Asian Pacific Minnesotans Award for Leadership (2002). His plays have been included in the anthologies Asian American Plays for a New Generation (Temple University Press, 2011), which he co-edited, and Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing, edited by Rajini Srikanth and Esther Iwanaga (Rutgers University Press, 2001). He was profiled in the January 2009 issue of American Theatre Magazine, the premier publication spotlighting trends in American theater.

Mu Performing Arts’ Artistic Director Rick Shiomi takes home Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement

Rick Shiomi in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. on July 27, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

“I feel it’s a huge recognition of all the work I’ve done over the past forty years, from my work in the Asian Canadian cultural community in Vancouver in the 1970’s through my theater work in San Francisco and New York in the 1980’s followed by my work at Mu Performing Arts from 1992 through 2013 and even now my work in Philadelphia helping to develop and promote Asian American theater there,” said Shiomi. “And the award recognizes the importance of the cause itself of Asian American culture and community. It’s been a long and winding road full of tremendous experiences with fascinating folks, and I feel truly blessed to have been on that road and now being honored at this point with this award.”

Mask Dance, written and directed by R.A. Shiomi. Photo credit: Charissa Uemura Photography

R.A. Shiomi’s award-winning play Yellow Fever.

As a playwright, Shiomi’s work includes the award-winning Yellow Fever, which has been produced off-Broadway, around North America and in Japan; was awarded the Bay Area Theater Circle Critics Award for best new play in 1982; and received rave reviews in the New York Times and New Yorker. Other notable plays include Play Ball, Rosie’s Cafe, Walleye Kid, Mask Dance and Journey of the Drum. As a director he has worked extensively with Mu Performing Arts, where his credits include Temple of Dreams by Marcus Quiniones, Song of the Pipa (which he also wrote), an Asian-inspired production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the David Hwang version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song. His choice to direct plays from the American musical theater canon — including A Little Night Music, Into the Woods, and The King and I — provided rare and groundbreaking opportunities for Asian actors to perform in roles generally unavailable to them.

Rogers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song, with a new book by David Henry Hwang, directed by Rick Shiomi

Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts

His work has been showcased locally at the Guthrie, Intermedia Arts, Mixed Blood, Ordway, Park Square, Stages, Southern, and SteppingStone theaters, among others; nationally at Asian American Theater Company (San Francisco), East West Players (Los Angeles), InterAct Theatre (Philadelphia), Pan Asian Repertory (New York), and Theatre Esprit Asia (Denver); and internationally at Firehall Theater in Vancouver and Haisho Theatre Company and Ryuzanji Theater Company, both in Tokyo.

Walleye Kid: The Musical! by R.A. Shiomi and Sundraya Kase; Music by Kurt Miyashiro. Photo by John Autey

Playwrights David Henry Hwang, Philip Kan Gotanda and Rick Shiomi in San Francisco in 1988. A version of this photo appeared in a feature article in the Feb.- Mar. 1989 edition of Mother Jones. Photo by Cynthia Wallace

Born and raised in Toronto, Shiomi’s perspective as a Japanese Canadian figures prominently in his art and life. His parents were among the many Canadians of Japanese descent forced into internment camps during World War II; their experiences in the camp are a strong theme in many of his works. Shiomi graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in history in 1970, received a teaching diploma from Simon Fraser University, and went on to travel the world, teaching in Japan and Hong Kong before returning to Canada, this time settling in Vancouver, British Columbia. In Vancouver, he helped organize the Powell Street Festival, edited a film designed to teach children about Japanese Canadian history, and became an active member of the Japanese Canadian Citizen’s Association, where he helped edit Inalienable Rice: A Chinese & Japanese Canadian Anthology (Chinese Canadian Writers Workshop, 1973). It was during this time he met playwrights David Henry Hwang and Philip Kan Gotanda, both of whom were influential in his artistic development.

Season 2002-2003 The Magic Bus to Asian Folktales by R.A. Shiomi, Cha Yang and Jaz Canlas. Photo courtesy of Mu Performing Arts

Shiomi has helmed a variety of national projects, panels, conferences and festivals, including cofounding the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists (CAATA), the national service organization for the Asian American theater community, where he served on the board from 2006 through 2014. Another major field of artistic work for Shiomi is Mu Daiko, a taiko group within Mu Performing Arts, which he established in 1997. He was the leader of Mu Daiko through 2010, training drummers, composing taiko music and directing annual performances at multiple venues in Minnesota. He has served on many Minnesota State Arts Board, Theater Communications Group and NEA panels.

In 2014, Shiomi was awarded a Doris Duke grant for Building Demand for the Arts program to work with InterAct Theatre and Asian Arts Initiative to develop Asian American theater and audiences in Philadelphia. The coalition of Philadelphia theaters participating in the Philadelphia Asian Theater Project (PATP) include Azuka Theatre, EgoPo Classic Theater, InterAct Theatre Company, Kaleid Theatre, Lantern Theater Company, People’s Light, Plays and Players, and The Wilma Theater. In addition to The Asian Arts Initiative, PAPA (Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists) is a PATP supporter.

The first productions supported by PATP in the 2014/15 season were Caught by Christopher Chen produced by InterAct Theatre Company, Hold These Truths by Jeannie Sakata produced by Plays and Players, and Take/Sacrifice by Kaleid Theatre at Mz. Fest hosted by Plays and Players. PATP is currently supporting the production by the Philadelphia Theatre Company of ‘brownsville song (b-side for Tray)’ by Kimber Lee, which has performances through May 31st.

Shiomi is thriving in his freelance life after his tenure with Mu, with two projects in Philadelphia, one with InterAct Theatre continuing the work from the Doris Duke grant for Building Demand for the Arts; and one with the Lantern Theater Company to write and direct a new play for them, based upon the book, The Ronin, by William Jennings.

Shiomi’s latest directing gig, the Park Square Theatre’s production of Julia Cho’s The Language Archive featuring Kurt Kwan, Sarah Ochs, Emily A. Grodzik, Robert Gardner, Melanie Wehrmacher, Richard Ooms and Claudia Wilkens, is currently in previews in Saint Paul’s historic Hamm Building, 20 W. Seventh Place, and will open on Friday, May 15, 2015.

“It’s just a beautiful and fun play that audiences are loving in previews, so it’s exciting,” said Shiomi. Performances will continue through May 31, 2015. Click here for more information and here for tickets.

Broadwayworld.com: Julia Cho’s THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE Comes to Park Square, 5/8-31

“And I am, believe it or not, starting a new company with several others, called Full Circle Theater Company, with the focus on diversity,” shared Shiomi. “Our first project will be Sacred Passage which will be created by the five core artistic members (myself, Martha Johnson, James Williams, Lara Trujillo and Stephanie Lein Walseth), dramaturged and directed by Martha and produced at Dreamland Arts this coming November. Sacred Passage will be about our lives becoming theater artists from a wide range of backgrounds, looking at the obstacles and challenges we faced (like issues of race and gender) and how we’ve dealt with and overcome them.”

ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT DISTINGUISHED ARTIST AWARD
The McKnight Distinguished Artist Award recognizes individuals who help lay the foundation for Minnesota’s rich cultural life. Despite opportunities to work elsewhere, they chose to stay — and by staying, they have made a difference. Previous recipients are composer Dominick Argento (1998), ceramic artist Warren MacKenzie (1999), writer Robert Bly (2000), choral conductor Dale Warland (2001), publisher Emilie Buchwald (2002), painter Mike Lynch (2003), orchestra conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (2004), sculptor Judy Onofrio (2005), theater artist Lou Bellamy (2006), sculptor Kinji Akagawa (2007), writer Bill Holm (2008), theater artist Bain Boehlke (2009), sculptor Siah Armajani (2010), dance artist Ranee Ramaswamy (2011), poet John Caddy (2012), theater artist Wendy Lehr (2013), and theater artist Sandy Spieler (2014).

ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION
The McKnight Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life for present and future generations through grantmaking, collaboration, and encouragement of strategic policy reform. Founded in 1953 and independently endowed by William and Maude McKnight, the Minnesota-based Foundation had assets of approximately $2 billion and granted about $86 million in 2014. Of the total, over $9 million went to support working artists to create and contribute to vibrant communities, because Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive. More at mcknight.org, on Facebook and Twitter.

Related articles:
Randy Reyes Leads Cast of Mu Performing Arts’ Production of A Little Night Music, Helmed by Rick Shiomi at Park Square Theatre
Kurt Kwan, Sara Ochs, Eric Sharp and More Set for Mu Performing Arts production of R.A. Shiomi’s Yellow Fever in Guthrie’s Dowling Studio, March 8-24, 2013
Photos: Yellow Fever Playwright Rick Shiomi Explores New Territory with An All-Female Cast
Mu’s landmark 21st Season features a brand new Taiko Concert, Lauren Yee’s The Tiger Among Us, and Rick Shiomi’s Award-Winning comedy Yellow Fever
Rick Shiomi helms Mu Performing Arts’ Asian American Cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, July 17-August 5, 2012
Mu Performing Arts’ Little Shop of Horrors on 2 ‘Best of’ Lists; Women in Arts Panel on 1/29, in Conjunction with Mu Daiko’s 15th Anniversary Concert and Tour
Mu Daiko 15th Anniversary Concert and Minnesota Tour, February 9-19, 2012
Photos: Opening Night of Mu Performing Arts’ Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies
Photos: Backstage at Mu Performing Arts’ Four Destinies by Katie Hae Leo
Photos: On the town with Rick Shiomi, Co-Editor of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, in D.C. & NY
Temple Press: Rick Shiomi recounts his tour for “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”
Mu Blog: Rick Shiomi’s Book Tour Logbook
knightarts.org: Reading on the road inside the book tour
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2
“Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, A New Anthology of Asian American Plays Is Subject of Book Talk

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
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Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

RED BANK, NJ— Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst will launch its 2015/16 Season in September with   with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, directed by Brandon J. Dirden and will include the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, directed by Jessica Stone; a new music-theater production of Shakespeare’s Pericles created by Rinde Eckert and David Schweizer; and the Transport Group’s critically acclaimed production of I Remember Mama, directed by Jack Cummings III.

New works include the world premiere of Lives of Reason by Robert Rechnitz and Kenneth Stunkel, directed by Jonathan Fox, and the American premiere of Mexican playwright Barbara Colio’s Ropes, translated into English by Maria Alexandria Beech and directed by Lisa Rothe.

Season Subscriptions are on sale now at 732.345.1400 or 21 Bridge Avenue, Red Bank, NJ. Subscribers save 25% on tickets, receive prime seating and a number of additional benefits. Visit tworivertheater.org for more details. Ticket prices for individual shows range from $15 to $65.

“The 2015/16 season is built around the theme of family,” says Artistic Director John Dias. “Both in the content of the plays, which each deal with the complicated bonds between families—those you are born to and those you build within a community—and for Two River Theater itself. We are welcoming back several artists who are part of our family, and introducing several we have long wanted to bring into the fold. We have always believed that theater is a place for artists and audiences to come together and examine and celebrate the bonds that connect us as humans, and Managing Director Michael Hurst and I are proud that our season will be full of these rich opportunities.”

TWO RIVER THEATER’S 2015/16 SEASON

August Wilson’s SEVEN GUITARS

Directed by Brandon J. Dirden

Rechnitz Theater

September 12-October 4, 2015

Press Opening: September 18

Two River Theater opens its season with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Two River’s third American Century Cycle production following its acclaimed productions of Jitney and Two Trains Running. Seven Guitars takes audiences to Pittsburgh, 1948, where local blues guitarist Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton sits on the edge of stardom. Brandon J. Dirden is making his directorial debut with this production. As an actor, Dirden has appeared at Two River in Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, and August Wilson’s Jitney. On Broadway, he played Martin Luther King, Jr., opposite Bryan Cranston’s Lyndon Johnson in the Tony Award-winning All the Way. His Off-Broadway credits include The Piano Lesson, for which he received Obie, Theatre World, and AUDELCO Awards, and Drama League and Lortel nominations. On television, he can be seen as Agent Aderholt in the FX series The Americans. Seven Guitars will feature cast members Crystal Dickinson (Broadway’s You Can’t Take It With You and Clybourne Park) as Louise and Jason Dirden (Two River’s Topdog/Underdog and Broadway’s A Raisin in the Sun) as Canewell.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart

Choreographed by Denis Jones

Directed by Jessica Stone  

Rechnitz Theater

November 14-December 13, 2015

Press Opening: November 20

Director Jessica Stone returns to Two River, where she made her debut last season with Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular, to direct A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Musical. The production will be choreographed by Denis Jones (Honeymoon in Vegas). Inspired by Stone’s acclaimed 2010 Williamstown Theatre Festival production, Two River’s  …Forum will feature an all-male troupe of actors led by Christopher Fitzgerald (Broadway’s An Act of God, the original cast of Wicked, Young Frankenstein) as Pseudolus, a slave who tries to win his freedom by playing matchmaker for his innocent young master.

LIVES OF REASON

By Robert Rechnitz and Kenneth Stunkel

Directed by Jonathan Fox

Marion Huber Theater

January 9-February 7, 2016

Press Opening: January 15

Set at an English Department faculty party, Lives of Reason exposes the challenges of intellectual life—and what happens when one woman’s secret passions explode and her authentic self is revealed. This world premiere is written by Two River founder Robert Rechnitz and Kenneth Stunkel, and directed by former Two River Artistic Director Jonathan Fox, who currently serves as Executive Artistic Director of the Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara. The cast will include John Ahlin (Off-Broadway’s Orson’s Shadow, Two River’s Charlotte’s Web) and Maureen Silliman (Two River’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Glass Menagerie). This production will be sponsored by Monmouth University.

ROPES

By Bárbara Colio
English Translation by Maria Alexandria Beech

Directed by Lisa Rothe

Marion Huber Theater

February 20-March 20, 2016

Press Opening: February 26

In this beautiful and universal story about forgiveness, love, and loss, three brothers rendezvous at an airport to meet the father who abandoned them as children, and who is now the most famous tightrope walker of all time. Written by Bárbara Colio, one of Latin America’s leading contemporary playwrights, Ropes will be directed by Lisa Rothe (Hold These Truths at Epic Theatre Ensemble), Director of Global Exchange at the Lark Play Development Center in New York.  Two River Theater will present select performances ofRopes in Spanish as part of its ongoing Nosotros program, which is dedicated to engaging Monmouth County’s Latino community and furthering the work of Latino theater artists.

PERICLES

By William Shakespeare

Original Music and Additional Lyrics by Rinde Eckert

Directed by David Schweizer 

Rechnitz Theater

April 16-May 8, 2016

Press Opening: April 22

Shakespeare’s thrilling and epic tale of adventure, shipwreck and romance will be brought to new life with original songs by Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rinde Eckert, who will also appear in the production, directed by David Schweizer. Eckert and Schweizer’s previous collaborations include And God Created Great Whales, an Obie Award-winning operatic adaptation of Moby-Dick. In connection with its production of Pericles, Two River will produce “A Little Shakespeare,” a 75-minute version of Pericles performed by high school students. Performances will be presented in Two River’s Marion Huber Theater in December 2015.

I REMEMBER MAMA

By John Van Druten

Directed by Jack Cummings III

Rechnitz Theater

June 4-26, 2016

Press Opening: June 10

Ten veteran powerhouse actresses (led by Barbara Andres as Mama) will perform all 25 roles in John Van Druten’s beloved classic about a working-class Norwegian family in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. The Transport Group’s production of I Remember Mama, directed by Jack Cummings III, was celebrated as one of the best theater productions of 2014 in The New York Times and The New Yorker.

 WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Based on the Book by Maurice Sendak

Directed by Kim Selody

Produced by Presentation House Theatre, Vancouver, Canada

Originally Adapted for the Stage by Tag Theatre of Glasgow

June 9-12, 2016

Adapted from Maurice Sendak’s landmark children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are is an intimate “guided play” experience for kids ages 3 to 7 and their adults. Max’s bedroom is transformed into the various landscapes of his adventures, from a rolling ocean to a forest. The audience then becomes the Wild Things as each child is each given a mask and encouraged to “let the Wild Rumpus start!”

Plays, artists, dates, and ticket prices are subject to change. For additional information, visit tworivertheater.org. 

Ticket Information

Season Subscriptions are on sale now; prices range from $83.25 to $292.50. Subscribers save 25% on tickets, receive prime seating and a number of additional benefits. Visit tworivertheater.org for more details.

Ticket prices for all productions except A Little Shakespeare: Pericles and Where the Wild Things Are range from $37 to $65, with discounts available for groups, seniors, and U.S. military personnel, their families, and veterans. A limited number of $20 tickets are available for every performance; $20 tickets may be partial view. Tickets for patrons under 30 are $20 and include the best available seats at every performance.

Ticket prices for A Little Shakespeare: Pericles are $20 for adults and $15 for children under age 12.  Tickets for Where the Wild Things Are are $25.

Sponsors and Supporters

Two River Theater is supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a division within the Department of State and a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Columbus Foundation, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Stone Foundation of New Jersey, Monmouth University, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Durso Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanley, Monmouth Medical Center Foundation, Wells Fargo, Investors Bank, Brookdale Community College, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, William T. Morris Foundation, Springpoint Senior Living Foundation at the Atrium at Navesink Harbor, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, and many other generous foundations, corporations and individuals.

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, creates great American theater performed by award-winning artists. We produce American and world masterpieces, and new plays and musicals. Two River Theater offers new-play commissions and artistic development activities that support the most adventurous artists in the American theater; invites its audience to be part of the creative process through readings and open rehearsals; and cultivates students and young people to participate in innovative arts-education programs and become a new generation of theatergoers. Founded in 1994 by Joan and Dr. Robert M. Rechnitz, Two River Theater is easily accessible by car, train, or bus, with great restaurants and shopping within walking distance of the theater. For more information, visit tworivertheater.org or call 732.345.1400.  

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE & CRAZY, HAMILTON, Austin Pendleton & More Win Off Broadway Alliance Awards
HAMILTON, James Houghton, Usman Ally, Ayad Akhtar, Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Douglas Thompson and Suzan-Lori Parks among 2015 Obie Award Winners
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3
Tony Award® Nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed to star in Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ, directed by Amy Morton, at Atlantic Theater Company, May 20-June 28
THE KING AND I Broadway Revival Cast Recording Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles- now available for pre-order, release date on June 2
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama 
ABC Renews “Fresh Off the Boat” and Picks up Ken Jeong’s “Dr. Ken”
Photos: Aasif Mandvi, Sheetal Sheth, Jimmy O. Yang, Raymond J. Lee, Tobias Wong and more celebrate HBO’s AAPI Heritage Month Screening of Jonathan Yi’s “East of Main Street: Taking the Lead” Documentary 
George Takei Receives Distinguished Medal of Honor at Japanese American National Museum’s 2015 Gala Dinner; JANM Acquires Japanese American Incarceration Artifacts once slated for public auction
White House Blog: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; ‏White House Summit on AAPIs is May 12
President Barack Obama’s Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2015
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Thom Sesma, Emily Padgett, J. Elaine Marcos and Thai Superstar Bie Sukrit lead the cast of the world premiere of WATERFALL at The Pasadena Playhouse, May 29 – June 28 and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, October 1-25
Photos: National Black Theatre Festival 2013; NBTF runs August 3-8, 2015 and will include Act III – A Celebration of Life Reception saluting the late theatre icon Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.
Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

(Front row): Celia Keenan-Bolger, Dan Fogler, Sarah Saltzberg; (back row): Jose Llana, Deborah S. Craig, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the young spellers in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Circle in the Square. Photo by Joan Marcus

The nine original cast members of the hit Broadway musical, THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE -Derrick Baskin, Deborah S. Craig, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dan Fogler, Lisa Howard, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jose Llana, Jay Reiss, and Sarah Saltzberg – will reunite for a special one-night-only 10 Year Anniversary benefit concert on Monday, July 6 at 7:30pm at Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street). Benefit tickets, priced $50, $100, $150, $250, and $500 are available at Ticketmaster.com.

$500 tickets include premium seating and invitation to the private post-performance reception with the original cast members and creative team.

The evening will also feature celebrity guest spellers, who will attempt to beat Putnam County’s spelling legends, including Chip Tolentino, William Barfee, and Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre. Best of luck to them.

The one-night-only event will benefit The Actors Fund’s Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and is being held in memory of Andrea “Spook” Testani Gordon, the beloved production stage manager of the original Broadway and off-Broadway production, who passed away on November 30, 2014 following a battle with cancer.

This special concert is being directed by James Lapine and Darren Katz, featuring musical direction by Vadim Feichtner and Carmel Dean, and is produced by The Actors Fund with Natalie Gershtein as line producer.

THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE was produced by David Stone, James L. Nederlander,Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo, Barrington Stage Company and Second Stage Theatre.

THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE features book by Rachel Sheinkin, music and lyrics byWilliam Finn, and direction by James Lapine. Based on “C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E,” an original play by The Farm, the production was conceived by Rebecca Feldman and featured additional material by Jay Reiss. It premiered on Broadway on May 2, 2005 following sold-out runs at Second Stage Theatre and the Barrington Stage Company. The critically acclaimed musical was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and won two: Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler). The production ran for nearly three years closing on January 20, 2008 after playing 1,136 performances.

Andrea “Spook” Testani Gordon passed away November 30, 2014 following a battle with cancer. She was 46. Known to all by the nickname, “Spook,” Mrs. Gordon’s many Broadway credits include Side Man, I Am My Own Wife, and revivals of Uncle Vanya, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Man Who Had All the Luck, All My Sons and Design for Living. Following the Broadway production, Spook went on to open companies of Spelling Bee around the country and on National Tour.

The Actors Fund is a national human services organization that helps everyone-performers and those behind the scenes-who works in performing arts and entertainment, helping more than 21,000 people directly each year, and hundreds of thousands online. Serving professionals in film, theatre, television, music, opera, radio and dance, The Fund’s programs include social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and employment and training services. With offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Actors Fund has been-for 133 years-a safety net for those in need, crisis or transition. Visit www.actorsfund.org.

The Actors Fund’s Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative (PNWHI) was initiated by Actors Fund trustee and cancer survivor Phyllis Newman, and was created to address the myriad of concerns women face when dealing with a serious medical condition. When women come to The Fund after a serious medical diagnosis they are often overwhelmed with concerns about their ability to work, family issues, managing basic bills as well as medical bills, and coping both physically and mentally with a challenging medical situation. The PNWHI Social Workers help women negotiate the steps that follow a serious medical diagnosis. Through intensive case management, access to individual counseling, support groups, educational seminars, linkage to community supports and short-term financial assistance, the social workers help women receive the nurturing support that they need. Visit www.actorsfund.org/PNWHI.

Related articles:
Jose Llana, Jill Paice,Telly Leung and more featured on TOKIO CONFIDENTIAL Recording; Set for Release May 12 
Photos: David Byrne, Alex Timbers, Jaygee Macapugay, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Adam Guettel, Sarah Saltzberg and More Celebrate Jose Llana’s Lincoln Center American Songbook Debut
Photos: In Rehearsal with Jose Llana; Set for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Debut on March 12
Jose Llana Set for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Debut on March 12
Up Close and Personal with Jose Llana; HERE LIES LOVE Star Set for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Debut on March 12, 2015
Photos: Late Night at HERE LIES LOVE with Jaygee Macapugay, David Byrne, Jose Llana, Conrad Ricamora, Melody Butiu and More
Apple Video Podcast: New York Post Writer Michael Riedel Interviews David Byrne, Jaygee Macapugay, Jose Llana and Conrad Ricamora of Here Lies Love
Lucille Lortel Awards for Here Lies Love, Fun Home, The Open House, Good Person of Szechwan
Jose Llana, Ruthie Ann Miles, Melody Butiu, Conrad Ricamora and More Open in David Byrne- Fatboy Slim’s Here Lies Love on May 1
NYMF: Prison Dancer starring Jose Llana, Jeigh Madjus, Marc delaCruz, Catherine Ricafort, Moses Villarama, Cosmo Clemens, Enrico Rodriguez, Albert Guerzon, Andrew Eisenman and Nathan Ramos at Theatre at St. Clement’s, July 20-28, 2012
Tony Award Winner Lea Salonga Leads Stellar Cast in First All-Filipino Concert for Philippine Development Foundation, “PhilDev Celebrates Broadway: Suites by Sondheim” at Alice Tully Hall
Photos: Jose Llana, Stephanie Umoh & cast of Falling for Eve
The Making of the Flower Drum Song Cast Album
Flower Drum Song, An American Story

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE & CRAZY, HAMILTON, Austin Pendleton & More Win Off Broadway Alliance Awards
HAMILTON, James Houghton, Usman Ally, Ayad Akhtar, Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Douglas Thompson and Suzan-Lori Parks among 2015 Obie Award Winners
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3
Tony Award® Nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed to star in Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ, directed by Amy Morton, at Atlantic Theater Company, May 20-June 28
THE KING AND I Broadway Revival Cast Recording Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles- now available for pre-order, release date on June 2
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama 
ABC Renews “Fresh Off the Boat” and Picks up Ken Jeong’s “Dr. Ken”
Photos: Aasif Mandvi, Sheetal Sheth, Jimmy O. Yang, Raymond J. Lee, Tobias Wong and more celebrate HBO’s AAPI Heritage Month Screening of Jonathan Yi’s “East of Main Street: Taking the Lead” Documentary 
George Takei Receives Distinguished Medal of Honor at Japanese American National Museum’s 2015 Gala Dinner; JANM Acquires Japanese American Incarceration Artifacts once slated for public auction
White House Blog: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; ‏White House Summit on AAPIs is May 12
President Barack Obama’s Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2015
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Thom Sesma, Emily Padgett, J. Elaine Marcos and Thai Superstar Bie Sukrit lead the cast of the world premiere of WATERFALL at The Pasadena Playhouse, May 29 – June 28 and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, October 1-25
Photos: National Black Theatre Festival 2013; NBTF runs August 3-8, 2015 and will include Act III – A Celebration of Life Reception saluting the late theatre icon Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.
Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Kevin Mambo. Photo by Lia Chang

Signature Theatre has announced that due to an injury sustained by actor Sahr Ngaujah in a recent automobile-related incident, the role of Jonathan in Athol Fugard’s The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek will be played by Kevin Mambo until Mr. Ngaujah is able to return to the production.

Signature recently announced a second one week extension for the world premiere, which opened on Monday, May 11 and already extended once through June 7. The play will now run through June 14 in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

The cast includes Bianca Amato (LCT’s Macbeth) as Elmarie, Leon Addison Brown (Signature’s The Train Driver) as Nukain, Caleb McLaughlin (The Lion King) as Bokkie, Tony Award nominee Sahr Ngaujah (Fela!) as Jonathan.

With The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, Athol Fugard, Signature’s 2012 Playwright-in-Residence and winner of the 2011 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, returns with a new play suggested by the life of outsider artist Nukain Mabusa. Aging farm laborer Nukain has spent his life transforming the rocks at Revolver Creek, South Africa, into a vibrant garden of painted flowers. Now, the final unpainted rock, as well as his young companion Bokkie, has forced Nukain to confront his legacy as a painter, a person and a black man in 1980s South Africa. When the landowner’s wife arrives with demands about the painting, the profound rifts of a country hurtling toward the end of apartheid are laid bare.

The design team includes Christopher H. Barreca (Scenic Design), Susan Hilferty (Costume Design), Stephen Strawbridge (Lighting Design), Stowe Nelson (Sound Design), Barbara Rubin (Dialect Coach). Linda Marvel is the Production Stage Manager. Casting by Telsey + Company, Karyn Casl, CSA.

Tickets for the extension performances start at $35. To purchase tickets for all Signature productions, call Ticket Services at 212-244-7529 (Tues. – Sun., 11am – 6pm) or visit signaturetheatre.org.

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Related articles:
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
Photos: André De Shields, Adam Chanler-Berat, Jose Llana, Kevin Mambo, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Kyle Beltran, Kim Brockington and More at The Fortress of Solitude 
Jackie Alexander’s BROTHERS FROM THE BOTTOM Starring Wendell Pierce, Kevin Mambo, Toccarra Cash, Thaddeus Daniels, Wendell Franklin and Megan Robinson at the Brooklyn Music School Playhouse through March 29

Other articles by Lia Chang
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE & CRAZY, HAMILTON, Austin Pendleton & More Win Off Broadway Alliance Awards
HAMILTON, James Houghton, Usman Ally, Ayad Akhtar, Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Douglas Thompson and Suzan-Lori Parks among 2015 Obie Award Winners
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3
THE KING AND I Broadway Revival Cast Recording Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles- now available for pre-order, release date on June 2
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama 
ABC Renews “Fresh Off the Boat” and Picks up Ken Jeong’s “Dr. Ken”
Photos: Aasif Mandvi, Sheetal Sheth, Jimmy O. Yang, Raymond J. Lee, Tobias Wong and more celebrate HBO’s AAPI Heritage Month Screening of Jonathan Yi’s “East of Main Street: Taking the Lead” Documentary 
George Takei Receives Distinguished Medal of Honor at Japanese American National Museum’s 2015 Gala Dinner; JANM Acquires Japanese American Incarceration Artifacts once slated for public auction
White House Blog: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; ‏White House Summit on AAPIs is May 12
President Barack Obama’s Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2015
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Thom Sesma, Emily Padgett, J. Elaine Marcos and Thai Superstar Bie Sukrit lead the cast of the world premiere of WATERFALL at The Pasadena Playhouse, May 29 – June 28 and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, October 1-25
Photos: National Black Theatre Festival 2013; NBTF runs August 3-8, 2015 and will include Act III – A Celebration of Life Reception saluting the late theatre icon Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.
Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Chita Rivera & Cast of THE VISIT. Photo by Thom Kaine

The 2015 winners of the Lilly Awards, celebrating and honoring women of distinction in American theater, were announced today by The Lilly Awards Foundation.  The winners will be celebrated at the 6th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony on Monday, June 1, 2015 beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street) and hosted by double 2015 Tony Award nominee Lisa Kron (Fun Home).  The ceremony will be live-streamed on the Lilly Awards website (www.thelillyawards.org) and HowlRound TV (www.Howlround.com/tv). #lillyawards #howlround

The Lilly Awards will honor two-time Tony Award-winner Chita Rivera (Chicago; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Bye, Bye, Birdie; West Side Story), currently starring on Broadway in the new Tony nominated musical, The Visit, for which she received a 2015 Tony Award nomination, with the first-ever Legendary Lilly Award presented by four-time Tony Award-winner Terrence McNally (The Visit; Master Class; Ragtime; Love! Valor! Compassion!), and veteran Broadway producer Daryl Roth (It Shoulda Been You; Clybourne Park; August: Osage County; Kinky Boots) who will receive the Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award.

2015 Lilly Award winners include choreographer and director Graciela Daniele, playwright Lisa D’Amour (2015 Tony nominee, Airline Highway; Detroit), beloved actor Deirdre O’Connell, founding artistic director of the Musical Theatre Factory Shakina Nayfack, Boo Killebrew, Quincy Tyler Bernstein, and three surprise winners to be announced during the ceremony.

Guest presenters include Lynn Ahrens, Lynne Meadow, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Jordan Roth, Cusi Cram, Zoe Sarnak, Heidi Schreck, Julia Jordan, and more.

The ceremony will include performances by FIVE PLAY, the sister group of the world-renowned all-female jazz ensemble DIVA, and a special announcement by the Ziegfeld Club. The winners of the Stacey Mindich $25,000 Go-Write-a-Play Prize and the Leah Ryan Prize will also be announced. And the presentation of the annual Miss Lilly Award, given to the man who has done the most in any given year to make the theater a better place for women, will also be announced.

The Lilly Awards are made possible by generous grants from The Dramatists Guild and The New York Women’s Foundation, and sustaining assistance from the Lilly Awards Leadership Circle.

The Lilly Awards were founded in the spring of 2010, by Julia Jordan, Marsha Norman and Theresa Rebeck to honor the work of women in the American Theater. The awards are named for Lillian Hellman, who famously said to be a female playwright, “You need to write like the devil and act like one too when necessary.”

The Honorees were chosen by over 100 theater professionals.  Previous winners of Lilly Awards include Mary Rogers, Dominique Morrisseau, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Jeanine Tesori, Liesl Tommy, Kelli O’Hara, Pam MacKinnon, Leigh Silverman, Anne Kauffman, Sarah Ruhl, Kristin Chenoweth, Annie Baker, Susan Stroman, Lynn Ahrens, Tina Fallon, Amy Herzog, Nina Arianda, Diane Paulus, Katori Hall, Tina Howe, Estella Parsons, Lynne Meadow, Ntozake Shange, Jessica Hecht and Lois Smith.  Previous winners of the much-coveted Miss Lilly award, for outstanding contribution to the lives of women, include Tim Sanford, Todd London, Gary Garrison, and David Ives.

For additional information about The Lilly Awards (including a list of all past recipients), visit www.thelillyawards.org

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE & CRAZY, HAMILTON, Austin Pendleton & More Win Off Broadway Alliance Awards
HAMILTON, James Houghton, Usman Ally, Ayad Akhtar, Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Douglas Thompson and Suzan-Lori Parks among 2015 Obie Award Winners
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3
Tony Award® Nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed to star in Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ, directed by Amy Morton, at Atlantic Theater Company, May 20-June 28
THE KING AND I Broadway Revival Cast Recording Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles- now available for pre-order, release date on June 2
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
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Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Chita Rivera & Cast of THE VISIT. Photo by Thom Kaine

The Visit, starring Tony Award Winners Chita Rivera and Roger Rees, which has been nominated for five 2015 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical (Rivera), and Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Japhy Weideman), is offering all Balcony tickets for $19.75 effective now until the Tony Awards ceremony on Sunday, June 7th 2015. Kirdahy first made the announcement last night from the stage of the Lyceum Theatre following the historic post-show “Composing History: A Conversation with Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Kander”.
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees

Tickets are available at the Lyceum Theater Box Office (149 West 45th Street, NYC) or on telechargeoffers.com using the code TVTALK520.

“This special price and offer is in honor of John Kander and Fred Ebb,” Kirdahy said. “1975 marked the year that the musical Chicago opened on Broadway and it was the first time I saw the incredible Chita Rivera.”

Chita Rivera and Roger Rees. Photo by Thom Kaine

Ms. Rivera recently received The Drama League Distinguished Performance Award, and will receive the 2015 John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre at the 71st Annual Theatre World Awards and the first-ever Legendary Lilly Award at the 6th Annual Lilly Awards.
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Roger Rees, John Riddle, Michelle Veintimillia and Chita Rivera. Photo by Joan Marcus

Terrence McNally. Photo by Lia Chang

Based on the satirical play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt as adapted by Maurice Valency, The Visit features music and lyrics by Tony and Oscar winners John Kander & Fred Ebb (Cabaret), book by four-time Tony Award winning playwright Terrence McNally (It’s Only a Play, Ragtime, Kiss of the Spiderwoman). Helmed by Tony Award winning director John Doyle (Sweeney Todd, Company) and choreographed by Tony Award nominee Graciela Daniele.

In her juiciest role yet, Chita Rivera is Claire Zachannassian, the world’s wealthiest woman, who returns home to Anton (Roger Rees) who captured her heart then shattered her dreams. What she does next shocks the town and makes for the most thrilling and intriguing musical in years. From the team that brought you Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, this tale of romance, seduction and betrayal proves that revenge is the best revenge.

Chita Rivera and Michelle Veintimillia. Photo by Thom Kaine

The Broadway cast also features George Abud as Karl, Jason Danieley as Frederich Kuhn, Matthew Deming as Louis Perch, Diana Dimarzio as Annie Dummermut, Tony® Award nominee David Garrison as Peter Dummermut, Rick Holmes as Father Josef, Tom Nelis as Rudi, Chris Newcomer as Jacob Chicken, Mary Beth Peil as Matilde Schell, Aaron Ramey as Otto Hahnke, Elena Shadow as Ottilie, Timothy Shew as Hans Nusselin, with John Riddle and Michelle Veintimilla.

John Riddle and Michelle Veintimillia. Photo by Joan Marcus

The Visit is produced by Tom Kirdahy, Tom Smedes, Hugh Hayes, Peter Stern, Judith Ann Abrams,Hunter Arnold, Carl Daikeler, Ken Davenport, Rich Affannato, Gabrielle Palitz, in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Tom Nelis, Chita Rivera, Chris Newcomer and Matthew Deming. Photo by Joan Marcus

Cast of THE VISIT. Photo by Thom Kaine

Michelle Veintimillia, Matthew Deming, Roger Rees, Chita Rivera, Chris Newcome. Photo by Thom Kaine

Michelle Veintimillia, Chita Rivera & Cast. Photo by Joan Marcus

The Visit has garnered seven Drama Desk nominations including Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Chita Rivera), Outstanding Director of a Musical (John Doyle), Outstanding Music (John Kander), Outstanding Lyrics (Fred Ebb), Outstanding Book of a Musical (Terence McNally) and Outstanding Set Design (Scott Pask).
Hamilton leads 2015 Drama Desk Awards Nominations with 13, along with An American in Paris, Something Rotten!, The Visit, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Visit received five Outer Critics Circle nominations including Outstanding New Broadway Musical, Outstanding Book of a Musical, Outstanding New Score Outstanding Lighting Design (Japhy Weideman) and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical (Chita Rivera); three Drama League nominations -Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical, The Distinguished Performance Award for Roger Rees and The Drama League Distinguished Performance Award for Ms. Rivera, which she won.

2014-15 Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations; Something Rotten!, On the Twentieth Century, An American in Paris garner most nods

Run time
One hour and 35 minutes (no intermission)

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Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Lei Pasifika of Lotus Music & Dance perform at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Donna Williams, the Metropolitan Museum’s Chief Audience Development Officer, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

A very enthusiastic and diverse audience filled the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 22, 2015 for the Museum’s celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Part of MetFridays: New York’s Night Out and presented by The Multicultural Audience Development Initiative of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the spirited evening of performances began with a series of traditional ancient hula and Tahitian dances by Lei Pasifika of Lotus Music & Dance, a performance group focused on sharing the music and dances of the Pacific Islands, mainly Tahiti & Hawaii.

Click below for excerpts of performances from the night.

Yumi Kurosawa, who was born in Iwate, Japan, and began her studies of Koto at the age of three,  performed “Sakura” and two original songs, “Rapture” and “Inner Space”. Ms. Kurosawa is a 13-string & 20-string Koto player, as well as a composer, improviser, and computer sound artist. Her talents span traditional to avant-garde music styles.

Yumi Kurosawa performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Ms. Kurosawa is a recipient of multiple awards including first prize at the Japanese National Koto Competition in 1989 and 1992 and a scholarship from the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan in 1998. That same year, she performed with the Prague Cello Ensemble at Suntory Hall in Tokyo and was featured in the NHK produced GENJI MONOGATARI WAKANA as principal soloist, playing Koto amongst an all western string ensemble.

Since her arrival to New York City in 2002, Ms. Kurosawa has worked within the traditional Japanese and contemporary classical music genre but also collaborates with a range of artists including a multitude of musicians, dancers and visual designers. The innovative approach in her original compositions is without boundaries, seamlessly blending her traditional training with elements of modern Jazz and electronica.

Yumi Kurosawa performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Ms. Kurosawa made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2006 at Weill Recital Hall. In 2011 she was principal soloist in Daron Hagen’s KOTO CONCERTO GENJI which premiered in New York City, US with the Lark String Quartet and in Stratford-upon-Avon, England with the Orchestra of the Swan. The piece continues to be performed by string quartets Voxare, Arianna and Lark String Quartet. In 2013, Ms. Kurosawa was principal soloist for the premier of THE MEMORY STONE music by Marty Regan at the Houston Grand Opera. She composed music for Mozawa’s FALLEN and acted as co-composer and featured performer was premiered in Chicago, 2014. Also she was principal soloist in Koto Concerto GENJI with Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and conductor Naoto Otomo on May 17th and 18th, 2014.

Yumi Kurosawa performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

In June, Ms. Kurosawa will premiere Tsuru at the Asia Society Texas, in collaboration with the Houston Ballet. Inspired by Japan’s popular The Crane Wife folktale, Tsuru weaves traditional ballet and soundscape with new movement and music, creating a graceful and elegant retelling of the beautiful story. Featuring music works by Ms. Kurosawa (including electro) and Bach, she will also be performing live. Tsuru is a world premiere production, co-conceived by Houston dancer Nao Kusuzaki. Then she is off to Japan for a month of concerts. Click here for more information.

Yumi Kurosawa performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Ms. Kurosawa has toured extensively throughout Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Canada and the US and has received praise for her performances in the New York Times and Washington Post. She continues to perform in local New York City venues such as Joe’s Pub, the Highline Ballroom and the Blue Note. Her first album “Beginning of a Journey” was released in 2009. She holds a BA in International Relations and is a member of the Computer Music Lab at Keio University, Tokyo. www.yumikuro.com

Telly Leung performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Glee‘s Telly Leung opened his set with “New York State of Mind, ” accompanied by musical director Gary Adler on the keys. Leung referenced the Chairman Mao section of China Through the Looking Glass, the new costume exhibition currently on view at The Met, to share the history of his parents’ birthplace and how he came to be a native New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn.

“China: Through the Looking Glass,” on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Lia Chang

Telly Leung performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

“In the exhibition, there were some Mao suits, and there was some video footage from the 1960’s, and that’s where my parents grew up actually, they grew up at the height of the cultural revolution.

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My parents were 10 or 11 when the cultural revolution happened. Mao was taking the kids out of the schools and putting them to work in the farms. My parents, even at that very young age realized that there wasn’t any opportunity for them in Communist China. So they did what a lot of young people did at the time. They grew up in Canton, China, which is the south of China. Just across the water, they could see Hong Kong, which was a British Commonwealth at the time. So they did what a lot of Chinese kids did at the time, they jumped in the water and swam to Hong Kong. Now that’s a seven hour swim, from Communist China to Hong Kong. I can’t swim seven laps in the pool without getting winded.

Telly Leung performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

They didn’t swim together. They didn’t meet until they got to Hong Kong. My mom always tells me the story of how she went to the riverbank with several of her friends. She’s actually never heard from or seen her friends ever since. She kept chocolate in her pocket; that’s what gave her the sugar and the energy to keep going.

My dad tried to swim, and he was caught the first time by the Communists, bullets in the water and everything, to get out of the water. He was sent to be punished in a reeducation camp in the farms, to do manual labor. But my dad being my dad, he tried again and he made it the second time. When he got to Hong Kong, he changed his name to Loy Sang which in Cantonese actually translates to ‘born again’.

My parents both actually met at a travel agency in Hong Kong. They started to get to know each other, find out all the things that they had in common.

‘Oh, you’re cute.’
‘I think you’re cute.’
‘You like wonton soup.’
‘I like wonton soup.’
‘Oh, you swam seven hours to freedom.’
‘I swam seven hours to freedom.’

Telly Leung with his parents at the opening party of Flower Drum Song at the Marriott Marquis in New York in October, 2002. Photo by Lia Chang

They knew that they had one more thing in common, that when they decided to get married and have a kid, they decided that kid was going to be born in America. They wanted that kid to have all the opportunities they did not have in Communist China.

So they came here, $200 in their pocket, they crashed with friends in Chinatown and slept on couches. They had to learn English very quickly. They went to night school. But to supplement their English education, what they did was they watched a lot of American television in the 70’s, which is why I’m actually named Telly, after Telly Savalas, the television star of “Kojak”.

My dad learned English by listening to a lot of popular American music and he had an incredible LP collection from the 70’s and early 80’s. This is like KC and the Sunshine Band and Saturday Night Fever and Simon and Garfunkel and The Beatles.

The next two songs are straight out of my dad’s LP collection, which I’ve now inherited. They always remind me of my parent’s unique journey to America.”

Telly Leung performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Leung sang “The Water is Wide/Bridge over Troubled Water” from his debut album, {i’ll cover you}, released on The Yellow Sound Label in 2012.

This fall, the veteran Broadway performer will be co-starring alongside Star Trek‘s George Takei and Tony-award winner Lea Salonga in the new musical Allegiance, set to begin previews on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on October 6, 2015. Leung ended his set with “Second Chances,” a now cut song from Allegiance.

Telly Leung’s Broadway and national touring credits include Flower Drum Song, Pacific Overtures, Wicked (Boq, original Chicago company), RENT (final Broadway company) and Godspell. Off-Broadway, he was featured in Manhattan Theatre Club’s The World of Extreme Happiness. Regionally, some of his favorite roles include Sammy in the world-premiere of Allegiance (the Old Globe, with George Takei and Lea Salonga), Song in M. Butterfly (Philadelphia Theater Company), Angel in RENT at the Hollywood Bowl (directed by Neil Patrick Harris), Harold Bride in Titanic (The Muny), Teen Angel in Grease (Paper Mill Playhouse), Simon in Jesus Christ Superstar (Sacramento Music Circus) and Thuy in Miss Saigon (Pittsburgh CLO).

Telly Leung with his musical director Gary Adler at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 3015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Photo by Lia Chang

Television audiences will recognize his work on Fox’s “Glee” (Wes, the Warbler), “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” and Hulu’s “Deadbeat”. He has performed all over the world at venues like Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the London Hippodrome, New York’s 54 Below, San Francisco’s Feinstein’s at the Nikko and the Hollywood Bowl.  Leung holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, and has taught as an adjunct professor at NYU’s New Studio on Broadway. Leung can also be seen coaching the next generation of Broadway performers on the PBS documentary, “Broadway or Bust”. Producing credits include “GRIND” (a musical short film starring Anthony Rapp and Claire Coffee) and “Seasons of Broadway” (a concert series that celebrates the diversity of the Great White Way). Please check out his website at www.tellyleung.com and follow him on twitter @tellyleung.

Soh Daiko performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

The powerful taiko drumming of Soh Daiko shook the floorboards of the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, ending the evening’s festivities.

Soh Daiko performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Soh Daiko was formed in 1979 at the New York Buddhist Church as the first taiko group on the east coast, taking as its name the ancient, pre-Buddhist characters meaning “peaceful, harmonious drums.” The name reflects the spirit of dedication and cooperation which enabled the group to flourish from its beginnings.

Soh Daiko performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Operating as a collective, the group received early instruction from many visiting American and Japanese taiko players, and has worked with Sensei Seiichi Tanaka of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, taiko player and jazz musician Russel Baba, Reverend Ron Miyamura of the Chicago Taiko Group, Reverend Masao Kodani of Kinnara Taiko in Los Angeles, the Tachibana Dance Group of the New York Buddhist Church, and Kodo, the world-renowned taiko group from Sado Island, Japan.

Soh Daiko performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Soh Daiko performs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 2015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Soh Daiko’s varied repertoire includes traditional compositions from the Shinto music tradition, pieces adapted from existing taiko compositions and original compositions/arrangements by members of Soh Daiko. In addition to drums, the group uses instruments such as the bamboo flute, brass bells, conch shells, gongs, African shekere, and Tahitian toere (wooden slit drum). Much more than mere percussion, Soh Daiko’s presentation also features the visual element of movement and choreography, requiring physical strength, endurance and energy, that makes taiko such an exciting performance experience.

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Telly Leung and Lia Chang at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s celebration Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on May 22, 3015 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Photo by June Jee

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

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Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Thom Sesma, Emily Padgett, J. Elaine Marcos and Thai Superstar Bie Sukrit lead the cast of the world premiere of WATERFALL at The Pasadena Playhouse, May 29 – June 28 and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, October 1-25
Joe Mantegna receives Lifetime Achievement Award for Film and Television from The Riverside International Film Festival
Sinatra: An American Icon Exhibit on View through September 4 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
“Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men” on view at Museum of the Moving Image through June 14; Required Viewing: Mad Men’s Movie Influences Film Series Screenings through April 26
Photos: National Black Theatre Festival 2013; NBTF runs August 3-8, 2015 and will include Act III – A Celebration of Life Reception saluting the late theatre icon Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.
Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Kelli O’Hara and Ken Watanabe. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Ruthie Ann Miles. Photo by Paul Kolnik

The 2015 Broadway Cast Recording of the Lincoln Center Theater production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s THE KING AND I starring six-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O’Hara (THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, SOUTH PACIFIC) as Anna Leonowens and newly minted Tony Award nominee (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical) and Academy Award nominee Ken Watanabe (THE LAST SAMURAI, INCEPTION) as the King of Siam on the Decca Broadway/Universal Music Classics label, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. The digital release date is June 2, and it will be in stores on June 9. Check out broadway.com’s exclusive Behind-the-scenes video of the cast recording here and here for preview tracks.

Ken Watanabe, Paul Nakauchi, Ashley Park and company. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Ashley Park and Conrad Ricamora. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Here Lies Love stars Ruthie Ann Miles, who has been nominated for a Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, and Conrad Ricamora are featured as Lady Thiang and Lun Tha, respectively. The principal cast also includes Ashley Park (Mamma Mia!) as Tuptim, Edward Baker-Duly (Peter and the Starcatcher) as Sir Edward Ramsey, Jon Viktor Corpuz (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) as Prince Chulalongkorn, Murphy Guyer (South Pacific) as Captain Orton, Jake Lucas (Newsies) as Louis, Paul Nakauchi (Chu Chem) as Kralahome and Marc Oka (Anything Goes) as Phra Alack. The production, helmed by Bartlett Sher, began preview performances Thursday, March 12, 2015, and opened on Thursday, April 16, 2015, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street).

The 2015 Broadway Cast Recording of THE KING AND I was produced by David Caddick, David Lai, and Ted Sperling and recorded at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music on April 19 and 20 in New York City.

Ken Watanabe. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Kelli O’Hara. Photo by Paul Kolnik

In addition to nods for Watanabe, O’Hara and Miles, the critically acclaimed musical received a total of nine Tony Award Nominations including Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Michael Yeargan), Best Costume Design of a Musical (Catherine Zuber), Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Donald Holder), Best Direction of a Musical (Bartlett Sher) and Best Choreography (Christopher Gattelli).  The show has received the 2015 Drama League Award for Best Revival of a Musical; 2015 Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Revival of a Musical, Ruthie Ann Miles (Best Featured Actress in a Musical), Best Costume Design (Catherine Zuber), and the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite Revival of a Musical. It has been nominated for two 2015 Drama Desk Awards including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Sound Design of a Musical; and two 2015 Fred and Adele Astaire Awards, including Best Female Dancer (XiaoChuan Xie) and Best Choreographer (Christopher Gattelli).

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees

Ruthie Ann Miles and Kelli O’Hara. Photo by Paul Kolnik

One of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s finest works, THE KING AND I boasts a score which features such beloved classics as “Getting To Know You,” “Hello Young Lovers,” “Shall We Dance,” “I Have Dreamed,” and “Something Wonderful”. Set in 1860’s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher, whom the imperious King brings to Siam to tutor his many wives and children.

Cole Horibe and XIAOCHUAN XIE. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Jon Viktor Corpuz. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Featured in the ensemble of the 51-member cast are Aaron Albano, Adriana Braganza, Amaya Braganza, Billy Bustamante, LaMae Caparas, Hsin-Ping Chang, Andrew Cheng, Lynn Masako Cheng, Olivia Chun, Ali Ewoldt, Ethan Halford Holder, Cole Horibe, MaryAnn Hu, James Ignacio, Christie Kim, Q GyuJin Lim, Kelvin Moon Loh, Sumie Maeda, Paul HeeSang Miller, Rommel Pierre O’Choa, Kristen Faith Oei, Autumn Ogawa, Yuki Ozeki, Stephanie Jae Park, Diane Phelan, Sam Poon, William Poon, Brian Rivera, Bennyroyce Royon, Lainie Sakakura, Ann Sanders, Ian Saraceni, Atsuhisa Shinomiya, Michiko Takemasa, Kei Tsuruharatani, Christopher Vo, Rocco Wu, and Timothy Yang.

Kelli O’Hara and Ken Watanabe. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Press raves for THE KING AND I are unanimous:  “★★★★★ Grand & glorious,” said Time Out New York; “A landmark production and a shot of purest rapture. I never wanted it to end,” from The Hollywood Reporter and “Too beautiful to miss. An astonishing achievement. Ruthie Ann Miles is powerfully moving,” from New York Magazine.  “Something wonderful. A musical of enduring and affecting power…  Kelli O’Hara is one of our greatest reinterpreters of musical standards. The King himself is embodied by the commanding Ken Watanabe. A five-handkerchief masterpiece. Breathtaking. Exquisite. Remarkable,” from The New York Times. Click here to read The New York Times review in its entirety and see a clip from the show.

Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and company. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Producing Artistic Director Andre Bishop) just announced an extended run of the KING & I indefinitely at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). In addition, the Ambassador Theatre Group and NETworks Presentations LLC will launch a national tour of the Lincoln Center Theater production in November 2016 in Providence, RI.  The National Tour will play multi-week and single week engagements throughout the 2016-17 touring season and beyond.  Casting and additional engagements for the tour will be announced in the future.

The company of THE KING AND I. Photo by Paul Kolnik

This open-ended run of The King and I is performed Tuesday evenings at 7pm, Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 3pm. Beginning July 9, all Thursday evening performances will begin at 7pm. Tickets, priced from $87 to $162, are now available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office (150 West 65 Street), at telecharge.com, or by visiting KingandIBroadway.com. A limited number of tickets priced at $32 are available at every performance through LincTix, LCT’s program for 21 to 35 year olds. For information and to enroll, visit LincTix.org.

The company of THE KING AND I. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

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Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Desiree Armfeldt (Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba) performs while Mr. Lindquist (Brandon Dahlquist) looks on in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater May 20–June 14. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Paolo Montalban) caresses Desiree Armfeldt (Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba) in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater May 20–June 14. Photo by Kevin Berne.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is presenting Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s rapturous and seductive musical, A Little Night Music, at The Geary Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, which began previews on  May 20th. The official press opening is on Wednesday, May 27, 2015, and will continue through June 14, 2015. Tickets ($20-$140) for A Little Night Music are available online at www.act-sf.org and by phone at 415.749.2228.

Patrick Cassidy (Broadway: 42nd Street, off Broadway: Assassins) as Federick Egerman, Emily Skinner (Broadway: Billy Elliot: The Musical, Side Show) as Charlotte, and Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba (Broadway: Bullets Over Broadway, Contact) as Desiree Armfeldt lead the cast of A Little Night Music.

Madame Armfeldt (Tony Award nominee Dana Ivey) (right) speaks with her granddaughter, Fredrika Armfeldt (Brigid O’Brien) in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater May 20–June 14. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Also featured in the cast are Tony Award nominee Dana Ivey (Broadway: Sunday in the Park with George; Film: The Help; TV: “Boardwalk Empire”) as Madame Armfeldt; Paolo Montalban (Broadway: Pacific Overtures, The King and I; A.C.T.: The Orphan of Zhao) as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm; Bay Area native Justin Scott Brown (off Broadway: Far from Heaven, National tour: Marius in LES MISERABLES) as Henrick Egerman; Marissa McGowan (Broadway: Bonnie & Clyde, A Little Night Music) as Petra; and Laurie Veldheer (Broadway: Newsies, Mamma Mia!) as Anne.

(L-R): Mrs. Anderssen (Annemaria Rajala), Mr. Lindquist (Brandon Dahlquist), Mrs. Nordstrom (Christine Capsuto), Mrs. Segstrom (Caitlan Taylor) and Mr. Erlanson (Andres Ramirez) in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater May 20–June 14. Photo by Kevin Berne.

The cast will be rounded out by Bay Area performers Christine Capsuto as Mrs. Nordstrom, Brandon Dahlquist as Mr. Lindquist, Michael McIntire as Frid, Brigid O’Brien as Fredrika, Annemaria Rajala as Mrs. Andersen, Andres Ramirez as Mr. Erianen, and Caitlan Taylor as Mrs. Segstrom.

(L-R): Mrs. Anderssen (Annemaria Rajala), Mr. Erlanson (Andres Ramirez), Mrs. Nordstrom (Christine Capsuto), Mr. Lindquist (Brandon Dahlquist), and Mrs. Segstrom (Caitlan Taylor) in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater May 20–June 14. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Fredrik Egerman (Patrick Cassidy) in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater May 20–June 14. Photo by Kevin Berne.

A Little Night Music presents a beguiling and bittersweet tale of lost love, scandalous liaisons, and youthful passions that intertwine over a midsummer’s eve at a country home in 1900s Sweden. The Wall Street Journal raves, “No score of Sondheim’s is as buoyant and thoroughgoing an example of musical comedy as A Little Night Music.” A Little Night Music is filled with Sondheim’s signature wit and some of his most gorgeous melodies-including the beloved and haunting treasure “Send in the Clowns.”

Directed by two-time Tony Award nominee Mark Lamos, the creative team for A Little Night Music includes set design by Riccardo Hernandez, lighting design by Robert Wiertzel, costume design byCandice Donnelly, sound design by Kevin Kennedy, choreography by Val Caniparoli, and music direction by Wayne Barker.

In association with A Little Night Music, A.C.T. will offer numerous InterACT events-many of which are presented free of charge-that will give patrons opportunities to get closer to the action while having an entire night out at the theater. Visit act-sf.org/interact to learn more about subscribing to these events throughout the season:

• Prologue:
Tuesday, May 26, 5:30 p.m.
Before the curtain goes up, get behind the artistic process at this fascinating preshow discussion with the director and artistic staff.

• Theater on the Couch:
Friday, May 29, following the 8 p.m. performance
Led by Dr. Mason Turner, chief of psychiatry at San Francisco’s Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, this exciting postshow discussion series explores the minds, motives, and behaviors of the characters and addresses audience questions.

• Audience Exchanges:
Tues., June 2, 7 p.m. | Sun., June 7, 2 p.m. | Wed., June 10, 2 p.m.
After the show, stick around for a lively Q&A session with the actors and artists who create the work onstage.

• OUT with A.C.T.:
Wednesday, June 3, following the 8 p.m. performance
The best LGBT night in town! Mingle with the cast and enjoy free drinks and treats at this popular afterparty.

• Wine Series:
Tuesday, June 9, 7 p.m.
Before the show, raise a glass at this wine-tasting event featuring leading sommeliers from the Bay Area’s hottest local wineries.

• PlayTime:
Saturday, June 13, 12:45 p.m.
Before this matinee performance, get hands-on with the artists who make it happen at this interactive theater workshop.

Henrik Egerman (Justin Scott Brown) and Anne Egerman (Laurie Veldheer) in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater May 20–June 14. Photo by Kevin Berne.

A.C.T.’s production of A Little Night Music is made possible by executive producers Christopher andLeslie Johnson; Burt and Deedee McMurtry; producers Marcia and John Goldman; Paul R. and Mary Lee Gupta; Alan and Ruth Stein; Susan A. Van Wagner; associate producers Edward and Della Dobranski; Barb and Gary Erickson; Mr. Milton J. Mosk and Mr. Thomas E. Foutch; Arnie and Shelly Glassberg; Alan and Cricket Jones; Mr. Joel Krauska and Ms. Patricia Fox; Mr. and Mrs. Ban Hudson; Mr. and Mrs. John R. Upton; Beverly and Loring Wyllie; lead corporate sponsor US Bank/Ascent; and corporate sponsors Farella Braun & Martel LLP; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP; with additional support by The Directors Circle; Acorn Winery; Campari; Piazza Market Catering; Inspiration Vineyards.

A.C.T. would also like to acknowledge its 2014-15 company sponsors Frannie Fleishhacker; Priscilla and Keith Geeslin; Jeri Lynn and Jeffrey W. Johnson; Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation; Burt and Deedee McMurtry; Barbara Ravizza and John S. Osterweis; and Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock, as well as its season partners, Wells Fargo and PG&E.

A.C.T.’s 2015-16 season will feature the West Coast premiere of Will Eno’s inventive new comedy, The Realistic Joneses; OBIE Award winner John Douglas Thompson in Terry Teachout’s Satchmo at the Waldorf; the groundbreaking new musical, The Unfortunates; Eugene O’Neill’s classic comedy, Ah, Wilderness!; and the world premiere of Monstress, a theatrical adaptation based on the short stories by San Francisco author Lysley Tenorio, adapted by renowned Bay Area artists Sean San Jose and Philip Kan Gotanda. In addition, A.C.T. is happy to welcome back the Bay Area’s favorite holiday tradition, A Christmas Carol, after its record-breaking run last season. The additional two productions, along with performance order and run dates, will be announced at a later date.

Other Articles on Paolo Montalban:
Patrick Cassidy, Emily Skinner, Karen Ziemba, Dana Ivey, Paolo Montalban and More set for A.C.T.’s A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, May 20-June 14 
The Orphan of Zhao starring BD Wong, Sab Shimono, Julyana Soelistyo, Stan Egi, Orville Mendoza, Paolo Montalban and More at La Jolla Playhouse through August 3, 2014
A.C.T.’s Production Photos of The Orphan of Zhao starring BD Wong, Sab Shimono, Julyana Soelistyo, Stan Egi, Orville Mendoza, Paolo Montalban and More through June 29
Jun. 4-29: Tony Award–winner BD Wong Leads Cast of A.C.T.’s U.S. Premiere of Orphan of Zhao, a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse
May 19: The Orphan of Zhao’s BD Wong and A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff in Conversation at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater
Paolo Montalban and Eileen Ward Lead Cast of Olney Theatre Center’s Production of The King and I
Shinsai: Theaters for Japan Photos: (8pm) with Oskar Eustis, Patti LuPone, Lisa Emery, Ann Harada, Paolo Montalban, Thom Sesma, Sab Shimono, Henry Stram, Richard Thomas, John Weidman and more
Photos: In Rehearsal with Director Bartlett Sher and the cast of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan
Thom Sesma, Patti LuPone, Cindy Cheung, Jennifer Lim, Sab Shimono, James Yaegashi and more set for Shinsai: Theaters for Japan Benefit on March 11 at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
Photos: Garth Kravits as a Statue of Liberty Street Performer on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie
The 2015 Broadway Cast Recording of The Lincoln Center Theater Production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles, available on June 2; Extended Run and National Tour Announced
Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Photos and Video: Telly Leung, Yumi Kurosawa, Lei Pasifika, Soh Daiko perform at The Met’s Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Tony Award® Nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed star in Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ at Atlantic Theater Company; Opens June 11
Original Cast of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE including Jose Llana, Derrick Baskin, Deborah S. Craig, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dan Fogler, Lisa Howard, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jay Reiss, and Sarah Saltzberg, to Reunite for 10th Anniversary Benefit Concert on July 6
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White House Blog: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; ‏White House Summit on AAPIs is May 12
President Barack Obama’s Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2015
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Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Thom Sesma, Emily Padgett, J. Elaine Marcos and Thai Superstar Bie Sukrit lead the cast of the world premiere of WATERFALL at The Pasadena Playhouse, May 29 – June 28 and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, October 1-25
Joe Mantegna receives Lifetime Achievement Award for Film and Television from The Riverside International Film Festival
Sinatra: An American Icon Exhibit on View through September 4 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
“Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men” on view at Museum of the Moving Image through June 14; Required Viewing: Mad Men’s Movie Influences Film Series Screenings through April 26
Photos: National Black Theatre Festival 2013; NBTF runs August 3-8, 2015 and will include Act III – A Celebration of Life Reception saluting the late theatre icon Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.
Crafting a Career
Tony Award winner Lea Salonga and Telly Leung Set to Co-star with George Takei in ALLEGIANCE; Previews Begin at the Longacre Theatre on October 6 
Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is presenting the highly anticipated world premiere of Jack Perla and Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Shalimar the Clown, adapted from the much-admired novel by Salman Rushdie, as part of the repertory of OTSL’s New Works, Bold Voices series during the 2016 Festival Season.

The third opera in OTSL’s New Works, Bold Voices series, Shalimar the Clown opens Saturday, June 11, 2016 at Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road (At Big Bend) St. Louis, MO 63119.

Shalimar the Clown tells the story of Shalimar and his beloved Boonyi, who have grown up together in a pastoral Kashmiri village, making people laugh as acrobats and dancers in a traditional folk theater. Though one is Muslim and one is Hindu, they fall in love – and despite all odds, their village embraces their marriage. But when a new American ambassador sees Boonyi dance, dark clouds gather. The promise of a new life tears their love apart and sends Shalimar down a path of revenge. Steeped in the rich operatic traditions of Rigoletto and Pagliacci, Mr. Perla’s score resonates with the musical traditions of Kashmir, using tabla drums and sitar as the heartbeat that underscores this poetic and powerful story. Jayce Ogren conducts and OTSL Artistic Director James Robinson (2015’s Emmeline, 2014’s “27,” 2013’s Champion) directs. Tenor Sean Panikkar (2014’s The Magic Flute) returns in the title role, while mezzo-soprano Katharine Goeldner makes her Opera Theatre debut in the role of the ambassador’s wife, Peggy.

Mr. Rushdie’s novel was a finalist for the 2005 Whitbread Book Awards, and has been described as “Rushdie’s greatest novel since The Satanic Verses” by The Los Angeles Times.  The novel’s magic-realist world incorporates Mr. Rushdie’s signature humor, balanced by a thrilling, sinister ending, which offers a glint of hope in the form of an unanswered question.

Playwright Rajiv Joseph on the set of his new play, “Describe the Night” at the Shubert Theatre in New York on November 21, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang

Rajiv Joseph‘s new play, Guards at the Taj, recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Award, is currently in previews at the Atlantic Theater Off-Broadway, starring Tony Award® nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed, under the masterful direction of Tony Award® nominated actor and director Amy Morton. His play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, starring Robin Williams, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize® and received a Drama Desk award nomination for Outstanding Play. His other plays include Gruesome Playground Injuries, Animals Out of Paper, The North Pool, The Lake Effect and Mr. Wolf. He is the librettist and co-lyricist for the musical, Fly. Joseph also wrote for the Showtime series “Nurse Jackie” for its third and fourth seasons and was the co- screenwriter of the film Draft Day, which was released last year, starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner. Joseph received his B.A. in Creative Writing from Miami University and his M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa. Joseph was named a 2010 Rockefeller Fellow by United States Artists. He is the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award, the Whiting Award, the Glickman Award, the 2013 Equity Jeff Award for The Lake Effect, produced by Silk Road Rising in Chicago and the prestigious 2013 Steinberg Playwright Award from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. Joseph just returned from Morocco and the set of Army of One, a new film he co-wrote with Scott Rothman, loosely based on a GQ article by Chris Heath about Gary Faulkner, an ex-con who made 11 attempts to travel to the most volatile region of Pakistan to capture Osama bin Laden, armed with only a sword. Directed by Larry Charles (“Borat”), Army of One stars Nicholas Cage, Russell Brand, Denis O’Hare, Ken Marino, Paul Scheer, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Rainn Wilson. Click here to read the full article.

About Jack Perla
San Francisco-based composer Jack Perla has forged a reputation for writing engaging, sophisticated, and accessible works using a palette that includes symphonic, operatic, choral, and chamber music, as well as multiple jazz idioms.  In 2010, Mr. Perla was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera for a one-act opera with playwright Eugenie Chan, for Song of Houston. Courtside was the first in that series and led to a second commission for the final opera of the series, with author Chitra Banerjee Divarakuni.  Love/Hate, commissioned by American Opera Projects, premiered in 2012 in a co-production with the Opera Center of San Francisco Opera and ODC Theater.  Other commissions include Belongings, a new one act opera for the Seattle Opera with Atlantic writer Jessica Murphy Moo, and Pretty Boy, commissioned by the Paul Dresher Ensemble.  Mr. Perla has received awards from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, American Composers Forum, Zellerbach Fund, Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, James Irvine Foundation, American Music Center, Meet the Composer and Civic Orchestra of Chicago.  He is the 1997 recipient of the Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Composers Award, and earned his DMA at the Yale School of Music.

The company’s 41^st season begins Saturday, May 21, 2016 and continues through June 26. The lineup also includes Puccini’s Giacomo Puccini’s eternally popular La bohème (opens Saturday, May 21, 2016), Giuseppe Verdi’s magnificent and murderous Macbeth (opens Saturday, May 28, 2016),  Richard Strauss’s brilliant comedy Ariadne on Naxos, (opens Sunday, June 5, 2016)

Opera Theatre will also present its newly inaugurated Center Stage concert for the second year. This one-night-only concert on Tuesday, June 21, 2016 will highlight the extraordinary talents of OTSL’s Richard Gaddes Festival Artists and Gerdine Young Artists in a program of music featuring beloved operatic selections accompanied by members of the St. Louis Symphony and conducted by OTSL Music Director Stephen Lord.

All main season productions at Opera Theatre are accompanied by members of the St. Louis Symphony and are performed in English, with projected supertitles. Concerts and special events, such as Center Stage, feature music sung in its original language. Performances are presented at the  Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road (At Big Bend) St. Louis, MO 63119.
Map/Directions

The world premiere of Shalimar the Clown is made possible with a leadership gift from the Whitaker Foundation, an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and generous support from OPERA America’s Opera Fund.

Subscription tickets to the 2016 season will be available for purchase throughout the 2015 Festival Season, which began performances on Saturday, May 23 with Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Four-opera evening and Saturday matinee subscription packages are available, as well as two-opera matinee packages on Wednesdays or Saturdays at 1 p.m. Subscription prices start at $75 and will go up after September 30, 2015. Single tickets will go on sale in February 2016, with prices starting at $25. For more information visit Opera-Stl or phone (314) 961-0644.

About Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is one of the leading American opera companies, known for a spring festival of inventive new productions, sung in English, featuring the finest American singers and accompanied by members of the St. Louis Symphony. As of its 2015 40^th anniversary season, Opera Theatre will have presented 24 world premieres and 24 American premieres (including the 2015 production of Handel’s Richard the Lionheart) – which may be the highest percentage of new work in the repertory of any U.S. company. Described by The Sunday Times of London as “one of the few American companies worth the transatlantic fare,” Opera Theatre of Saint Louis annually welcomes visitors from nearly every state and close to a dozen foreign countries. Although the size of the theater typically limits box office income to less than a quarter of the budget, the company has consistently produced work of the highest quality while never accumulating a deficit.

Opera Theatre also has a long tradition of discovering and promoting the careers of the finest operatic artists of the current generation. Among the artists who had important early opportunities at Opera Theatre are Christine Brewer, Susan Graham, Nathan Gunn, Patricia Racette, Thomas Hampson, Jerry Hadley, Dawn Upshaw, Sylvia McNair, Erie Mills, Dwayne Croft, Kelly Kaduce, and Lawrence Brownlee. Opera Theatre has always been known for distinguished leadership: founding general director Richard Gaddes was succeeded in 1985 by general director Charles MacKay, with famed British stage director Colin Graham as artistic director and Stephen Lord (1992 – present) as music director. Timothy O’Leary was named general director in October 2008 with acclaimed stage director James Robinson succeeding the late Colin Graham.

Opera Theatre is a sustaining member of the Arts & Education Council of Greater Saint Louis, and receives major support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Regional Arts Commission, and the Missouri Arts Council.

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

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Michael K. Lee and Lorenzo Thione at the Craig Noel Awards on February 4, 2013 in La Jolla, CA. The new musical Allegiance, which had its World Premiere at the Old Globe in September of 2013, took home the top award, for Outstanding New Musical, along with two other awards, for Outstanding Featured Performance Male (Michael K. Lee), and Outstanding Orchestrations. Photo by Lia Chang

Producers Lorenzo Thione and Andrew Treagus announced complete casting for Allegiance, a new American musical starring George Takei, Tony Award winner Lea Salonga and Telly Leung, set to open on Broadway next season at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street). Previews begin on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 with opening night set for Sunday, November 8, 2015.

As previously announced, Allegiance has a book by Marc Acito with music and lyrics by Jay Kuo. Helming the production is Olivier Award nominee Stafford Arima (London’s Ragtime, Off-Broadway’s Bare, Carrie, Altar Boyz).

Star Trek‘s George Takei will make his Broadway debut as Sam Kimura/Ojii San; with Lea Salonga as Kei Kimura; Telly Leung as Sammy Kimura; Katie Rose Clarke as Hannah Campbell, Michael K. Lee as Frankie Suzuki, Christopheren Nomura as Tatsuo Kimura; and Greg Watanabe as Mike Masaoka.

Telly Leung as Sammy Kimura and Lea Salonga as Kei Kimura in Allegiance – A New American Musical. Photo by Henry DiRocco.

Greg Watanabe

The ensemble includes Aaron J. Albano, Belinda Allyn, Marcus Choi, Janelle Dote, Dan Horn, Owen Johnston, Darren Lee, Manna Nichols, Autumn Ogawa, Rumi Oyama, Momoko Sugai, Cary Tedder, Elena Wang, Scott Watanabe and Scott Wise.

Inspired by Takei’s true-life experience, Allegiance is an untold American story spanning from the lush California heartland, to the windswept prairies of Wyoming, to the European battlefields of World War II-a multi-generational tale of one Japanese American family’s love, optimism and unparalleled heroism in the face of unimaginable circumstances.

Tickets will be available as follows: Thursday, May 28th – Tickets will be available to AllegiancePriority Access Pass holders; Monday, June 1st at 10:00 am – Audience Rewards pre-sale begins; Friday, June 5th at 10:00 am- General On-sale tickets. For more information go to www.AllegianceMusical.com

Composer, lyricist and co-book writer Jay Kuo, co-book writer Lorenzo Thione, co-book writer Marc Acito and star George Takei. Photo by Henry DiRocco

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

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Crafting a Career

Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Thom Sesma. Photo by Lia Chang

Bie Sukrit and Emily Padgett. Photo by Joan Marcus

Thom Sesma (Broadway: The Times They are A-Changin’, Man of La Mancha), Emily Padgett (Broadway: Side Show, Rock of Ages), J. Elaine Marcos (Broadway: Annie, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert), and Thai superstar Bie Sukrit lead the cast of the world premiere of WATERFALL, an epic new Broadway bound musical love story, at The Pasadena Playhouse (Artistic Director Sheldon Epps and Executive Director Elizabeth Doran), 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, May 29 – June 28, 2015. Tthe official press opening is on June 7, 2015.  The production will then play Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre October 1-25, 2015.

Check out the video preview below.

WATERFALL marks a groundbreaking collaboration between American and Asian theatrical artists. The musical, based on a contemporary classic Thai novel, Behind the Painting by Sriburapha, features book and lyrics by Tony Award-winner Richard Maltby Jr. (Ain’t Misbehavin’, Miss Saigon) and music by Oscar- winner and two-time Tony Award nominee, David Shire (Baby, Big, written in collaboration with Richard Maltby, Jr.) The production will be directed by Broadway and Thai theatrical impresario Tak Viravan and choreographed by Tony Award-nominee Dan Knechtges (Xanadu, Lysistrata Jones). Casting for WATERFALL is by Stewart/Whitley.

J.Elaine Marcos

Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director of The Pasadena Playhouse, says, “We are blessed to have brought together a tremendously gifted company for this world premiere production. I know that this gifted group of actors will offer their vitality and energy to this wonderful material and that they will bring this beautiful and romantic story to life. I look forward to having this dazzling cast on our stage and I know that they will provide a wonderful finale to a truly terrific season.”

Director Tak Viravan of WATERFALL, says, “”I am so excited and thrilled to be working with this beautiful and talented cast, and I feel blessed to be among this amazing creative team, many of whom I have been idolizing ever since I knew musical theatre. WATERFALL has been a wonderful journey, and I’m sure will continue to be so. I hope its beauty will touch everyone who comes to experience it. It is such a beautiful and special world.”

Tak Viravan is the leading figure of Thailand’s burgeoning theatre scene, where he has directed 14 musicals and plays and has presented many international touring productions. WATERFALL is adapted from an earlier musical, Behind the Painting, which Viravan directed in Thailand. He has also been a producer for several Broadway musicals, including the Tony-nominated revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (2011) and Nice Work If You Can Get It. Viravan is one of the most prominent and influential figures of Thailand’s entertainment industry, where he is also known as a television producer/director and for music and artist management.

Emily Padgett (Katherine) was most recently seen in her critically acclaimed performance as Daisy Hilton in the 2014 Broadway revival of Side Show. Her other Broadway credits include Grease (Sandy), Rock Of Ages (Sherrie), and Legally Blonde. Emily originated the role of Alex Owens on the National Tour of Flashdance and appeared in the 25th Anniversary Tour of Cats. She has also appeared on television in the FX series “Louie”. @MissEmPadgett

Thai superstar Bie Sukrit (Noppon) will make his American stage debut in WATERFALL. From his discovery in 2006 on the Thai television talent contest, “The Star,” Bie has become one of Thailand’s most famous and recognizable young talents, starring on stage, screen and television. As a recording artist, his credits include several top-selling albums and sold out concert tours. Bie created the role of Noppon in the musical Behind the Painting, the earlier version of WATERFALL.

Thom Sesma’s (Chao-Khun) Broadway credits include the original 1983 Broadway production of La Cage aux Folles, Chu Chem, Nick & Nora, Search and Destroy, Man of La Mancha, and The Times They are A- Changin’. Thom’s additional New York credits include the recent Off-Broadway production of Craving for Travel.

J. Elaine Marcos’ (Nuan) Broadway credits include The Wedding Singer, Sweet Charity, Wonderful Town, Flower Drum Song, Miss Saigon and A Chorus Line. She also played the role of Lily St. Regis in the recent revival of Annie on Broadway.

The cast of WATERFALL also features Celia Mei Rubin as Ensemble (Broadway’s Matilda The Musical, London West End’s Parade), Colin Miyamoto as Surin/Ensemble (National Tours of Beauty and the Beast and How I Became a Pirate), Darryl Semira as Ensemble (Broadway’s Mamma Mia! and Bombay Dreams), Eymard Cabling as Siamese Ambassador/Ensemble (National Tour of Miss Saigon and International Tour of The King and I), Jordan De Leon as Santi/Ensemble (Drury Lane Theatre’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Kansas City Starlight Theatre’s Footloose), Kay Trinidad as Ensemble (Broadway’s The Little Mermaid, Off-Broadway’s Bare), Kenway Kua as Ensemble (Broadway’s Wicked and The Frogs), Kimberly Immanuel as Pree/Ensemble (Regional credits include Crazy For You and Love’s Labour’s Lost, the Musical) , Koh Mochizuki as Ensemble (Broadway’s Mary Poppins and Aida), Leon Le as Ensemble (Broadway’s Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, Theatre Under The Star’s West Side Story), Lisa Helmi Johanson as Kumiko/Ensemble (Off-Broadway, National and International Tour of Avenue Q), Marcus Choi as Japanese Attache/Thai Minister/Ensemble (Broadway’s Wicked and Flower Drum Song), Minami Yusui as Ensemble (National Tour of Mary Poppins, Meadow Brook Theatre’s Lysistrata Jones), Riza Takahashi as Ensemble (The MUNY’s The King and I and Thoroughly Modern Millie), Rona Figueroa as Ensemble (Broadway’s Miss Saigon and Les Miserables), and Steven Eng as Takamoto/Ensemble (London West Ends’ The King and I, North Shore Music Theatre’s Pacific Overtures).

The creative team for WATERFALL includes John McDaniel (Music Supervisor/Conductor), Sasavat (Ja) Busayabandh (Scenic Designer), Wade Laboissonniere (Costume Designer), Ken Billington (Lighting Designer), Dan Moses Schreier (Sound Designer), and Caite Hevner Kemp (Projection Designer).

WATERFALL is an epic love story, set in Bangkok and Tokyo between the turbulent years of 1933 and 1939, as a monarchy falls in Thailand and Japan is on the brink of war. A young Thai student falls in love with the American wife of a Thai diplomat, and the story of their forbidden love parallels history as the new democracy of Siam moves into the vortex of the increasingly anti-American Japan. With a gloriously romantic score, WATERFALL is a modern love story of timeless scale.

WATERFALL will be produced on Broadway by Scenario Company Ltd. and Jack M. Dalgleish. Foresight Theatrical serves as general managers. Production dates for Broadway will be announced once a theatre has been confirmed.

The Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. The performance schedule is Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tickets, priced from $47.00 to $87.00, are available online at PasadenaPlayhouse.org; by calling The Pasadena Playhouse at 626-356-7529; or visiting The Pasadena Playhouse Box Office, Tuesday – Sunday from 1:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. during non-performance dates. On performance dates the Box Office is open Tuesday – Saturday from 1:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit PasadenaPlayhouse.org.

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

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Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Photos and Video: Telly Leung, Yumi Kurosawa, Lei Pasifika, Soh Daiko perform at The Met’s Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Tony Award® Nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed star in Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ at Atlantic Theater Company; Opens June 11
Original Cast of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE including Jose Llana, Derrick Baskin, Deborah S. Craig, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dan Fogler, Lisa Howard, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jay Reiss, and Sarah Saltzberg, to Reunite for 10th Anniversary Benefit Concert on July 6
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE & CRAZY, HAMILTON, Austin Pendleton & More Win Off Broadway Alliance Awards
HAMILTON, James Houghton, Usman Ally, Ayad Akhtar, Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Douglas Thompson and Suzan-Lori Parks among 2015 Obie Award Winners
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama 
ABC Renews “Fresh Off the Boat” and Picks up Ken Jeong’s “Dr. Ken”
Photos: Aasif Mandvi, Sheetal Sheth, Jimmy O. Yang, Raymond J. Lee, Tobias Wong and more celebrate HBO’s AAPI Heritage Month Screening of Jonathan Yi’s “East of Main Street: Taking the Lead” Documentary 
George Takei Receives Distinguished Medal of Honor at Japanese American National Museum’s 2015 Gala Dinner; JANM Acquires Japanese American Incarceration Artifacts once slated for public auction
White House Blog: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; ‏White House Summit on AAPIs is May 12
President Barack Obama’s Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2015
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Photos: National Black Theatre Festival 2013; NBTF runs August 3-8, 2015 and will include Act III – A Celebration of Life Reception saluting the late theatre icon Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.
Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is presenting the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize® finalist Rajiv Joseph’s play Guards at the Taj, starring Tony Award® nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed, and directed by Tony Award® nominated actor and director Amy Morton. Guards at the Taj began previews on May 20th and will play a limited engagement through Sunday, June 28 Off Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company at The Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street). Opening night is Thursday, June 11. Click here to purchase tickets.

Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed in Atlantic Theater Company’s world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj. Photo by Doug Hamilton

In 1648 India, two Imperial Guards watch from their post as the sun rises for the first time on the newly-completed Taj Mahal – an event that shakes their respective worlds.

Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed in Atlantic Theater Company’s world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj. Photo by Doug Hamilton

When they are ordered to perform an unthinkable task, the aftermath forces them to question the concept of friendship, beauty and duty, and changes them forever.

Omar Metwally, director Amy Morton, playwright Rajiv Joseph and Arian Moayed in rehearsal for Atlantic Theatre Company’s production of GUARDS AT THE TAJ. Photo courtesy of Rajiv Joseph

Steppenwolf Theatre Company member Amy Morton’s directing credits include The Way West, Penelope, Clybourne Park, American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Pillowman, Dublin Carol and Topdog/Underdog for the company. She received Tony® and Drama Desk award nominations for both her acclaimed performances in the most recent revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and August: Osage County on Broadway in addition to appearing in over thirty Steppenwolf Theatre Company productions.

Playwright Rajiv Joseph. Photo by Lia Chang

Rajiv Joseph‘s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize® and received a Drama Desk award nomination for Outstanding Play. His other plays include Gruesome Playground Injuries, Animals Out of Paper, The North Pool, The Lake Effect and Mr. Wolf. He is the librettist and co-lyricist for the musical, Fly. Joseph also wrote for the Showtime series “Nurse Jackie” for its third and fourth seasons and was the co- screenwriter of the film Draft Day, which was released last year, starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner. Joseph received his B.A. in Creative Writing from Miami University and his M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa. Joseph was named a 2010 Rockefeller Fellow by United States Artists. He is the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award, the Whiting Award, the Glickman Award, the 2013 Equity Jeff Award for The Lake Effect, produced by Silk Road Rising in Chicago and the prestigious 2013 Steinberg Playwright Award from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. Joseph just returned from Morocco and the set of Army of One, a new film he co-wrote with Scott Rothman, loosely based on a GQ article by Chris Heath about Gary Faulkner, an ex-con who made 11 attempts to travel to the most volatile region of Pakistan to capture Osama bin Laden, armed with only a sword. Directed by Larry Charles (“Borat”), Army of One stars Nicholas Cage, Russell Brand, Denis O’Hare, Ken Marino, Paul Scheer, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Rainn Wilson. Click here to read the full article. In 2016, Opera Theatre of St. Louis will present the world premiere of composer Jack Perla and Joseph’s Shalimar the Clown, adapted from the novel by Salman Rushdie.

Arian Moayed in Atlantic Theater Company’s world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj. Photo by Doug Hamilton

Guards at the Taj features scenic design by Timothy R. Mackabee, costume design by Bobby Frederick Tilley II, lighting design by David Weiner, original music and sound design by Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen, special effects design by Jeremy Chernick and fight direction by J. David Brimmer. Guards at the Taj was awarded the 2015 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, given annually for an unproduced, full-length play of social relevance by an emerging American playwright.

Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed in Atlantic Theater Company’s world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj. Photo by Doug Hamilton

Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed in Atlantic Theater Company’s world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj. Photo by Doug Hamilton

Arian Moayed and Omar Metwally in Atlantic Theater Company’s world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj. Photo by Doug Hamilton

Arian Moayed in Atlantic Theater Company’s world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj. Photo by Doug Hamilton

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Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
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Crafting a Career

Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Laura Benanti hosted the 60th Annual Drama Desk Awards at Town Hall in New York tonight. The Drama Desk Awards, which are presented annually, honor outstanding achievement by professional theater artists on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway.

The Public Theater’s production of the Broadway bound Hamilton was the big winner of the night in seven categories including Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Renee Elise Goldsberry), Outstanding Director of a Musical (Thomas Kail), Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical (Nevin Steinberg); and three for Lin-Manuel Miranda in the categories of Outstanding Music,  Outstanding Book of a Musical and Outstanding Lyrics.  Andy Blankenbuehler also received a Special Drama Desk Award for his choreography for Hamilton.

Alex Sharp as Christopher and the cast of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Photo by Joan Marcus

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won for Outstanding Play (Simon Stephens) and in five other categories including Outstanding Actor in a Play (Alexander Sharp), Outstanding Director of a Play (Marianne Elliott), Outstanding Project Design (Finn Ross), Outstanding Lighting Design (Paule Constable), and Outstanding Sound Design in a Play (Ian Dickinson).

Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope in ‘An American in Paris’ (Photo: Angela Sterling)

An American in Paris won for Outstanding Actor in a Musical (Robert Fairchild), Outstanding Choreography of a Musical (Christopher Wheeldon), Outstanding Orchestrations (Christopher Austin) and Outstanding Set Design (Bob Crowley).

Congrats to all of the winners in bold.

Outstanding Play
Clare Barron, You Got Older
Lisa D’Amour, Airline Highway
Anthony Giardina, The City of Conversation 
Stephen Adly Guirgis, Between Riverside and Crazy
Elizabeth Irwin, My Manãna Comes
Simon Stephens, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time-winner
Jack Thorne, Let the Right One In 

Alex Sharp as Christopher and the cast of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Photo by Joan Marcus

Outstanding Musical
An American in Paris
Hamilton-winner
Fly By Night
Pretty Filthy
Something Rotten
The Visit

Outstanding Revival of a Play
The Elephant Man-winner
Fashions for Men
Ghosts
The Iceman Cometh
Tamburlaine the Great
The Wayside Motor Inn

Bradley Cooper as John Merrick, Alessandro Nivola as Dr. Fredrik Treves & Patricia Clarkson as Mrs. Kendal in The Elephant Man. Photo by Joan Marcus

Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Into the Woods
The King and I-winner
On the Town
On the Twentieth Century
Pageant
Side Show

Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and company. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Outstanding Actor in a Play
Reed Birney, I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard
Bradley Cooper, The Elephant Man
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Between Riverside and Crazy
Ben Miles, Wolf Hall, Parts 1 & 2
Bill Pullman, Sticks and Bones
Alexander Sharp, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time-winner

Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in ‘The Audience’ (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Outstanding Actress in a Play
Brooke Bloom, You Got Older
Kathleen Chalfant, A Walk in the Woods
Kristin Griffith, The Fatal Weakness
Jan Maxwell, The City of Conversation
Helen Mirren-The Audience
Carey Mulligan, Skylight
Tonya Pinkins, Rasheeda Speaking

Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Brian d’Arcy James, Something Rotten!
Robert Fairchild, An American in Paris-winner
Jeremy Kushnier, Atomic
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
Matthew Morrison, Finding Neverland
Ryan Silverman, Side Show

Kristin Chenoweth stars in ‘On the Twentieth Century’ on Broadway (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Outstanding Actress in a Musical
Kate Baldwin, John & Jen
Kristin Chenoweth, On the Twentieth Century-winner
Leanne Cope, An American in Paris
Erin Davie, Side Show
Lisa Howard, It Shoulda Been You
Chita Rivera, The Visit

K. Todd Freeman and the cast of “Airline Highway” at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Joan Marcus

K. Todd Freeman wins a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in “Airline Highway.” Photo courtesy of K. Todd Freeman/Facebook

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
F. Murray Abraham, It’s Only a Play
Reed Birney, You Got Older
K. Todd Freeman, Airline Highway-winner
Jonathan Hadary, Rocket to the Moon
Jason Butler Harner, The Village Bike
Jonathan Hogan, Pocatello
José Joaquin Perez, My Mañana Comes

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
Annaleigh Ashford, You Can’t Take It with You-winner
Beth Dixon, The City of Conversation
Julie Halston, You Can’t Take It with You
Paola Lázaro-Muñoz, To the Bone
Lydia Leonard, Wolf Hall, Parts 1 & 2
Julie White, Airline Highway

The cast of You Can’t Take It with You. Photo by Joan Marcus

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
Christian Borle, Something Rotten!-winner
Peter Friedman, Fly By Night
Josh Grisetti, It Shoulda Been You
Andy Karl, On the Twentieth Century
Leslie Odom Jr., Hamilton
Brad Oscar, Something Rotten!
Max von Essen, An American in Paris

Christian Borle (right) plays Shakespeare as rock star opposite Brian d’Arcy James’ rival playwright in “Something Rotten!”
Photo: Joan Marcus

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Carolee Carmello, Finding Neverland
Tyne Daly, It Shoulda Been You
Elizabeth A. Davis, Allegro
Renee Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton-winner
Luba Mason, Pretty Filthy
Nancy Opel, Honeymoon in Vegas
Elizabeth Stanley, On the Town

The Schuyler sisters work it in Paul Tazewell’s costumes: Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Jasmine Cephas Jones, who plays their sib and Hamilton’s mistress. Photo by Joan Marcus

Outstanding Director of a Play
Marianne Elliott, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time-winner
Jeremy Herrin, Wolf Hall, Parts 1 & 2
Anne Kauffman, You Got Older
Lila Neugebauer, The Wayside Motor Inn
Austin Pendleton, Between Riverside and Crazy
Joe Tantalo, Deliverance
John Tiffany, Let the Right One In

Outstanding Director of a Musical
Carolyn Cantor, Fly By Night
Bill Condon, Side Show
John Doyle, The Visit
Thomas Kail, Hamilton-winner
Casey Nicholaw, Something Rotten!
Christopher Wheeldon, An American in Paris

Outstanding Choreography
Joshua Bergasse, On the Town
Warren Carlyle, On the Twentieth Century
Steven Hoggett, The Last Ship
Austin McCormick, Rococo Rouge
Casey Nicholaw, Something Rotten
Christopher Wheeldon, An American in Paris-winner

Outstanding Music
Jason Robert Brown, Honeymoon in Vegas
Michael Friedman, The Fortress of Solitude
John Kander, The Visit
Dave Malloy, Ghost Quartet
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton-winner
Sting, The Last Ship

Outstanding Lyrics
Jason Robert Brown, Honeymoon in Vegas
Fred Ebb, The Visit
Michael Friedman, The Fortress of Solitude
Karey Kirkpatrick & Wayne Kirkpatrick, Something Rotten!
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton-winner
Benjamin Scheuer, The Lion

Outstanding Book of a Musical
Hunter Bell & Lee Overtree, Found
Karey Kirkpatrick & John O’Farrell, Something Rotten!
Craig Lucas, An American in Paris
Terence McNally, The Visit
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton-winner
Kim Rosenstock, Will Connolly, & Michael Mitnick, Fly By Night

Outstanding Orchestrations
Christopher Austin, An American in Paris-winner
Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Allegro
Larry Hochman, Something Rotten!
Alex Lacamoire, Hamilton
Rob Mathes, The Last Ship
Don Sebesky, Larry Blank, Jason Robert Brown, & Charlie Rosen, Honeymoon in Vegas

Outstanding Music in a Play
Cesar Alvarez, An Octoroon
Danny Blackburn & Bryce Hodgson, Deliverance
Sean Cronin, Kill Me Like You Mean It
Bongi Duma, Generations
Freddi Price, The Pigeoning
Arthur Solari & Jane Shaw, Tamburlaine the Great-winner

Outstanding Revue
Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging!
Just Jim Dale-winner
Lennon: Through a Glass Onion
Lonesome Traveler

Outstanding Set Design
Bob Crowley, An American in Paris-winner
Christine Jones, Let The Right One In
David Korins, Hamilton
Mimi Lien, An Octoroon
Scott Pask, The Visit
Daniel Zimmerman, Fashions for Men

Outstanding Costume Design
Bob Crowley, An American in Paris
Bob Crowley, The Audience
Christopher Oram, Wolf Hall, Parts 1 & 2
Paul Tazewell, Hamilton
Andrea Varga, The Fatal Weakness
Catherine Zuber, Gigi-winner

Outstanding Lighting Design
Howell Binkley, Hamilton
Paule Constable, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time-winner
Paule Constable & David Plater, Wolf Hall, Parts 1 & 2
Maruti Evans, Deliverance
Natasha Katz, The Iceman Cometh
Ben Stanton, Our Lady of Kibeho

Outstanding Projection Design
59 Productions, An American in Paris
Roger Hanna & Price Johnston, Donogoo
Darrel Maloney, Found
Peter Nigrini, Our Lady of Kibeho
Finn Ross, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time-winner
Austin Switser, Big Love

Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical
Peter Hylenski, Side Show
Scott Lehrer, The King & I
Scott Lehrer & Drew Levy, Honeymoon in Vegas
Brian Ronan, The Last Ship
Nevin Steinberg, Hamilton-winner
Jon Weston, An American in Paris

Outstanding Sound Design in a Play
Nathan Davis, The Other Mozart
Ien Denio, Deliverance
Ian Dickinson (for Autograph), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time-winner
Gareth Fry, Let the Right One In
John Gromada, Lives of the Saints
Matt Tierney, Our Lady of Kibeho

Queen of the Night producer Randy Weiner shows off his Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. Photo courtesy of Randy Weiner/Facebook

Outstanding Solo Performance
Christina Bianco, Application Pending
Jonny Donahoe, Every Brilliant Thing
Tom Dugan, Wiesenthal
Mona Golabek, The Pianist of Willesden Lane
Joely Richardson, The Belle of Amherst
Benjamin Scheuer, The Lion-winner

Unique Theatrical Experience
Catch Me!
Everybody Gets Cake
The Human Symphony
Queen of the Night-winner
A Rap Guide to Religion

Special Awards: Each year, the Drama Desk votes special awards to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theatre.

For 2014-15, these awards are:
This year the nominators chose to bestow a special award for outstanding ensemble to the actors who so brilliantly shared a room in the world of A. R. Gurney’s The Wayside Motor Inn: Kelly AuCoin, Jon DeVries, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Rebecca Henderson, Marc Kudisch, Jenn Lyon, Lizbeth Mackay, David McElwee, Ismenia Mendes, and Will Pullen.

To Bess Wohl, the Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award: For establishing herself as an important voice in New York theater, and having a breakthrough year with the eclectic American Hero, Pretty Filthy, and Small Mouth Sounds. Her writing expresses sensitivity, compassion, and humor with a sure hand.

To John Douglas Thompson: For invigorating theater in New York through his commanding presence, classical expertise, and vocal prowess. This season he demonstrated exceptional versatility in Tamburlaine the Great, and The Iceman Cometh.

To Ensemble Studio Theatre: For its unwavering commitment to producing new works by American playwrights since 1968, and enriching this season with productions of When January Feels Like Summer, Winners, and Five Times in One Night. EST’s Youngblood program fostered and nurtured Hand to God, setting Tyrone off on his devilish path to Broadway.

To Andy Blankenbuehler: For his inspired and heart-stopping choreography in Hamilton, which is indispensible to the musical’s storytelling. His body of work is versatile, yet a dynamic and fluid style is consistently evident. When it’s time to “take his shot,” Blankenbuehler hits the bull’s-eye.

The 2014-2015 Drama Desk Nominating Committee is composed of: Barbara Siegel, chairperson, (author and freelance critic); Benjamin Coleman (literary associate, Samuel French, Inc.); Adrian Dimanlig (“Interludes,”www.adriandimanlig.com); Steve Garrin (broadcast producer; sound designer); Mahayana Landowne (theater director; interactive artist); and Steve Marsh (Director, Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre Arts, Stony Brook University).

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other Articles by Lia Chang:
Dr. Leroy Chiao honored with 2015 Blue Cloud Award at China Institute’s Blue Cloud Gala
Photos: Dr. Leroy Chiao, The Hon. Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., Shirley and Walter Wang Honored at China Institute’s Blue Cloud Gala 
Photos: Garth Kravits as a Statue of Liberty Street Performer on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie
The 2015 Broadway Cast Recording of The Lincoln Center Theater Production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles, available on June 2; Extended Run and National Tour Announced
Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Photos and Video: Telly Leung, Yumi Kurosawa, Lei Pasifika, Soh Daiko perform at The Met’s Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Production Photos: Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed in World Premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ at Atlantic Theater Company; Opens June 11
Original Cast of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE including Jose Llana, Derrick Baskin, Deborah S. Craig, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dan Fogler, Lisa Howard, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jay Reiss, and Sarah Saltzberg, to Reunite for 10th Anniversary Benefit Concert on July 6
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
Photos: David Byrne, Alex Timbers, Jaygee Macapugay, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Adam Guettel, Sarah Saltzberg and More Celebrate Jose Llana’s Lincoln Center American Songbook Debut
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE & CRAZY, HAMILTON, Austin Pendleton & More Win Off Broadway Alliance Awards
HAMILTON, James Houghton, Usman Ally, Ayad Akhtar, Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Douglas Thompson and Suzan-Lori Parks among 2015 Obie Award Winners 
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3 
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3 
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
81st Annual Drama League Awards Nominations
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
2014-15 Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations; Something Rotten!, On the Twentieth Century, An American in Paris garner most nods
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
Video: The cast of HAMILTON at The Public Theater pays tribute to A Chorus Line on the 40th anniversary of its first performance in the Newman Theater at The Public
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Hamilton tops Lucille Lortel Award Nominations along with Into the Woods, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Invisible Hand, The Nether and The Fortress of Solitude
Suzan-Lori Parks’ FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS, PARTS 1, 2 & 3 is the 2015 Winner of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History 
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows
Michael K. Lee, Christopheren Nomura, Greg Watanabe and More Join George Takei, Lea Salonga and Telly Leung in Broadway’s ALLEGIANCE; Full Cast Announced!
Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Tony Award winning playwright David Henry Hwang received an honorary degree from SUNY Purchase College for his accomplishments as a playwright, librettist, and screenwriter at the 43nd annual commencement ceremony on May 15th held at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY.

Tony Award winning playwright David Henry Hwang received an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from SUNY Purchase College at the 43nd annual commencement ceremony on May 15, 2015, at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY. Photo courtesy of @keltones /twitter

More than 1,100 students from 14 countries received degrees representing dozens of majors. In addition to Hwang, other outstanding leaders honored by SUNY Purchase College included PepsiCo chair and CEO Indra Nooyi and Debora Spar, president of Barnard College, while Sound artist Stephen Vitiello (’86) received the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Hwang has been described by the New York Times as “a true original” and by Time magazine as “the most important dramatist of American public life since Arthur Miller.” In addition to winning the Tony Award, Hwang is a three-time nominee, a three-time Obie Award winner, a Drama Desk Award winner, an Outer Critics Circle Award winner, a John Gassner Playwriting Award winner, a two-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and The Deutsche Grammofone recording of his libretto for Ainadamar won two Grammy Awards.

SUNY Purchase cited, “Your wide breadth of production and your ability to apply your talents across disciplines resonates deeply at Purchase College. The creativity, innovation and exploration that define your professional life warrant our respect and admiration.

In recognition of your outstanding contributions to theatre and the performing arts, your accomplishments as a playwright, librettist, and screenwriter, and for the legacy you have created, the State University of New York, through Purchase College, bestows upon you the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts.”

Click here for SUNY Purchase’s statement about David Henry Hwang.

David Henry Hwang made the following remarks at the SUNY Purchase College 43nd annual commencement ceremony on May 15th at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY.

Congratulations! I’m so happy and grateful to join your celebration – particularly, at a college where almost half of you are graduating in the performing and visual arts – an institution whose theatre school, by the way, was only called the best in America by the Princeton Review. So I know I’m among artists, creative thinkers, and friends.

You’ve just spent four years – or perhaps some of you? slightly more than four? –growing as intellectuals and artists, pushing your boundaries, going outside your comfort zones, taking new risks. Now what? Well, each of you will find own path, but here are a few suggestions to help you hold on to the spirit of growth and adventure you feel today.

One. Beware of Dad rock. Around your late-20’s to early-30’s, you will suddenly feel tempted to believe that pop music has strangely reached the end of its history. That all the good stuff was written around this time or earlier, after which, creation simply ground to a halt. Fight this temptation. You don’t want to turn into that guy – or woman – in your 40’s driving down the highway blasting Dad rock – or Mom rock. Hard as it may be, try to listen to the new stuff sometimes. Because the temptation to give up on music is related to a larger issue:

Two. Resist nostalgia. Sure, you’ve just been through this amazing time. But these do not have to have been the best years of your life! When people at 50 or 60 start thinking that this world or this country was a better place in their youth, maybe the problem isn’t that the country has deteriorated. Maybe the problem is that they have. Age brings wisdom, except when it doesn’t.

Three. Think more like playwrights. This is obviously self-serving, but I do believe playwrights can save the world. Because you can’t actually make a living at it. I don’t mean to say that you can’t make a living – apologies to you parents of playwriting graduates. On the contrary, there are many related crafts – teaching, writing musicals, and nowadays particularly, writing for television, which are marketable and even profitable. And if you’re lucky, every now and then, you might even have a play which turns a profit. But for the most part, no one writes a play to make money. You can’t game that outcome. And in a way, this is wonderful, because playwrights are therefore forced to fall back on writing what we really care about.

And this goes against the current moment in American culture, which has always valued profit, and making money, but has recently devolved into a kind of “hypercapitalism,” what David Simon, the journalist and creator of THE WIRE, recently referred to when he said America had abandoned its social compact. I agree that America reached a tipping point, where we moved from a market economy to a market culture, and our society fell increasingly sway to a quasi-religious faith in the goodness of the free market to solve all human ills. Playwrights – but in reality, not only playwrights –many other sorts of artists, and academics, and actually, people from all walks of life can resist the rather absurd notion that everything in our world can be reduced to how much money it makes. We can continue to value the intangible.

Four. Do not fear the culture wars. In the early-1990’s, I found myself at the center of a culture war. I helped protest the casting of the British actor Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian pimp called “The Engineer” when the musical MISS SAIGON came to Broadway. We saw this as an example of “yellow face” casting, similar to blackface. Over the 90’s and much of the ‘00’s, I felt the culture wars recede. But recently, they’ve returned with a vengeance. Each week seems to bring a new controversy over cultural appropriation, privilege, casting. Iggy Azalea appropriating hip hop or Katy Perry misusing Japanese culture or Gamergate or the Redskins or whether the international writers organization PEN should have honored the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

When my first play was produced Off-Broadway, an Asian American newspaper wrote that I had “set Asian America back twenty years.” And I was only 22 at the time! Obviously, this was somewhat painful. But I also believe these discussions are necessary and even healthy. Because they prove that art still matters, that people care about how their world is portrayed. Criticisms of content are not censorship, any more than criticisms of aesthetic choices are censorship. Instead, they mirror larger debates taking place in our society, spurred by an important demographic shift, where in another 20-30 years, Caucasians will become a minority in America.

It’s important to remain active in these debates, over Ferguson, Baltimore, Staten Island, and beyond — through art and culture, through protests, through our professions, and even over social media. One of my favorite recent tweets came from Arthur Chu, a columnist best known as That Asian Guy Who Won a Lot of Money on “Jeopardy”. Arthur tweeted: “Do people who change #blacklivesmatter to #alllivesmatter run through a cancer fundraiser going ‘THERE ARE OTHER DISEASES TOO!’?”

Either we are a society that cares about all our citizens, or we are not. Just as you will be tempted to stop listening to new music, so you will feel a pull to stop caring about others, to stop fighting for equality, and justice. Many in my generation have already done so. But it’s often the task of a new generation –you – to pick up the pieces, ask the hard questions once more, and continue moving history forward.

Congratulations. Starting today, you begin to take ownership of the world. I have faith that you will make it a much better place. And, to quote some of my own Dad rock, may you stay Forever Young.

David Henry Hwang. Photo by Lia Chang

In 2014, Hwang was named director of Columbia University’s School of the Arts’ M.F.A. program in playwriting. Hwang’s upcoming musical productions include The Forgotten Arm, with music and lyrics by Aimee Mann and Paul Bryan, for the Public Theater; and Pretty Dead Girl, with music and lyrics by Anne-Marie Milazzo. Hwang is a writer-producer for the Golden Globe-winning TV series The Affair; is developing an original television series, Shanghai, for Lionsgate and the Bravo Network; and is currently writing the film adaptation of Chinglish, to be directed by Justin Lin.  According to Opera News, Hwang is America’s most-produced living opera librettist, and his collaboration with Bright Sheng on Dream of the Red Chamber for the San Francisco Opera will be produced at the War Memorial Opera House in Fall 2016.

Hwang is a recipient of the 2011 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a Grand Master of American Theater, the 2012 William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre, the 2012 Asia Society Cultural Achievement Award, the 2012 China Institute Blue Cloud Award, the 2012 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, the 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, the 2015 ISPA Distinguished Artist Award and was recently named a  Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellow. Hwang’s holds honorary degrees from Columbia College, Chicago, Dr. of Letters, 1998; American Conservatory Theatre, MFA Acting, 2000; LeHigh University, Dr. of Letters, 2011; USC, Dr. of Literature, 2013.

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

David Henry Hwang Articles:
David Henry Hwang, Laura Poitras, Amitav Ghosh, Deeyah Khan, Bill Rauch, Robert Battle, Carrie Mae Weems named among 13 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellows 
The Los Angeles Philharmonic presents West Coast premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Opera Alice in Wonderland, Featuring Libretto Co-Written with David Henry Hwang, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on February 27-28 
Dream of the Red Chamber to be featured at the 2015 Stanford Pan-Asian Music Festival February 20-21, including the Symposium with David Gockley, Bright Sheng, David Henry Hwang and Stan Lai
Photos: Tony Award Winning Playwright David Henry Hwang, NEFA, Graham Sheffield CBE and Susan Stockton Receive 2015 ISPA Awards
Behind the Scenes with Disney on Broadway with David Henry Hwang, Chad Beguelin and Rick Elice at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 
David Henry Hwang, Adriane Lenox, Chuck Cooper, Kevin Carolan, Stephanie J. Block, Caissie Levy & More will Sleep on the Streets for Covenant House’s Sleep Out: Broadway Edition 
David Henry Hwang and Lynn Nottage Appointed to the Playwriting Faculty of Columbia University School of the Arts Theatre Program 
Tony Award Winning Playwright David Henry Hwang Receives $275,000 Doris Duke Artist Award
Signature’s Production of David Henry Hwang’s Kung Fu, starring Cole Horibe, Phoebe Strole and Francis Jue, extends through April 6, 2014 
Photos: Backstage and Opening Night of Signature’s World Premiere of David Henry Hwang’s Kung Fu 
Photos: David Henry Hwang, Annie Baker and Rajiv Joseph honored at Sixth Annual Steinberg Playwright “Mimi” Awards 
Click here for more articles on David Henry Hwang.

Other articles by Lia Chang
HAMILTON AND CURIOUS INCIDENT take top honors at 2015 Drama Desk Awards
Dr. Leroy Chiao honored with 2015 Blue Cloud Award at China Institute’s Blue Cloud Gala
Photos: Dr. Leroy Chiao, The Hon. Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., Shirley and Walter Wang Honored at China Institute’s Blue Cloud Gala 
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
Coming to America through The Angel Island Immigration Station
Photos: Garth Kravits as a Statue of Liberty Street Performer on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie
Production Photos: Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed in World Premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ at Atlantic Theater Company; Opens June 11 
The 2015 Broadway Cast Recording of The Lincoln Center Theater Production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles, available on June 2; Extended Run and National Tour Announced
Michael K. Lee, Christopheren Nomura, Greg Watanabe and More Join George Takei, Lea Salonga and Telly Leung in Broadway’s ALLEGIANCE; Full Cast Announced
Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Photos and Video: Telly Leung, Yumi Kurosawa, Lei Pasifika, Soh Daiko perform at The Met’s Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration
Original Cast of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE including Jose Llana, Derrick Baskin, Deborah S. Craig, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dan Fogler, Lisa Howard, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jay Reiss, and Sarah Saltzberg, to Reunite for 10th Anniversary Benefit Concert on July 6
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE & CRAZY, HAMILTON, Austin Pendleton & More Win Off Broadway Alliance Awards
HAMILTON, James Houghton, Usman Ally, Ayad Akhtar, Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Douglas Thompson and Suzan-Lori Parks among 2015 Obie Award Winners
Ruthie Ann Miles, Helen Mirren, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Sharp, Andy Karl, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard McCabe, Robert Fairchild Among 2015 Outer Critics Circle Winners; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Leads with 5; An American in Paris wins 4, The King and I and Hamilton Each Receive 3
Hamilton Sweeps 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards with 10 Wins; Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 3
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
ABC Renews “Fresh Off the Boat” and Picks up Ken Jeong’s “Dr. Ken”
Photos: Aasif Mandvi, Sheetal Sheth, Jimmy O. Yang, Raymond J. Lee, Tobias Wong and more celebrate HBO’s AAPI Heritage Month Screening of Jonathan Yi’s “East of Main Street: Taking the Lead” Documentary
George Takei Receives Distinguished Medal of Honor at Japanese American National Museum’s 2015 Gala Dinner; JANM Acquires Japanese American Incarceration Artifacts once slated for public auction
White House Blog: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; ‏White House Summit on AAPIs is May 12
President Barack Obama’s Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2015
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Photos: Inside THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE CD Release Concert with André De Shields, Kevin Mambo, Adam Chanler-Berat, Michael Friedman and More
Photos: National Black Theatre Festival 2013; NBTF runs August 3-8, 2015 and will include Act III – A Celebration of Life Reception saluting the late theatre icon Garland Lee Thompson, Sr.
Crafting a Career

Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Are you counting down the days until the Tony Awards? Can you list nominees from the 1960’s and quote acceptance speeches on command? Do you enjoy friendly competition, late-night snacks, drinks, and WINNING PRIZES? If you answered ‘YES’ to any of the above questions, clear your schedule and gear up for Broadway’s Biggest Night at 54 Below’s 2nd Annual Broadway Trivia Night: Tony Awards Edition on Friday, June 5 at 11:30pm. Doors open at 11:00pm.

Laura Heywood, aka @BroadwayGirlNYC

Hosted by Laura Heywood, aka @BroadwayGirlNYC, the pub-quiz style night will feature Tony-themed trivia, Tony-themed food and drink specials, prizes awarded throughout the night, and a grand prize TBA! Garth Kravits (The Drowsy Chaperone, Gettin’ the Band Back Together), will join Heywood on the piano, adding a musical flair to the evening. Only a moderate Broadway nerd? With audience participation and raffle prizes, anyone can be a winner.  Start studying now! $5 cover charge. $25 premium seating. $20 food and beverage minimum or two drinks. 54 Below is located at 254 W 54TH ST in New York. Call (646) 476-3551 for information, purchase tickets online.

Garth Kravits. Photo by Lia Chang

In addition to his work as an actor, composer and singer, Garth Kravits can also be heard every week on The Playball Podcast (playballpodcast.com), subscribe on iTunes here.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS AND FUN HOME Lead 2015 Tony Award Nominations with 12 each; Ken Watanabe, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kelli O’Hara, Chita Rivera, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan, Ruth Wilson, K. Todd Freeman, Patricia Clarkson Among the Nominees 

Other Articles on Garth Kravits:
Photos: Garth Kravits, Laura Benanti, Brian Nash, Lena Hall, Erin Davie and More in “Broadway Sings Tori” Benefit Concert for RAINN
Photos: Garth Kravits as a Statue of Liberty Street Performer on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie
Garth Kravits Joins “NEW STANDARDS: Songs For The Stage By Jim Territo” Lineup at 42West on March 25
broadwayworld.com:STAGE TUBE: Garth Kravits Releases Oscar Voting Parody
Garth Kravits on NBC’s The Blacklist
Late Night Singing with Garth Kravits at 54 Below with The Skivvies, at Jim Caruso’s Cast Party at Birdland and Michael Raye’s Soul Gathering
broadwayworld.com: TUNE IN TIME, New York’s New Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge Show, Returns to Stage 72, 6/25 and 7/1
Wesley Taylor and Mitchell Jarvis’ ‘it could be worse’ Series Featuring Adam Chanler-Berat, Alison Fraser, Gideon Glick and More Airs on Pivot TV in June; and on Hulu in July
June 4: Garth Kravits, Lena Hall, Lesli Margherita, Wesley Taylor and More Strip Down with The Skivvies at 54 Below
Garth Kravits, Suzzanne Douglas, Erin Dilly, Gavin Lee and More Set for “From Carousel to Kinky Boots”, Bickford Theatre Guild’s annual fundraiser
Dec. 4 – 29: Garth Kravits Returns to Bucks County Playhouse for Meet Me in St. Louis: A Live Radio Play
centraljersey.com: Clang Clang Clang!’Meet Me in St. Louis’ in Bucks County
BWW Interviews: Garth Kravits Talks about Bucks County Playhouse’s MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS: A RADIO PLAY
nj.com: Jersey actor Garth Kravits sings the praises of appearing on Broadway and closer to home

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

Other articles by Lia Chang
AAFLTV “Focus on the Philippines” Monday nights in June, hosted by Jennifer Betit Yen, Erin Quill and Lia Chang
Tony Award winning playwright David Henry Hwang’s Commencement Speech at SUNY Purchase
Photos: Anna May Wong as Fashion Muse in “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met
Coming to America through The Angel Island Immigration Station
Photos: Traveling through the mouth of the Dragon with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA’s James Hong, Peter Kwong, Lia Chang, Gerald Okamura, George Cheung, Al Leong, Jeff Imada, James Lew, Gary Goldman, Eric Lee, Joycelyne Lew
The 2015 Broadway Cast Recording of The Lincoln Center Theater Production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I Starring Tony Award nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles, available on June 2; Extended Run and National Tour Announced
Photos: Edie Falco, Bryce Pinkham, Stephanie McKay, Lena Hall, Nick Blaemire, Jacob Ming-Trent, Matthew Saldívar at The 52nd Street Project’s Gala FANCY THAT
Photos: Inside “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Met with Wong Kar-Wai, Vivienne Tam, Wendi Murdoch, Anna Wintour and More
Tony Award® Nominees Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed star in Rajiv Joseph’s GUARDS AT THE TAJ at Atlantic Theater Company; Opens June 11
Original Cast of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE including Jose Llana, Derrick Baskin, Deborah S. Craig, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dan Fogler, Lisa Howard, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jay Reiss, and Sarah Saltzberg, to Reunite for 10th Anniversary Benefit Concert on July 6
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama 
ABC Renews “Fresh Off the Boat” and Picks up Ken Jeong’s “Dr. Ken”
An Intimate Evening with Author Amy Tan at the New-York Historical Society 
World Premiere Musical HAMILTON Transfers to Broadway; Previews begin July 13
Crafting a Career
Click here  for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2015 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com