The Obie and Drama Desk Award-winning MA-YI THEATER COMPANY — one of the nation’s leading theaters dedicated to developing and producing new and innovative plays by Asian American writers — will celebrate its 26th anniversary season this fall with the premieres of two plays: the U.S. debut of Carlos Celdran’s LIVIN’ LA VIDA IMELDA, adapted for the NY stage by Ralph B. Pena and Carlos Celdran from the play’s site-specific performances in the Phillippines, along with the world- premiere of Han Ong’s latest work, CHAIRS AND A LONG TABLE.
Performed in repertory at the Clurman Theater at Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street), the plays will perform October 28th, 2014 and run until November 23rd,2014. The press opening night for LIVIN’ LA VIDA IMELDA is Wednesday, November 5. The press opening night for CHAIRS AND A LONG TABLE is Friday, November 7.
About this double-bill, which Ma-Yi has subtitled “Breaking the Myth,” Ralph B. Pena, Ma-Yi’s artistic director states, “The two exciting and provocative works respond to our prevailing assumptions about colorblind casting, the quest for equality in the arts, along with the eccentricities of Imelda Marco and the remixing of a dictator’s dubious legacy into an innocuous disco party. The ‘myths’ referred to in the play are myths about post-racial America, myths about shoes and jewelry and myths about historical and cultural authenticity.”
CHAIRS AND A LONG TABLE follows a group of Asian American actors in New York City as they prepare to attend a conference in Los Angeles addressing racial discrimination in the casting of a classic Chinese play, where the two lead characters have been cast with non-Asian actors. Linsay Firman, best known for work on Isaac’s Eye and Photograph 51, directs.
The cast of CHAIRS AND A LONG TABLE features Ron Domingo (Ma-Yi’s award- winning production of THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO), Julie Fitzpatrick, Julienne Kim (Broadway: GOLDEN CHILD), Moses Villarama (FAST COMPANY) and Jeena Yi.
LIVIN’ LA VIDA IMELDA is a delicious, jaw-dropping look at the inimitable life of Imelda Marcos, a solo show created and performed by Carlos Celdran, one of the Philippines best-known storytellers and provocateurs and an insider with intimate knowledge of Manila’s elite. The show – which might alternately be described as “HERE LIES THE DIRT” and offers unique insight into what makes a megalomaniac tick – details the life of the world’s most extravagant personality, Imelda Marcos, the wildly controversial former First Lady of the Philippines. Mr. Celdran will be in residence with Ma-Yi this season, culminating with the performances of LIVIN’ LA VIDA IMELDA, which he has presented at site-specific locations all across the Philippines for several years.
LIVIN LA VIDA IMELDA is directed by Ralph B. Peña (Wong Kids, Microcrisis).
Mr. Peña, Ma-Yi’s Artistic Director, states, “This season, we’re excited to have Han Ong (L.A. Plays, Swoony Planet, Chang Fragments) back at Ma-Yi with his new play Chairs and a Long Table. Han, one of the youngest recipients of the MacArthur Genius Award, has a gift for showing us the complexities of the ordinary, often served with belly laughs. Chairs and a Long Table depicts what happens when a group of New York actors prepare to confront the leaders of a large theater for yellow-face casting.” He continued, “Linsay Firman is one of the smartest and most capable directors in the city and, if you work in the theater or care about its health, you must see this play.”
Designs for both plays are: scenic design by Nick Francone, lighting design by Yi Zhao, costume design by Becky Bodurtha, IMELDA sound design by Fabian Obispo, CHAIRS AND A LONG TABLE sound design by Nick Borisjuk, and IMELDA projection design by Hanna Wasileski.
MA-YI THEATER COMPANY won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for its critically- acclaimed production of THE WONG KIDS IN THE SECRET OF THE SPACE CHUPACABRA GO! last season. Founded in 1989 and now celebrating its 26th anniversary season, MA-YI is a Drama Desk and OBIE Award-winning, Off- Broadway not-for-profit organization whose primary mission is to develop and produce new and innovative plays by Asian American writers. It is currently led by Ralph B. Peña (Artistic Director) and Jorge Z. Ortoll (Executive Director). Since its founding, Ma-Yi has distinguished itself as one of the country’s leading incubators of new work shaping the national discourse about what it means to be Asian American today. Its numerous acclaimed productions include last season’s BIKE AMERICA, JESUS IN INDIA, Qui Nguyen’s THE INEXPLICABLE REDEMPTION OF AGENT G (with Vampire Cowboys) and SOUL SAMURAI (with Vampire Cowboys), Mike Lew’s MICROCRISIS and the revival of Ralph B. Peña’s FLIPZOIDS. Other productions include: RESCUE ME by Michi Barall, Lloyd Suh’s AMERICAN HWANGAP and THE CHILDREN OF VONDERLY and THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO. Through successful programs such as the Writers Lab, Ma-Yi emboldens a new generation of Asian American artists to voice their experiences, while developing a steady stream of quality new works by Asian American playwrights for its own performing repertory. New works developed at the Writers Lab have gone on to successful productions around the country, at such theaters as Victory Gardens, Laguna Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, Woolly Mammoth, and the Actors Theater of Louisville, to name a few. Ma-Yi Theater Company productions have earned 10 OBIE Awards, numerous Henry Hewes Award nominations, a Drama Desk nomination for Best Play and the Special Drama Desk Award for “more than two decades of excellence and for nurturing Asian-American voices in stylistically varied and engaging theater.”
Both plays perform on a rep schedule – Tuesdays at 7 pm, Wednesdays at 8 pm, Thursdays at 8 pm, Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 2 and 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. For a precise performance schedule visit –www.ma-yitheatre.org
Tickets are $30 during previews and $35 starting opening night and can be purchased by phone at 212 239 6200 or online at www.telecharge.com
Other articles on Ma-Yi:
Ralph B. Peña and Leigh Silverman Among Six Mid-Career Directors Selected for Sundance Institute’s Theatre Directors Retreat in Arles, France
Ma-Yi Theatre Company Presents Qui Nguyen’s THE INEXPLICABLE REDEMPTION OF AGENT G at Theatre Row’s Beckett Theatre
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Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington, Roscoe Orman, and made her jazz vocalist debut in Rome Neal’s Banana Puddin’ Jazz “LADY” at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.
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