HOME / PRODUCTION HISTORY / NEW EYES FESTIVAL 2016

WHAT IS A STAGE READING?

A stage reading is a form of theatre without sets or full costumes. The actors, who read from scripts, may be seated, stand in fixed positions, or incorporate minimal stage movement. The purpose is to gauge the effectiveness of the dialogue, pacing and flow, and other dramatic elements that the playwright or director may wish to adjust. Audience feedback contributes to the process.

GENERAL INFORMATION

TICKETS

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited so RSVP as soon as possible.

VENUE INFO

NEW EYES FESTIVAL 2016 will take place at The Playwright’s Center.

THE SERIES

Friday, March 18 at 7:00 PM
CHARLES FRANCIS CHAN JR.’S EXOTIC ORIENTAL MURDER MYSTERY

by LLOYD SUH

SYNOPSIS

1967. The auspicious beginnings of a new political identity called Asian American, as a young literary hippie named Frank essays an inscrutable Chinese detective. A harmless sing-song orientalist minstrel show that ENDS IN A GROTESQUE CARNIVAL OF MURDER!!!

PLAYWRIGHT

Lloyd Suh is the author of American Hwangap, The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!, Jesus in India, Great Wall Story, The Children of Vonderly, Masha No Home and others, produced with Ma-Yi, The Play Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, La Mama ETC, Magic Theatre (SF), ArtsEmerson (MA), Denver Center Theatre Company, Children’s Theatre Company (MN), East West Players (LA), and internationally at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, and with PCPA in Seoul, Korea. He has received support from the NEA Arena Stage New Play Development program, the Andrew W. Mellon Launching New Plays Into the Repertoire initiative via The Lark, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Theatre Communications Group and Dramatists Guild. His plays have been published by Samuel French, Playscripts, Smith & Kraus, Duke University Press and American Theater magazine. He is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Actors Studio, an alum of Youngblood and the Soho Rep Writer Director Lab, and from 2005-2010 served as Artistic Director of Second Generation and Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab.  He has served since 2011 as Director of Artistic Programs at The Lark.

Saturday, March 19 at 7:00 PM
THE TWO KIDS THAT BLOW SHIT UP

by CARLA CHING

SYNOPSIS

Diana and Max meet at 10 years old, the day their parents start fucking. In the ensuing 18 years, their parents break up, get back together, marry and divorce. And they see each other through it all, trying not to make the same mistakes their parents did. A play about falling in and out of love with your best friend.

PLAYWRIGHT

An LA native, Carla Ching started doing autobiographically-based theater with NYC collective Peeling, which she still considers her first theater training. Her plays include Nomad Motel, Fast Company, TBA, The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness, Big Blind/Little Blind, and The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up. Her work has been produced or workshopped by South Coast Rep, Center Theater Group, Lyric Stage, the Eugene O’Neill Playwright Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, 2g, Partial Comfort, Porkfilled Players and Artists at Play among others. Alumna of the Women’s Project lab, Ma-Yi Writers Lab and the Lark Play Development Center’s Writers’ Workshop. BA, Vassar College. MFA, New School for Drama. Former Artistic Director of Asian American Theater Company, 2g. Fast Company is published by Sam French. Proud member of New Dramatists and The Kilroys. Carla wrote on Season Two of USA’s Graceland and currently writes on AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead.

Sunday, March 20 at 7:00 PM
THE SEX SHOW

by SUN MEE CHOMET

SYNOPSIS

THE SEX SHOW is an exploration of intimacy, sexual stereotypes, and sexuality in the Asian American community.  Using movement, music, and text, the artists have collaborated to explore their own bodies and sexuality in a raw, humorous, and imaginative way.  This is a work-in-progress.

PLAYWRIGHT

Sun Mee Chomet has worked with Mu Performing Arts (You for Me for You, Cowboy vs. Samurai, Asiamnesia [playwright and actor], Circle Around the Island, WTF); Lincoln Center Theater (brownsville song: b-side for tray); Guthrie Theater (Othello, The Burial at Thebes, Macbeth, The Intelligent Homosexual…); Broadway tour of Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses; Syracuse Stage/Charlotte Repertory (M. Butterfly); Ten Thousand Things Theater (Forget Me Not When Far Away, Dirt Sticks, A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, and many other theaters locally and nationally. Sun Mee’s recognition includes a 2015 Lucille Lortel nomination (brownsville song); 2013 McKnight Theater Artist Fellowship, 2013-15 TCG Fox Fellowship, Star Tribune’s ‘Best of’ lists for The Origin(s) Project (2012) and Asiamnesia (2007); “2012 Best Solo Performance” honors for her play, How to Be a Korean Woman (Lavender Magazine), and one of City Pages’ 2008 Artists of the Year. Upcoming, Sun Mee will be acting in the Guthrie’s production of Harvey and assistant directing Disgraced.

Her collections of short plays, NAGORIYUKI & Other Short Plays and The Lowest Form Of Writing are available on Amazon and have been performed all over the US, France and Asia. Her plays have also been published in Nanjing University’s Stage and Screen Reviews , Smith and Krauss, Sam French and Dramatists Play Service. She was an artist in residence at New Group/Urban Arts Initiative , a winner of the 2015 Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival, a 2015 and 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominee, a two time recipient of the A/P/A commission for the Japanese American National Museum, a recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship for Creative Writing, a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Playwrights Group, a 2016 Sloan Commission recipient with the Ensemble Studio Theatre, a commissioned writer with 2G, a 2016-2018 Time Warner fellow at the Women’s Project, an alumnus of Youngblood and a 2017 Sundance/Ucross Fellow. The New York Times called her a “distinctive new voice.”