Quick Silver Theater Company and Classics in Color are co-presenting PROOF starring Lolita Foster, Count Stovall, Nafeesa Monroe and Alejandro Rodriquez at Fourth Street Theater, September 2-13

August 23, 2015, 1:09 am

≫ Next: Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 on view at MoMA through September 7

≪ Previous: Alan Muraoka talks navigating The Fringe Festival at the helm of Martin Casella’s critically-acclaimed THE REPORT

Quick Silver Theater Company and Classics in Color are co-presenting David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize winning play PROOF, September 2 – 13, 2015, at the Fourth Street Theater, 83 East 4th Street in New York. Show time: 7:30pm. Tickets are priced at $18. Click here to purchase tickets.

The cast features Lolita Foster (“Orange is the New Black”) as Catherine, Broadway veteran Count Stovall as Robert (A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Driving Miss Daisy) Nafeesa Monroe (Shakespeare and Company-Love’s Labour’s Lost) as Claire, and Alejandro Rodriquez (59E59-Ghetto Babylon) as Hal.

Johanna Day, a Tony Nominee for her role in the MTC Broadway production of PROOF, makes her directorial debut surrounded by an all-female design team including sound design by Iman Hinton, costume design by Karen Perry, lighting design by Jennifer Reiser and set design by Perrine Villemur.

PROOF is the first co-production between Quick Silver Theater Company and Classics in Color. Both companies are aligned with a mission of diversity on stage and a theatrically inclusive environment. It is with this in mind, that this production of PROOF has been cast with ethnically diverse artists.

PROOF is the story of a Chicago based family. Robert, the patriarch of the family is a mathematic visionary. His daughter Catherine is his caregiver with high level mathematical potential. His daughter Claire is a currency analyst in New York. Hal is a mathematician at the University of Chicago working on his Ph.D., Robert is Hal’s advisor. A Proof is a deductive argument for a mathematical statement. Proofs employ logic but usually include some amount of natural language which usually admits some ambiguity.

Without altering the text of this Pulitzer Prize winning play, casting PROOF with actors of color, generates a new conversation that speaks to the issues of gender and color privilege in mathematics. This dialogue expands to the education and experiences of young women of color in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) programs. Additionally, there is also a conversation created about families of color dealing with the potential of mental illness and elders needing long term care. How do full-time, family member caregivers, build their own life while caring for the needs of another? These two issues – education of young women and care for the mentally ill or elderly – straddle both ends of a life journey which need particular attention in today’s society.

Quick Silver Theater Company members Rachel Leslie, Tyrone Mitchell Henderson, Joniece Abbott Pratt, Keith Randolph Smith, Mafeesa Monroe, Jody Reynard, Curtis Wiley, Lizan Mitchell and Pascale Armand. Photo by Lia Chang

Quick Silver Theater Company was founded by Tyrone Mitchell Henderson and Lizan Mitchell. QST is an ensemble company of thirteen theater artists based in the NYC Metro area which also includes Pascale Armand, Dion Graham, Inga Ballard, Rachel Leslie, Nafeesa Monroe, Flor De Liz Perez, Jody Reynard, Alejandro Rodriguez, Keith Randolph Smith, Curtis Wiley and Joniece Abbott Pratt. For more information on Quick Silver Theater Company, click here.

Classics in Color: A Theatre Company (CIC), founded by Nafeesa Monroe, focuses on producing vibrantly cast classic works for the stage, expanding the perception of classical theatre. As a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic ensemble, Classics in Color embraces the theatre of inclusion, on stage and off, opening up and extending the understanding of classic tales, tales of the human experiences that touch us all. Classically trained actors of all colors and backgrounds grace our stage with power and insight under the guidance of world class theatre artists from around the country. Classics in Color: classical theatre for all the people, by all the people. www.classicsincolor.com

Performance Schedule:
Wednesday, September 2 @ 7:30pm
Thursday, September 3 @ 7:30pm
Friday, September 4 @ 7:30pm
Saturday, September 5 @ 7:30pm
Sunday, September 6 @ 7:30pm
Wednesday, September 9 @ 7:30pm
Thursday, September 10 @ 7:30pm
Friday, September 11 @ 7:30pm
Saturday, September 12 @ 7:30pm
Sunday, September 13 @ 7:30pm

Lia Chang

Lia Chang is an award-winning filmmaker, a Best Actress nominee, a 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, Taxman and Hide and Seek. She is profiled in FebOne1960.com Blog, Jade Magazine and Playbill.com.

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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

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Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 on view at MoMA through September 7

August 23, 2015, 2:01 am

≫ Next: “Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong,” – Retrospective of Disney Legend at MOCA through September 13

≪ Previous: Quick Silver Theater Company and Classics in Color are co-presenting PROOF starring Lolita Foster, Count Stovall, Nafeesa Monroe and Alejandro Rodriquez at Fourth Street Theater, September 2-13

Yoko Ono is the subject of a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art through September 7, 2015. ©Minoru Niizuma. Courtesy Lenono Photo Archive, New York

In late 1971, Yoko Ono announced an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art—a one-woman show that she irreverently titled Museum Of Modern (F)art. When visitors arrived at the Museum, however, there was little evidence of her work. Outside the entrance, a man wore a sandwich board stating that Ono had released a multitude of flies and that the public was invited to follow their flight within the Museum and across the city. Now, over 40 years later, Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 surveys the decisive decade that led up to that unauthorized exhibition at MoMA, bringing together approximately 125 of her early objects, works on paper, installations, performances, audio recordings, and films, alongside rarely seen archival materials. On view through September 7, 2015, this is the first exhibition at MoMA dedicated exclusively to the artist’s work. Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 is organized by Christophe Cherix, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints; and Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator at Large, MoMA, and Director, MoMA PS1; with Francesca Wilmott, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints.

The Museum of Modern Art is located at 11 West 53 Street in New York. Click here for tickets.

Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 draws upon the 2008 Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift, which added approximately 100 of Ono’s artworks and related ephemera to the Museum’s holdings. A number of works on view invite interaction, including Painting to Be Stepped On (1960/61), and Ono’s groundbreaking performance Bag Piece (1964). Her earliest works were often based on instructions that Ono communicated to viewers in verbal or written form. At times poetic, humorous, unsettling, and idealistic, Ono’s text-based works anticipated the objects that she presented throughout the decade, including Grapefruit (1964), her influential book of instructions; Apple (1966), a solitary piece of fruit placed on a Plexiglas pedestal; and Half-A-Room (1967), an installation of bisected domestic objects. The exhibition also explores Ono’s seminal performances and films, including Cut Piece (1964) and Film No. 4 (1966/67). At the end of the decade, Ono’s collaborations with John Lennon, including Bed-In (1969) and the WAR IS OVER! if you want it (1969–) campaign, boldly communicated her commitment to promoting world peace.

Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 is organized chronologically, with thematic currents, providing multiple ways for visitors to navigate the exhibition. Before entering the exhibition, visitors encounter one of Ono’s earliest instructions, Lighting Piece. Composed in 1955, the text simply reads: “Light a match and watch till it goes out.” In 1966, Ono enacted this work in her film Match Piece (or No. 1), which is projected in 16mm. Each day, a performer will stop the film and realize Ono’s instruction in the space. Upon entering the galleries, visitors must choose a path through which to follow Ono’s work forward in time to 1971. After reaching the chronological end point of the exhibition, visitors can then experience a different route back through Ono’s early years. At certain moments, these different paths converge around key ideas, including Ono’s instruction-based works, performances, films, and interactive installations.

The first section of the exhibition focuses on her Chambers Street Loft Series (December 1960–June 1961). In 1960, Ono rented a loft on the top floor of a building located at 112 Chambers Street, in downtown Manhattan. She intended to use the space as a studio, but also envisioned it as a place to present new music and ideas, a place unlike any other in the contemporary performance scene dominated by Midtown concert halls. Ono borrowed a baby grand piano from a friend and created makeshift furniture with discarded crates, transforming the low-ceilinged, gray-paneled loft into a vibrant environment. Over the course of six months, Ono and composer La Monte Young presented numerous events by artists, musicians, dancers, and composers. Several works combined music, visual art, and performance, blurring the distinctions between mediums. On any given evening there were as many as 200 attendees, including art- world figures such as John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Peggy Guggenheim, Isamu Noguchi, George Maciunas, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg. The original rarely seen programs from all 11 events are on view alongside archival photographs from the Chambers Street Loft.

The following section focuses on Ono’s first solo exhibition, which took place in July 1961 at the AG Gallery on New York’s Upper East Side. George Maciunas, an architect, designer, and codirector of the gallery, invited Ono to do a show after attending events at her Chambers Street loft. Ono created the paintings in the exhibition from a single roll of canvas, to which she applied washes of Japanese sumi ink and performed other interventions. These works, which became known as “instruction paintings,” were physical manifestations of Ono’s own instructions. She communicated the instructions verbally or, at times, on handwritten cards, requesting that viewers personally engage with the works in order to complete their creation, thus resulting in unforeseeable outcomes. In order to convey a sense of the lost originals, MoMA, together with Ono, undertook an extensive study of the materials, techniques, and display strategies used in her early works, and made the paintings on view in this gallery. These works represent one of the ways in which Ono’s instructions can be realized.

Ono returned to Japan in early 1962 and remained there for over two years. Her first concert and exhibition in Tokyo, at the Sōgetsu Art Center in May 1962, upended the expectations of the audience by encouraging them to participate in new and radical ways. She displayed a poem that viewers could touch (Touch Poem #5) (on view in the first gallery of the exhibition) and instructions for paintings that viewers had to create in their imaginations (presented in this section of the exhibition). The concert consisted of a combination of new and older works, performed by Ono and a group of fellow artists and musicians. The evening closed with Audience Piece to La Monte, in which the performers formed a line across the stage, and each chose a different audience member to watch. As soon as that audience member broke eye contact, the performer redirected his or her attention to a new person. By inverting the direction of the gaze, Ono broke down traditional boundaries between performer and audience. The concert is represented in the exhibition through archival photographs.

In another gallery, performance facilitators are in the galleries during select hours to aid visitors in performing Ono’s iconic Bag Piece (1964), which consists of visitors entering into a cloth bag, becoming completely enveloped. Ono performed Bag Piece publicly for the first time in Kyoto, in July 1964, in the same concert in which she premiered Cut Piece. Also on view in this gallery are eight photographs taken by George Maciunas of Ono’s performance of Bag Piece in the Perpetual Fluxfest in New York in June 1965, along with her 1966 film Eyeblink.

The next gallery is focused on Grapefruit (1964), a self-published artist’s book that comprises instructions Ono wrote between 1953 and 1964. She first presented instruction-based artwork during her Chambers Street Loft Series in 1960–61. In the years that followed, Ono created works that continued to distance her concepts from their physical manifestations, eventually culminating in Grapefruit in 1964. The grapefruit, a citrus hybrid, operates as a metaphor for Ono’s incorporation of both Eastern and Western philosophies in her work. Between 1963 and 1966, Ono lived in both Tokyo and New York, serving as a critical bridge within the international avant-garde. Other works in this gallery exemplify Ono’s close relationships with other artists, namely George Maciunas and John Cage. Maciunas organized Ono’s first solo exhibition, in 1961, and Ono was actively involved with him in the formation of Fluxus, later participating in Fluxus performances and events. Ono met Cage when she first moved to New York in the mid-1950s. Although she at times distanced herself from his ideas, they remained friends and she performed during his 1962 Japanese tour. Cage dedicated a major composition, 0’00” (1962), to Ono and her husband Toshi Ichiyanagi.

Assembled in the following gallery are several works inspired by the sky, including To See the Sky (2015), a new work created for the MoMA exhibition. The sky is a central and recurring subject in Ono’s work. Her fascination with it dates back to her childhood memories of being displaced from Tokyo during World War II and finding safety in the countryside. “That’s when I fell in love with the sky,” remembers Ono. “Even when everything was falling apart around me, the sky was always there for me…I can never give up on life as long as the sky is there.” Ono’s favorite feature of her Chambers Street loft was its skylight, because it created the feeling of being “more connected to the sky than to the city outside.” The ever-changing permanence of the sky—an element of nature that varies according to time and place yet is shared by everyone, everywhere—has inspired Ono’s art making since the beginning of her career.

Since the beginning of the 1960s, Ono had relied on the viewer’s participation or imagination to complete her artworks, and she continued to develop this strategy in her solo exhibition at Indica Gallery, London, in 1966. Many of the works from that exhibition are on view in the next gallery. Add Color Painting (1961/66) and Painting to Hammer a Nail (1961/66) required the viewer’s intervention, whereas Apple (1966) (on view at the entrance to the exhibition) comprises a solitary fruit, devoid of the artist’s hand beyond its placement on a Plexiglas pedestal affixed with a brass plaque. The night before the show opened, John Lennon stopped by the gallery. Moved by Ono and her artistic concepts, he was the first person to sign the exhibition guest book, including his middle name, Winston, and his home address. In the years that followed, Ono worked in close collaboration with Lennon, producing films, initiating global peace campaigns, and launching the Plastic Ono Band.

The exhibition includes an audio room dedicated to the music that Ono produced with the Plastic Ono Band. Around 1968, Ono decided to create a band “that would never exist…that didn’t have a set number of members…that could accommodate anyone who wanted to play with it.” The name derived from a small three-dimensional work—composed primarily of transparent plastic objects—that John Lennon had made in response to Ono’s idea. The original is now lost, but the work has been reimagined by Ono for this exhibition. Although conceptually Plastic Ono Band had no members, in practice it had a flexible lineup. For a performance at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival in 1969, the band consisted of Ono, Lennon, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and Alan White. During this session—which produced the band’s first live recording—Ono performed her Bag Piece, entering a white bag in the middle of the stage. Other performances likewise incorporated Ono’s earlier works or introduced new artistic pursuits. The band continued releasing records through the mid-1970s. In 2009, Ono revived Plastic Ono Band with her son, Sean Lennon.

The furthest gallery in the exhibition pairs Ono’s 1970 film Fly with her 1971 Museum Of Modern (F)art project. In Fly, the camera follows the journey of a fly across the terrain of a nude female body. Toward the end of the film, the camera zooms out to reveal that the woman is in fact dotted with multiple flies. Finally, the camera pans upward to the room’s window and the dusky cityscape outside. Ono’s voice—meandering and staccato, like the buzzing of an insect— serves as the soundtrack and is accompanied by Lennon’s abstract instrumentals. The act of tracing flies in flight was echoed in Ono’s Museum Of Modern (F)art (1971), on view nearby, which asked viewers to follow the path of flies, which Ono had purportedly released in MoMA’s Sculpture Garden, as they dispersed through the Museum and across New York. Ono published photos of the flies’ urban migration in a related artist’s book, which is also on display in this gallery. A short film captured the public’s response. While some were skeptical, others were moved by the absence of a concrete exhibition, including a man who reflected, “The entire world in general can be a show.”

PUBLICATIONS:
Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971
Edited by Klaus Biesenbach and Christophe Cherix. With contributions by Yoko Ono, Julia Bryan- Wilson, Jon Hendricks, Clive Phillpot, David Platzker, Francesca Wilmott, and Midori Yoshimoto

Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 examines the beginnings of Ono’s career, demonstrating her pioneering role in visual art, performance, and music during this decisive decade. The publication features three introductory essays that examine Ono’s early years and five sections organized chronologically to trace the evolution of Ono’s artistic practice. Each chapter includes an introduction, artwork descriptions, primary documents, and a selection by the artist of her texts and drawings, including previously unpublished writings.

Slipcased paperback, 9.5 x 12 in.; $60. 240 pages, 180 illustrations. Published by The Museum of Modern Art and available at the MoMA stores and online at momastore.org. Distributed to the trade by ARTBOOK|D.A.P. in the U.S. and Canada, and by Thames & Hudson outside the U.S. and Canada.

Grapefruit
By Yoko Ono
On the occasion of the exhibition, The Museum of Modern Art has produced a facsimile of the first edition of Grapefruit, making it available again in its original form. First published in 1964 in Tokyo by Wunternaum Press in an edition of 500 copies, Grapefruit contains more than 150 works divided into five sections: MUSIC, PAINTING, EVENT, POETRY, OBJECT. These works—conceptual instructions—are the culmination of a process that dispensed with the physical and arrived at the idea. Since the initial publication of Grapefruit, numerous expanded editions have been produced in many different languages, but first-edition copies are nearly impossible to find today. This new edition is produced from the copy of the 1964 book in The Museum of Modern Art Library, and is an exacting replica of Grapefruit as Ono first envisioned it. It is available in a limited edition of 500 unsigned and 50 signed copies. Slipcased paperback, 5.5 x 5.5”; $150 for the unsigned edition, $750 for the signed edition, with the price going up as fewer copies are left. Published by The Museum of Modern Art and available at the MoMA stores and online at MoMAstore.org. Signed editions are exclusive to the MoMA stores. Unsigned editions are distributed to the trade by ARTBOOK|D.A.P. in the U.S. and Canada, and by Thames & Hudson outside the U.S. and Canada.

PROGRAMS:
Yoko Ono’s White Chess Set
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays –September 7, 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Sculpture Garden (weather permitting)
Visitors are invited to play on an exhibition copy of Yoko Ono’s White Chess Set (1966), originally created by the artist to challenge the competitive structure of the game by requiring players to work together for the match to progress. The program is a special collaboration with Chess in the Schools, a nonprofit organization that has empowered more than 500,000 students from Title I New York City public schools by using chess as an educational tool. This program is open to visitors of all ages and abilities, and is presented in conjunction with Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971. Free with Museum admission.

AUDIO TOUR:
The audio tour accompanying the exhibition features a newly recorded commentary by Yoko Ono. MoMA Audio+ is available free of charge at the Museum and is also available for streaming and download on MoMA’s free app on iTunes, MoMA.org/m, and MoMA.org. MoMA Audio+ is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

WEBSITE INTERVENTION:
In conjunction with the exhibition, selected instructions from Ono’s artist’s book Grapefruit (1964) will be superimposed upon the homepage of MoMA.org. The texts range from the possible to the improbable, often relying on the viewer’s imagination to complete the instruction. A different instruction will be featured each day of the exhibition.

Lia Chang

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“Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong,” – Retrospective of Disney Legend at MOCA through September 13

August 23, 2015, 2:47 am

≫ Next: Painter and Glass Sculptor Arlan Huang set for AIR Zenkouji, a month long residency in Nagano, Japan

≪ Previous: Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 on view at MoMA through September 7

The Art of Tyrus Wong on view at MOCA.

The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) is presenting Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong through September 13, 2015. The exhibition focuses on the life and work of artist Tyrus Wong—a celebrated painter, muralist, kite maker, lithographer, Hollywood sketch artist, calligrapher, ceramicist, and Disney Legend. At age 104, Wong is still a practicing artist today.

Tyrus at his home in Sunland, CA 2004. Photograph by Peter Brenner, courtesy of the Museum of California Art and Design (MoCAD)

President of MOCA, Nancy Yao Maasbach shared, “Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong is part of a larger narrative exploring art and Chinese American heritage across geographical and cultural boundaries. Wong’s work continues to inspire and influence the leading animators and contemporary artists of today.”

This retrospective exhibition features Wong’s extensive body of work which includes his paintings, hand-painted ceramics and silk scarves, original greeting cards, works on paper, and latest kite creations. It was the ethereal beauty of Wong’s Eastern influenced paintings, his sense of color, richness, and imagination that caught Walt Disney’s eye and became the inspiration for the animated feature Bambi (1942). Wong’s singular vision and impressionistic art influenced the groundbreaking movie’s overall visual style and changed the way animation art was presented.

Tyrus Wong, Bambi (visual development), 1942; watercolor on paper; 10 x 11.5 in. Courtesy of Tyrus Wong Family. ©Disney.

A young Tyrus Wong, before immigration to the United States. Image courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum and Tyrus Wong

A young Tyrus Wong, before immigration to the United States c. 1919.
Image courtesy of the Walt Disney Family
Museum and Tyrus Wong

Arriving in the United States with his father in 1919 from the Toishan district in Guangdong, China, Wong was initially detained in Angel Island for three weeks because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. After his release, Wong and his father settled in Sacramento, later moving to Los Angeles’s Chinatown.

“Wong’s extraordinary stories need to be told, alongside decades of his art work. We are delighted to work with Tyrus, his daughter Kim Wong, and Michael Labrie at The Walt Disney Family Museum on debuting Tyrus’ work in New York,” states Herb Tam, director of exhibitions at MOCA.

Wong was one of the bohemian artists whose creativity and drive helped shape the cultural, artistic life of Los Angeles during the 1930s and 40s. He carved out a creative career working as a Depression-era muralist, California watercolorist, and film production illustrator. Wong worked at the Warner Bros. studio from 1942 to 1968, creating concept images for many films including Rebel Without a Cause [1955] and The Wild Bunch [1969], to name a few. These artworks conjured stunning environments, in many cases resembling beautifully executed architectural renderings.

One of the conceptual drawings from “The Wild Bunch.” Image courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum and Tyrus Wong

In 2001, Wong was named a Disney Legend. Wong has been inducted into the World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame for his amazing creations, which include hundred-foot long centipedes, butterflies, and schools of delicately painted goldfish. These handmade kites inspired by the complex art of Chinese kite making will be a central exhibition showcase.

Tyrus Wong, Mini-centipede, © 1990. Courtesy Tyrus Wong Family.

During the run of the exhibition, MOCA will offer a line-up of events, public programs, tours, and educational workshops. Check back on the Museum’s website for upcoming exhibition- related programs.

Guided Gallery Tours | Every Saturday, 2.45 pm

Museum Educators will take you on an in-depth exploration of the special exhibition.

Tyrus Wong on Santa Monica Beach 1987. Image courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum and Tyrus Wong

About Tyrus Wong
Wong was born in the Toishan district in Guangdong, China in 1910. In 1919, he and his father immigrated to America leaving behind Wong’s mother and sister, whom they never saw again. Arriving in the United States, Wong was initially detained in Angel Island for three weeks because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. After his release from Angel Island, Wong and his father settled in Sacramento, later moving to Los Angeles’s Chinatown neighborhood.

Tyrus Wong cover art for California Arts and Architecture, October, 1939. Image courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum and Tyrus Wong

Early Years
Wong’s interest in painting and drawing emerged at an early age. Though they were poor, his father encouraged his talents by having him practice calligraphy by dipping his brushes in water and “painting” on newspaper. Indifferent to school, he dropped out of Benjamin Franklin Junior High in Pasadena, CA to attend the Otis Art Institute on a full scholarship. There he received formal western art training while studying the art of the Sung Dynasty at the Los Angeles Central Library in his free time.

Despite graduating in the midst of the Depression, Wong had an active artistic career. He exhibited work at a 1932 group exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute that featured Pablo Picasso. Wong was also hired as part of the Federal Arts Project, a branch of the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration (WPA). His work during this period was heavily influenced by his friend, the highly regarded modernist painter Stanton MacDonald- Wright, best known for his use of rich harmonious colors (a style referred to as “synchrony”) and his integration of Chinese compositions.

The Dragon’s Den
Though he exhibited regularly, Wong and his fellow artists struggled to survive. Their answer was the Dragon’s Den, a subterranean, trendy, Chinatown restaurant that attracted Hollywood stars such as Peter Lorre, Anna Mae Wong, and Sydney Greenstreet. It stood out among the chop suey joints of Chinatown and was the brainchild of close friend Eddy See. It boasted wall-to-wall murals and hand-painted menus by Wong and his fellow artists. It was there that he met Ruth Kim, his future wife.

Tyrus Wong, Bambi (visual development), 1942; watercolor on paper; 10 x 11.5 in. Courtesy of Tyrus Wong Family. ©Disney.

Walt Disney Studios
In 1938, following his marriage and birth of his first daughter, Wong took a job at the Walt Disney Studios as an “inbetweener”, one who goes through the tedious process of making “in-between” drawings that filled out the movement of the characters between the animators’ key drawings he began at Disney drawing hundreds of sketches of Mickey Mouse. He found the work tedious and numbing. When he heard that the studio was in pre- production on the feature film Bambi, he went home and painted several pictures of a deer in a forest. These small, but evocative sketches captured the attention of Walt Disney and became the basis for the film’s visual style. Tyrus’s Chinese-inspired sketches and paintings set the look and tone for Bambi, and were some of the most strikingly beautiful art ever produced at the Walt Disney Studios.

Tyrus Wong, Bambi (visual development), 1942; watercolor on paper; 10 x 11.5 in. Courtesy of Tyrus Wong Family. ©Disney.

Warner Brothers
From Disney, Wong headed to nearby Warner Brothers, where he switched from fantasy to realism. He was hired as a production illustrator and sketch artist where he painted and sketched concept art for hundreds of live-action films, including Rebel Without A Cause, Calamity Jane, Harper, The Wild Bunch, Sands of Iwo Jima, Auntie Mame, April in Paris, and PT 109. Wong was frequently loaned out to Republic Pictures where he worked on many John Wayne westerns, a genre that would become a favorite of his. He stayed at Warner Bros. for the next 26 years until his retirement in 1968.

Tyrus Wong, Edge of Gorge, 1958; preproduction illustration for The Ice Palace, Warner Bros., 1960; 8.5 x 10 in.; Courtesy of Tyrus Wong Family

Throughout his years at the studio, Wong continued to paint and exhibit his fine art. In 1954, he was featured in a short film produced by Eliot O’Hara demonstrating Chinese brushwork techniques. His commercial work included designing greeting cards for over 20 years, illustrating magazine covers and children’s books, and painting calligraphic style designs on Winfield ceramic ware that sold in high-end department stores.

Tyrus Wong, Christmas Elf (Holiday Card for California Artists), 1955; opaque watercolor, 9.5 x 15 in. Courtesy of Tyrus Wong Family.

Kite Building
After retiring, he turned his attention to designing and building hand-made kites. His dozens of designs include multi-colored 100-foot centipedes, flocks of swallow, butterflies, and panda bears. In 1990, he and his kites were featured in the short film, Flights of Fancy. To this day, Wong flies his kites every month in Santa Monica.

Tyrus and one of his kites on the beach in 2013. Photo: Sara Jane Boyers.

Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong is organized by The Walt Disney Family Museum, San Francisco, CA.

Goldfish kites in Tyrus Wong’s studio. Photograph and Copyright Sara Jane Boyers

Tyrus Wong’s Centipede. Photography and copyright Sara Jane Boyers

This exhibition and related programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts (Museum Program), with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York Legislature, and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support for the exhibition is provided by Anla Cheng and Mark Kingdon.

About Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)
MOCA’s mission is to celebrate the living history of the Chinese experience in America, to inspire our diverse communities to contribute to America’s evolving cultural narrative and civil society, and to empower and bridge our communities across generations, ethnicities and geography through our dynamic stories.

Hours:
Monday – Closed
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – 11am-6pm
Thursday – 11am-9pm
MOCA First Free Thursdays: Free gallery admission on the first Thursday of each month is made possible through the generosity of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and J.T. Tai & Co Foundation.

Admission:
General Admission: $10/ MOCA Members: Free Seniors (65+ with ID) and Students (w/school ID): $5 Children under 12 in groups less than 10: Free

Lia Chang

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Painter and Glass Sculptor Arlan Huang set for AIR Zenkouji, a month long residency in Nagano, Japan

August 23, 2015, 9:13 pm

≫ Next: Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center to host 2nd annual Wikipedia APA in September

≪ Previous: “Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong,” – Retrospective of Disney Legend at MOCA through September 13

Artist Arlan Huang in his Brooklyn Studio on July 12, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang

Painter and glass sculptor Arlan Huang is busy learning Japanese before jetting off to Nagano, Japan, for AIR Zenkouji, his month long Artist-in-Residence in the grounds of Zenkoji Temple in September. Huang returns to Nagano after first exhibiting at Koji Moriya’s Flatfile Gallery, a 110 year old mud walled traditional Japanese house, in 2013.

Koji Moriya’s Flatfile Gallery, a 110 year old mud walled traditional Japanese house. Photo by Arlan Huang

On a balmy summer night in August, I met up with Huang and his wife, Lillian Ling for $1 oysters on the half shell at Crave Fishbar’s happy hour in Midtown Manhattan.

Trestle Gallery opening reception for “Swimming Awkward Moment,” new works by Arlan Huang, here with his wife Lillian Huang, in Brooklyn on February 20, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

We noshed on Griddled Heritage Pork Belly with fresh cherries, chile sugar, cherry jus, steamed mussels, Plancha grilled octopus with Chinese broccoli, cumin mustard vinaigrette, and handmade squid ink spaghetti with chopped shrimp, spring garlic, fresno chile, clam stock, while chatting about his Nagano residency, navigating Japan as an American artist, and his new exhibitions, Flowers of the moon (9/8-9/18 in Osaka) and Pushing Hands (Nagano).

Dinner at Crave Fishbar. Photos by Lia Chang

Lia: What kind of an exhibition did you have in 2013?
Arlan: We started working on the show in 2010. The opening was excellent. The show a success. The format allowed for small paintings only. I really never worked less than 72″x 60″. It was a challenge for me to go down to 11″x 14″. To my surprise it was no problem “being in the painting on a small scale”. In fact it was a revelation to work even smaller. I have continued to work small on plexiglass. The paintings have moved into a very sweet but muscular form. It has been a wonderful surprise to me. I love it.

Arlan Huang in his Brooklyn Studio during the Arts Gowanus Open Studio on October 18, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: How did this residency come about?
Arlan: Two years ago during my first show in Nagano, I was introduced to Mr Hitoshi Kimura, a professor of art at Shinshu University. Koji Moriya, owner of Flatfile indicated to me that Mr. Kimura had an Artist-in-Residency program and I would be welcomed to participate. I accepted for 2015. The official program is called, Artist-in-Residence in the grounds of Zenkoji Temple. I will be AIR from Sept 12 thru Oct 12, 2015. air-zenkouji.com

Arlan Huang and his wife Lillian Ling, Yuri Ishida and Koji Moriya at the original Flatfile Bar, Nagano, 2013. Photo by Oote@oote Photography

Lia: Why are you learning to speak Japanese?
Arlan: I’m attempting to learn a few sentences. When people come to New York, we expect them to speak some English. When you go to another country I would think they expect you to speak some of their language.

Artist Arlan Huang in his Brooklyn Studio on July 12, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What will you be doing during your residency?
Arlan: I am getting a show together in Nagano. This is my AIR Zenkouji commitment to Nagano artists. The show will be different than a traditional group show where art is hung on the wall. This show is for artists to meet artists and to practice presenting your art and presenting yourself. Every artist comes with an artwork. You must carry it in your hand. The idea is your artwork is like your calling card. The show/ performance is all of us introducing ourselves to each other. You must limit your time so you can meet and practice with many artists. You must explain your art in six sentences. You must let whomever you are talking to hold your art. There is something very sexy about letting someone touch and feel your art. I love it. We speak in The language of your choice. I will get some help and try to memorize my art statement in Japanese. Hahaha. But I will try.

The reason I’m attempting my statement in Japanese is because Koji, one of my hosts, said it will be hard for some artists to speak in English. I responded by saying the art is the key. It is visual. We can explain in any language. But I will try doing my statement in Japanese. It is about sharing and practicing.

Lia: Where does “Pushing Hands” originate from?
Arlan: The name of the show will be “Pushing Hands” it refers to a taichi exercise. Two people pushing, pulling and fighting with their hands in a dance, sometimes touching, sometimes not. It is to practice and increase your skills.

Lia: What was it like to navigate as an American artist in Japan?
Arlan: At first, it was exhilarating being in a place where everyone looked like you. I can pass, for awhile. Beyond looks it became very apparent, I was American. Not Asian American, Chinese, or artist, but American. Identity becomes a new question. It took time to find my center but I did. It is a lesson in growth as a human being. Of course, as an artist from New York, I get a universal pass as being a little crazy with an eccentric life style.

Paintings and blown glass vessels by artist Arlan Huang in his Brooklyn Studio. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What do you hope to accomplish during the four weeks that you are there?
Arlan: I will bring my oil paints and brushes. I plan on painting but I am open for new approaches to art. There are many Nagano artists doing different art. The excitement is in discovering and working with new artists in a totally different environment. Nagano City is on the edge of the mountains. The season will be transitioning into the Fall. What could be more inspiring?

Lia: Elaborate on the “crafts” nature of the art in Nagano.
Arlan: My former Squid Frames partner, Fumiko Hasegawa, informed me of the long history of craft in Nagano Prefecture. She said there is a very prestigious arts and crafts fair held every year. She aspired to be included in the fair before she moved to New York. She works in urushi, Japanese lacquer.

Flatfile owner Koji Moriya searching for wood in Nagano, 2013. Photo by Arlan Huang

We were lucky to have attended the Summer Zenkoji Temple crafts fair. We were treated to some beautiful wood work from two local cabinet makers. They brought inventive items made from the cut offs. Koji said there was another wood artist who made amazing toys. And that was just the wood workers.

Huang’s paintings will also be on view in Flowers of the moon, at Eiko Kamiyama’s gallery Bi-Damas in Osaka, Japan, from Tuesday, September 8th through Friday, September 18th. Click here for more information.

Huang’s exhibition of his newest paintings, “Swimming Awkward Moment,” were recently on view at Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn in the Spring. The gallery is located in the same building as his 4000 sq. ft space in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. For the past eight years, Huang has balanced his business, Squid Frame, with his passion for painting in Brooklyn, after 30 years in his Manhattan space on the Bowery. His painting studio occupies 900 sq. ft.

Trestle Gallery opening reception for “Swimming Awkward Moment,” new works by Arlan Huang in Brooklyn on February 20, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Huang describes his current practice as “looking at myself from the outside.” In 2014, Huang reacquainted himself with his entire body of work through a cataloging process facilitated by a Creating a Living Legacy award from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. This act of retracing allowed Huang to review his painting career through an experienced lens. Click here to learn more about his experience with the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Artist Arlan Huang in his Brooklyn Studio on July 12, 2014. Photo by Lia Chang

With Huang’s newest body of work he chooses to embrace awkwardness and paint with a layered perspective about his artistic decisions and the aspirations he held as a younger painter.

From this intensive look into his own history, Huang found that he has been “doing the same things over and over again,” with subtle shifts in color and line from one painting to the next. His search for a meditative “hum” while he paints is ever present as he experiments with the surface, color, and fluid movement of his abstract imagery. The results are layered and stacked linear marks, neat rows, or floating daubs of paint.

Arlan Huang. Photo by Lia Chang

Arlan Huang (1948) was born in Bangor, Maine and was raised in San Francisco. Huang studied at San Francisco Art Institute (1964-65), City College of San Francisco (1966-69) and received his BFA from Pratt Institute (1972). Huang has permanent installations throughout New York, including the Museum of Chinese in Americas, Jacobi Medical Center, and Baron Capital, and has received awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Board of Education, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. Recent solo exhibitions include Red for Yellow (2013), Flatfile Gallery, Japan; and Most Violet Paintings 2003-2008 (2008), Walter Randel Gallery, NYC. Huang has exhibited extensively in group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. He currently lives in Manhattan and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Arlan Huang. Photo by Lia Chang

I first discovered Arlan Huang in 1994 at the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas in New York Chinatown. Entitled, “Dim Sum-Hearts Desire,” Huang’s mixed media installation was an approximation of his grandparents’ New York Chinatown tenement, with 100 numbered glass stones among the glass inventions representing a family history passed down from generation to generation.

Dim Sum, Heart’s Desire
168x96x72 inches (h x w x d)
installation by Arlan Huang. Photo courtesy of artasiaamerica.org

“100 stones for Grandfather,” shared Huang, “tells how my grandfather immigrated from Seattle to Vancouver to Alaska to Bangor and how he went back to China to get his wife and bring her back to Bangor. It is also the story of how migration happens and how they ended up on Mulberry St. There’s sort of a microcosm in Asian American history because of the immigration laws passed in the 1950’s where more immigrants could come to the U.S. My grandmother’s relatives immigrated to New York in the 1950’s and my grandparents came to help them get settled.”

In 1996, Huang created a glass wall installation entitled, “American Origins” at P.S. 152 in Brooklyn for the New York City Board of Education, in the hope of contributing to the ideas of American public education. The focal point for this installation is the immigrant experience and the collective hope of coming to America to educate children in the best education system possible.

Detail of American Origins, Red Wall 56 x 128 inches site specific installation "American Origins, located in P.S. 152, Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of artasiaamerica.org

Detail of American Origins, Red Wall 56×128 inches site specific installation “American Origins, located in P.S. 152, Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of artasiaamerica.org

Fabricated of glass stones encased in glass blocks, there are 247 transparent, translucent and opaque colored stones numbered from 152-399. The block between 282 and 283 in the red wall is the only block not numbered. It contains the shards of a word sculpture by the artist John Brekke.

American Origins, Red Wall 5x x 128 inches site specific installation "American Origins, located in P.S. 152, Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of artasiaamerica.org

American Origins, Red Wall
56 x 128 inches
site specific installation
“American Origins, located in P.S. 152, Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of artasiaamerica.org

Arlan Huang
Untitled, 2010
Glass Photo by: Bruce Damonte

Huang has designed public works of art for the National Endowment for the Arts and has created permanent glass sculptures for the New York City Percent for the Arts Program and the New York Dormitory Authority. For Urban Glass, he created “Aquellos Ojos Verdes for Olga,” a steel and wood framed blown glass in glass block partition. For Baron Capital, a New York brokerage firm, he worked with Genseler and Associates on an undulating glass block wall.

Suddenly Laughter
Jacobi Medical Center

His commissions include a glass and steel commission for Laguna Honda Hospital for the San Francisco Arts Commission; an installation for the Borough of Manhattan Community College; and the river stone shaped glass pieces for his sculptural installation for the lobby of the new $173 million, 400,000 square foot Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, commissioned by the Percentage for Art in NYC Program. The design is Huang’s homage to a Zen rock garden and reflecting pool which hangs 20 feet above the main staircase and escalators of the building, residing within the interior skylight space. The 50 blown glass pieces seem connected by umbilical cords of fiber optic cable.

Huang has returned to his first love painting and has been enjoying the luxury of moving oil paint and being “in” the painting in solitude. He considers this medium to be a counter point to his glass blowing activities which are a social, team-oriented process.

Arlan Huang Website

To contact Arlan Huang regarding his glass vessels and paintings, you can email him at blueforyellow@gmail.com.

Lia Chang

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Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center to host 2nd annual Wikipedia APA in September

August 24, 2015, 8:13 am

≫ Next: SINGLE ROOM OCCUPANCY, written by and starring Ben Rauch, now playing at Soho Playhouse on August 27 & 28 in 2015 New York International Fringe Festival

≪ Previous: Painter and Glass Sculptor Arlan Huang set for AIR Zenkouji, a month long residency in Nagano, Japan

On Wednesday, September 2nd, I’m going to #WikiAPA at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, to participate in an evening of Wikipedia editing, dedicated to creating, updating, and improving articles about Asian Pacific American art and artists.

Hosted at The Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and Wikimedia NYC, this meetup will focus on unearthing information about our creatively-rich community that has historically been overlooked. It is dedicated to increasing the presence of cultural, historic, and artistic information on Wikipedia pertaining to Asian Pacific American (“APA”) experiences.

All are invited, with no specialized knowledge of the subject or Wikipedia editing experience required. Bring your laptop and power cord; they’ll provide research resources, WiFi, and a list of suggested topics on hand.

Admission to the edit-a-thon is free, but please RSVP.

RSVP on Eventbrite: Eventbrite

RSVP on Wikipedia: Wikipedia APA Editathon

Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST
Location: 4 West 54th Street, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Research Building at the Museum of Modern Art.

Please note that this entrance is 1 block north of the main 53rd Street entrance, closer to 5th Avenue

Subway: or to Fifth Avenue / 53rd Street
Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M7, M10, M20, M50, and M104 buses
What to bring: A laptop. We will help you access the museum’s wireless network
RSVP: Eventbrite
Etherpad: Smithsonian APA 2015 NYC

The event kicks off a month-long series of #WikiAPA meetups across the U.S. hosted by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, in New York City (9/2), Washington DC (9/4), Los Angeles (9/13), Seattle (9/17), Oakland (9/18), Bangkok (9/26), Chicago (9/29), San Diego (9/30) as well as remotely, with participants taking part from all throughout the world.

For more information about the #WikiAPA series, please visit Smithsonian APA – Wiki or follow #WikiAPA on Twitter.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Wikipedia_APA

http://smithsonianapa.org/wiki/

Check out the #WikiAPA in the city near you.

Washington, DC

Date: Friday, September 4, 2015
Time: 1:00 pm.– 5:00 pm EDT
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
Details: WikiAPA Editathon 2015 in Washington, DC

Los Angeles / Pasadena

Date: Sunday, September 13, 2015
Time: 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Location: Art Center College of Design, James Lemont Fogg Memorial Library

Oakland

Date: Friday, September 18, 2015
Time: 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm PDT
Location: Oakland Museum of California
RSVP: Eventbrite

Seattle

Date: Thursday, September 17, 2015
Time: 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Location: Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, at 719 S King Street
Public transit: Link Light Rail (International District/Chinatown), King County Metro
Proposed scope of work
Please RSVP: here

Click here to RSVP for Chicago’s #WikiAPA on Tuesday, September 29, 2015.

San Diego

Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Time: 2:00 pm.– 5:00 pm PST
Location: Geisel Library, University of California San Diego
RSVP: WikiAPA Editathon 2015 in San Diego, California

Global Campaign: Asia

Bangkok

Date: Saturday, September 26, 2015
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: dtac headquater, Chamchuri Square [1]
Public transit: MRT (Bangkok)
Please RSVP: m:Wikimedians in Thailand/2015 Smithsonian APA

Lia Chang

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Crafting a Career

↧

SINGLE ROOM OCCUPANCY, written by and starring Ben Rauch, now playing at Soho Playhouse on August 27 & 28 in 2015 New York International Fringe Festival

August 24, 2015, 10:20 am

≫ Next: Brandon J. Dirden makes directorial debut with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars at Two River Theater, September 12 – October 4

≪ Previous: Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center to host 2nd annual Wikipedia APA in September

Single Room Occupancy, a new pop/rock comedy musical performing as part of the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival, has a change of venue and an additional show has been added. Due to technical issues (at the previous venue Lynn Redgrave Theater at Culture Project), the musical will now perform their final two shows at the Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue.

BEN RAUCH (center) and Company in SINGLE ROOM OCCUPANCY. PHOTO BY LIA CHANG

The Performance schedule is Thursday, August 27 at Midnight and Friday, August 28 at 7:00 PM (new date).

Written by and starring popular theatre, film and television actor Ben Rauch (HBO’s Girls, Jersey Boys-The Movie,Gossip Girl), Single Room Occupancy has lyrics by Gaby Gold, Rory Scholl, and Ben Rauch, set design by You-Shin Chen, lighting design by Suzanne Immarigeon, sound design by Joshua D. Reid, choreography by Jebbel Arce, musical direction by Noriko Sunamoto and is directed by Joey Murray.

In Single Room Occupancy, a single guy’s comedic singer/songwriter dream is challenged by the distractions of social media, relationships and his fear of performing beyond the confines of his tiny apartment in Secaucus, New Jersey. A hilarious musical for anyone who is trying to date on Tinder and whose biggest obstacle is themselves, the production features Rauch, who plays multiple instruments, Dianne Kaye, Kat Liz Kramer, Lane Kwederis, Cali Elizabeth Moore, Jay Paranada, and Rory Scholl as well as a live band.

“The talent on display in Single Room Occupancy is bountiful…deliciously light-hearted and high-spirited….Ben Rauch is winning.” – NYTheatreNow

“Ben Rauch is a talent worth experiencing…the entire cast is charming.” – HY Reviews

“A funny and talented cast, hot musicians…truly hilarious elements and a timely theme.” – Hi!Drama

General admission tickets are $18 and are available online http://bit.ly/1Lq3cyp or at the door (convenience fees may apply). www.singleroommusical.com

Ben Rauch, an actor/singer/composer/musician, who hails from Marlboro, NJ, recently appeared in the film Jersey Boys, directed by Clint Eastwood, as the pianist/singer for the Four Seasons. He was seen in The Bronze which was the official opening night selection at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and will be in theaters in October. His television credits include an upcoming role on HBO’s Girls, recurring role on Gossip Girl, ED, and Strangers with Candy among others. His additional film work includes Tenderness (with Russell Crowe). His work on stage includes: A Few Good Men (with Lou Diamond Phillips), People Are Living There (Signature Theatre), Lost in Yonkers (Theatre Virginia), Miklat (Florida Stage), The Unexpected Guest, The Sunshine Boys, Spring Awakening (Broadway Workshop), Ludlow Ladd (Tada), Starmites, The Gifts of the Magi, Mental: The Musical (Cherry Lane), Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs (Papermill), Jack and the Beanstalk (Symphony Space). Ben partnered with The NJ Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund to release, At The Water’s Edge, a fundraising music video for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The 2013 USA Songwriting Competition honored his song, “I Love Asian Girls” in their top 10 Comedy/Novelty category. Ben has also headlined at the NY Funny Song Festival for the last two years. www.benrauchsite.com

Joey Murray (Director) is a New York City-based stage and concert director currently directing Under Construction at NYMF 2015. Most recently, he directed and choreographed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Pinkalicious The Musical at Jenny Wiley Theatre in Eastern Kentucky and is associate director for the Broadway-bound production of CAN-CAN at Paper Mill Playhouse. Resident Stage Director for The Broadway Dolls, a “Best of Manhattan” award-winning stage show that has played major performing art centers all over the United States and China. NYC directing credits include: America’s Breath of Fresh Air (FRINGE); Bashert (New York Musical Theatre Festival); Tour de Fierce (NYMF); The Hole (New York Theatre Barn); The Gallery (NYTB); Love Letter (Zipper Theatre); The Pride Concert (Joe’s Pub/Public Theatre); An Evening of Firsts (featuring Mary Testa/Stage 72) and numerous concerts/readings/workshops. Off Broadway, he provided the book for the controversial rock musical The Hole (with collaborators Rob Baumgartner and Heidi Heilig), at Theatre at St. Clements. Joey developed and directed the world premiere Kander and Ebb revue City Lights, and the premiere 80‘s rock event Take Me Home at Downstairs Cabaret Theatre in Rochester, NY. Associate Director of Grease (Gateway Playhouse). Graduate of Catholic University of America. Studied playwriting and directing at New York University and The Barrow Group.

Lia Chang

↧

Brandon J. Dirden makes directorial debut with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars at Two River Theater, September 12 – October 4

August 25, 2015, 9:37 am

≫ Next: First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian Art Museum in SF, Sept. 4–Oct. 11

≪ Previous: SINGLE ROOM OCCUPANCY, written by and starring Ben Rauch, now playing at Soho Playhouse on August 27 & 28 in 2015 New York International Fringe Festival

Brandon J. Dirden will direct his wife Crystal Dickinson in his directorial debut of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars at Two River Theater. Photo by Lia Chang

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, is presenting August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, directed by Brandon J. Dirden, an award-winning actor who is making his directorial debut with this production. Seven Guitars is the third play in Wilson’s American Century Cycle produced by Two River, following the theater’s acclaimed mountings of Jitney and Two Trains Running. Performances will begin in Two River’s Rechnitz Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue, on Saturday, September 12 and continue through Sunday, October 4. The opening night performance is Friday, September 18 at 8pm. Tickets are available from 732.345.1400 or tworivertheater.org. The lead production sponsor is Springpoint Senior Living Foundation at The Atrium at Navesink Harbor.

Among his many credits as an actor in the plays of August Wilson, Brandon J. Dirden made his professional debut in a 1990 production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at the Alley Theatre and was honored with an Obie Award for his performance in The Piano Lesson at Signature Theatre in 2012. He made his Two River Theater debut in Wilson’s Jitney. He has also appeared at Two River in the world premiere of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine and in Topdog/Underdog, in which he starred opposite his brother Jason Dirden under the direction of the play’s author, Suzan-Lori Parks. On Broadway, his credits include Clybourne Park (in which he appeared with his wife, Crystal Dickinson) and, most recently, All the Way, in which he starred as Martin Luther King Jr. opposite Bryan Cranston’s Lyndon Johnson. On television, he can be seen as Agent Aderholt in the FX series The Americans.

Kevin Mambo. Photo by Lia Chang

Seven Guitars is the 1940s play in Wilson’s 10-play cycle exploring the African-American experience in each decade of the 20^th century. Set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1948, it tells the story of Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, played at Two River by Kevin Mambo (Fela!), a blues guitarist who sits on the edge of stardom. The production will feature original music by acclaimed jazz musician Jason Moran.

Featured in the cast are Brittany Bellizeare (Ruby), Brian D. Coats (Hedley), Crystal Dickinson (Louise), Jason Dirden (Canewell), Charlie Hudson III (Red Carter), and Christina Acosta Robinson (Vera).

The creative team for Seven Guitars includes scenic designer Michael Carnahan, costume designer Karen Perry, lighting designer Driscoll Otto, and sound designer David Margolin Lawson. The fight direction is by Unkle Dave’s Fight-House, the casting is by Heidi Griffiths and Kate Murray, and the production stage manager is Laura Wilson.

“One of the things we are proudest of here at Two River is our track record for giving actors new challenges that stretch them as artists,” says Artistic Director John Dias. “Some years ago, Brandon mentioned to me that he wanted to direct, and I have been searching for the right project for him ever since. We found it in August Wilson’s beautiful and wrenching Seven Guitars.”

Ticket Information
Ticket prices 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. Tickets are available from tworivertheater.org or 732.345.1400.

Inside Two River
Inside Two River is a series of events specially curated for each Two River Theater production. For more information or to reserve seats, patrons should visit tworivertheater.org or call 732.345.1400.

August Wilson 101 with Artistic Director John Dias: Tuesday, September 8 at 7:30pm in the Victoria J. Mastrobuono Library
August Wilson has been called “America’s Shakespeare.” His work, and especially his seminal American Century Cycle—10 plays set in each decade of the 20^th century—are classics of American theater. In this lecture and Q&A, Artistic Director John Dias will provide background into Wilson’s life and the elements that shaped his work, and explore the richness of the plays themselves.

Book Club: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, Sunday, September 20 at 5:30pm in the Victoria Mastrobuono Library (following the 3pm performance)
Literary Manager Anika Chapin will lead a discussion of The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem. Dylan and Mingus—one white, one black—are best friends growing up on a rough street in Brooklyn in the 1970s through the 1990s. Surrounded by the characters of their community and bonded by their love for music and comic books, the boys’ friendship is tested as the paths of their lives begin to diverge. In conjunction with Seven Guitars, Two River’s Book Club (free and open to the public) will discuss the good and bad sides of growing up in a tight-knit community, the power of musical stardom, and the dark side of a dream.

Audience Extras
Before Play and Lobby Display
Audiences will learn about August Wilson in Two River’s Before Play lecture series, which takes place 45 minutes prior to every performance, and Lobby Display.

Post-Play Conversations
Discussions with the cast and a member of Two River’s Artistic staff will take place on Wednesday, September 23 at 7 pm; Sunday, September 27 at 3pm; and Wednesday, September 30 at 1pm.

Accessibility
Working with Google, Two River has created and launched a virtual tour of its facility, which lives on Google Maps and tworivertheater.org. This virtual tour provides an additional level of support and benefit for patrons who use wheelchairs or require other assistance by allowing them to virtually come through the theater’s front doors and view the space in detail in advance of their visit.

An audio-described performance is scheduled for Wednesday, September 30 at 1pm, and an open-captioned performance is scheduled for Saturday, October 3 at 3pm. Tickets are available at a discounted rate of $25 for patrons using these services. To reserve wheelchair-accessible seating or tickets to a performance listed above, patrons should call 732.345.1400 or e-mail boxoffice@trtc.org.

Calendar
Saturday, September 12 at 8pm
Sunday, September 13 at 3pm
Wednesday, September 16 at 1 pm and 7pm
Thursday, September 17 at 8pm
Friday, September 18 at 8pm (Opening Night)
Saturday, September 19 at 3pm and 8pm
Sunday, September 20 at 3pm
Wednesday, September 23 at 1pm and 7pm
Thursday, September 24 at 10 am (student matinee) and 8pm
Friday, September 25 at 8pm
Saturday, September 26 at 3pm and 8pm
Sunday, September 27 at 3pm
Wednesday, September 30 at 1pm and 7pm
Thursday, October 1 at 10 am (student matinee) and 8pm
Friday, October 2 at 8pm
Saturday, October 3 at 3pm and 8pm
Sunday, October 4 at 3pm

Sponsorship
The lead production sponsor for Seven Guitars is Springpoint Senior Living Foundation at The Atrium at Navesink Harbor. Inside Two River is sponsored by The William T. Morris Foundation. The Before Play series is sponsored by Zager Fuchs, PC.

Two River Theater is supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, Monmouth University, The Shubert Foundation, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Meridian Health/Riverview Medical Center, The Stone Foundation of New Jersey, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Investors Bank, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, Springpoint Senior Living Foundation at the Atrium at Navesink Harbor, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Wells Fargo, William T. Morris Foundation, US Trust, Brookdale Community College, 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

↧

First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian Art Museum in SF, Sept. 4–Oct. 11

August 25, 2015, 12:18 pm

≫ Next: InterAct Theatre Company’s world premieres of Christopher Chen’s CAUGHT and Jen Silverman’s THE DANGEROUS HOUSE OF PRETTY MBANE garner multiple Barrymore Award nominations; Full List of Nominees

≪ Previous: Brandon J. Dirden makes directorial debut with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars at Two River Theater, September 12 – October 4

The Asian Art Museum is presenting First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian, an exhibition featuring highlights of its contemporary art collection acquired over the past 15 years. On view Sept. 4–Oct. 11, 2015 and organized by guest curator Allison Harding, the exhibition presents 58 artworks, many on view for the first time at the museum, that spark connections to Asia’s histories and traditions with the immediacy of contemporary ideas.

Untitled, No. 25, 2008, by RongRong (Chinese, b. 1968) & inri (Japanese, b. 1973). Gelatin silver print. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Gift of Jack and Susy Wadsworth, 2013.15. © RongRong & inri. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

The Asian Art Museum collection features more than 18,000 artworks, including more than 1,100 works created in the past 55 years. First Look displays a range of mediums from photography, animation and video to contemporary Korean ceramics, Chinese ink paintings, sculptural Japanese baskets, installations, drawings and more. A relationship to Asian art history and practices ties these diverse pieces together. Works debuting at the museum include two digital animation pieces by Japanese technologists teamLab. Also on view is Untitled, No. 25 (2008), an iconic photographic image by the husband and wife team, RongRong and inri, depicting the couple with their hair braided together, literally joining them as one. Another museum debut is Ahmed Mater’s Illumination Waqf (2013), a diptych print in the form of an Islamic manuscript with decorated borders, shows X rays of two human figures, as if in conversation.

Illumination Waqf, 2013, by Ahmed Mater (Saudi Arabian, b. 1979). Gold leaf, tea pomegranate, Chinese ink and offset X ray film print on paper. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Museum purchase, 2014.15.a-.b. © Ahmed Mater.

“To truly understand the contemporary, you must understand the tradition from which it emerged,” says Harding. “First Look embodies how tradition can inspire new works in the present and continue to impact contemporary life.”

Throughout First Look, visitors will experience artworks that explore the natural world and relationships between landscape and body; artworks that push the limits of material histories; artworks that showcase innovations in ink tradition; and artworks that refer to history with a contemporary vocabulary. These themes connect to threads that run throughout the museum’s collection galleries and activate the museum’s collection in compelling new ways.

“First Look introduces visitors to the Asian Art Museum’s expanding collection of contemporary art by some of the leading artists from Asia and America today. In First Look, you’ll see works by artists from Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the United States,” says museum director Jay Xu. “Contemporary art is an integral part of the museum’s artistic vision and brand promise: awaken the past and inspire the next.”

Visitors are encouraged to start their journey in Osher Gallery, followed by Vinson Gallery, Hambrecht Gallery and then Lee Gallery.

Osher Gallery: Exploring Nature & Mastering Material

Art dealing with landscape, whether everyday scenes or representations of spiritual connections to nature, extends throughout the museum’s entire collection. The contemporary works in First Look examine this traditional subject in bold, unique ways. In Zhu Jinshi’s painting The Third Time Going to the Yellow Mountain (2011), dense and dramatic strokes of oil paint create ridges and valleys to mimic the geography and monumentality of breathtaking terrain. Pinaree Sanpitak emphasizes spiritual connections to nature and looks to the earth as the origin of human life. Her work often evokes fertility and sustenance through simplified forms recalling vessels, clouds, and the female breast, as seen in her painting Iris (2014). RongRong and inri’s photograph Untitled, No. 25 shows their braided hair, evoking natural forms such as leaves, branches, or the flow of water. This theme echoes the couple’s earlier works set in the landscape that explore human relationships to nature.

Ended Season, 2011, by Zheng Chongbin (American, b. China, 1961). Ink and acrylic on Xuan paper. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Museum purchase with exchange funds from the estate of K. Hart Smith with additional funds from the Clarence Shangraw Memorial, 2012.5. © Zheng Chongbin. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Osher Gallery also presents artworks that push the limits of material histories. Materials connect us to culture, revealing ideals and principles developed centuries ago that continue to inspire creativity. In Zheng Chongbin’s painting Ended Season (2011), the artist synthesizes Chinese painting traditions with Western genres of abstraction.

AAM 010, 2011, by Koo Bohnchang (Korean, b. 1953). Archival pigment print. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Acquisition made possible by Frank S. Bayley, 2013.4. © Koo Bohnchang. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Koo Bohnchang’s work echoes the pure, minimal forms of Korean ceramics by translating the essence of traditional whiteware vessels into contemporary mediums, as seen in his video Vessel (2014) and photograph AAM 010 (2011). Similarly, Kim Yik-yung’s ceramics emphasize the whiteness of porcelain clay used in traditional Korean ceramics and the aesthetics of modern forms, overlapping the traditional and the contemporary.

Faceted bowl with lid, approx. 1960–2000, by Kim Yik-yung (Korean, b. 1935). Porcelain. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2010.308.a-.b. © Kim Yik-yung. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Materials can allude to notions of place and transformation. Sopheap Pich works with materials and objects reclaimed from the land—rattan, bamboo, knives, wire—to connect his art to Cambodia’s landscape. In his sculptural work Receding Waves (2015), he alludes to the country’s tragic history during Communist rule from 1975 to 1979 and his childhood memories of this period. Norberto Roldan explores Filipino history through his assemblages of found objects relating to the Philippines’ colonial past and Catholicism in his installation piece Everything is Sacred #1 (2009). Ranu Mukherjee’s Forest (2013) features two tree species, one native—California Redwood—and another foreign—Eucalyptus. It also depicts jewels through photographs of collaged pages of Vogue India. These modes of translation and layering echo a theme that runs throughout Mukherjee’s art: the gaps that occur between learned fragments of history.

At the end of Osher Gallery is Shreyas Karle’s Museum Shop of Fetish Objects (2012), an installation of more than 30 objects arranged to resemble a museum presentation, satirically exploring themes and clichés of the Indian cinema industry Bollywood.

Vinson Gallery: Re:depiction

Vinson Gallery displays six prints from San Francisco artist collaborative Hughen/Starkweather (Amanda Hughen and Jennifer Starkweather) from their project Re:depiction (2014). For this project, Hughen/Starkweather asked museum staff members to describe from memory an artwork from the museum’s collection. The artists then created an abstract work on paper based on the description. On May 22, 2014, Hughen/Starkweather’s depictions were shown in the museum alongside the original artworks described by staff members and sound pieces excerpted from the interviews. Re:depiction was created as part of the Artists Drawing Club, the museum’s contemporary art program series.

Hambrecht Gallery: Innovating Ink

Chan, 1974, by Lu Shoukun (Chinese, 1919–1979). Ink and colors on paper. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Gift of the Yiqingzhai Collection, 2011.53. © Estate of Lu Shoukun. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Hambrecht Gallery features several contemporary Chinese ink paintings, highlighting a blossoming area in the museum’s collection. The collection currently has more than 70 works by leading artists in the field, including Chan (1974) by Lu Shoukun, the pioneer of the New Ink Movement in Hong Kong.

Brush Symphony, 1998, by C. C. Wang (Chinese, 1907–2003). Ink on paper. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum, Gift of the Yiqingzhai Collection, 2005.58. © Estate of C. C. Wang. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Artworks in this gallery showcase works by artists who have innovated ways of fusing traditional ink practices with contemporary artistic styles while honoring classic models. Many artists have broken free of refined brushwork, a trend evident in C. C. Wang’s abstract painting Brush Symphony (1998). Zhang Jian-Jun combines aspects of traditional Chinese painting and Western abstraction in his painting The First Drop of Water Series #2 (2014). Similarly, Liu Guosong looked to Abstract Expressionism in his painting Mid-autumn Festival (1969).

AAM First Look Mid-Autumn 2003.22_01
Mid-Autumn Festival, 1969, by Liu Guosong (Chinese, b. 1932). Ink and colors on paper. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2003.22. © Liu Guosong. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

The gallery also showcases works by artists who have pushed the medium beyond paper to video. In Xu Bing’s The Character of Characters (2012), the monumental animation presents a playful yet profound conceptual narrative told through more than 10,000 hand-drawn images.

The Character of Characters, 2012, by Xu Bing (Chinese, b. 1955). Animated five-channel video installation. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Acquisition made possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, 2013.20.1-.2. © Xu Bing.

Yang Yongliang’s video The Night of Perpetual Day (2013) combines Chinese painting traditions with new media techniques to construct an animated landscape exploring China’s rapid urban development.

The Night of Perpetual Day, Edition 3 of 7, 2013, by Yang Yongliang (Chinese, b. 1980). HD video, 4 channel with soundtrack. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Acquisition made possible by Gorretti and Lawrence Lui, with additional funding from Richard Beleson, 2014.14. © Yang Yongliang.

In teamLab’s digital animations, Cold Life (2014) and Life Survives by the Power of Life (2011), traditional calligraphic forms fuse with anime aesthetics to present 3-D digital worlds of natural and supernatural imagery. The artists say that their work has been influenced by the representation of space in traditional Japanese art, in which figures and objects share a single, flattened spatial plane.

Lee Gallery: Thinking Through History

The works in this gallery look at history through a contemporary lens. Bay Area artist Hung Liu examines history through archival photographs, which she “both preserves and destroys” through signature washes and drips that overlay her compositions, as seen in the three paintings titled The Long Wharf: Chinese Junks (The Three Graces) (from an archival photograph, circa 1885) (1996). Chen Man aspires to make visual illustrations of Chinese culture using modern aesthetics in her works, as seen in Long Live the Motherland, Shanghai No. 1 (2010).

River, 2005–2006, by Liu Xiaodong (Chinese, b. 1963). Acrylic on paper. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Gift of Bo Dan, 2006.18. © Liu Xiaodong studio. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Other artists reference personal history and self in their artworks. In Liu Xiaodong’s River (2005–2006), a 30-foot scroll functions as a compendium of the artist’s career, as illustrated through 92 figures. In Manuel Ocampo’s An Object at the Limits of Language—Necromantic Kippian Emancipator: No. 2. (2000), the Filipino artist references German artist Martin Kippenberger, whose work has inspired Ocampo’s practice, and examines the many ways that Catholicism, colonialism, and popular culture have shaped Filipino identities.

An Object at the Limits of Language – Necromantic Kippan Emancipator: No. 2, 2000, by Manuel Ocampo (Filipino, b. 1965). Oil on linen. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Gift of Malou Babilonia, 2007.78. © Manuel Ocampo. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

In Ahmed Mater’s Illumination Waqf (2013), the artist plays with multiple meanings of the word “illumination”: as the precise ornament on the painted page that adds light to God’s word, as the revealing of the interior human body with x-ray technology, and as the lighting up of the soul through the words of God.

EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION
First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian was organized by the Asian Art Museum. Presentation is made possible with the generous support of The Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Fund for Excellence in Exhibitions and Presentations, China Guardian Auctions, and an anonymous donor.

ABOUT THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM
The Asian Art Museum—Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture is one of San Francisco’s premier arts institutions and home to a world-renowned collection of more than 18,000 Asian art treasures spanning 6,000 years of history. Through rich art experiences, centered on historic and contemporary artworks, the Asian Art Museum unlocks the past for visitors, bringing it to life while serving as a catalyst for new art, new creativity and new thinking.

Information: 415.581.3500 or www.asianart.org

Location: 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Hours: The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 AM to 5 PM. From Feb. 26 through Oct. 8, 2015, hours are extended on Thursdays until 9 PM. Closed Mondays, as well as New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

General Admission: FREE for museum members, $15 for adults, $10 for seniors (65+), college students with ID, and youths (13–17). FREE for children under 12 and SFUSD students with ID. General admission on Thursdays after 5 PM is $5 for all visitors (except those under 12, SFUSD students, and museum members, who are always admitted FREE). General admission is FREE to all on Target First Free Sundays (the first Sunday of every month). A surcharge may apply for admission to special exhibitions.

Access: The Asian Art Museum is wheelchair accessible. For more information regarding access: 415.581.3598; TDD: 415.861.2035.

Lia Chang

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InterAct Theatre Company’s world premieres of Christopher Chen’s CAUGHT and Jen Silverman’s THE DANGEROUS HOUSE OF PRETTY MBANE garner multiple Barrymore Award nominations; Full List of Nominees

August 26, 2015, 11:21 am

≫ Next: Video: Jackie Chan, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Si-won Choi & Lin Peng star in DRAGON BLADE; In Theaters and On Demand – September 4

≪ Previous: First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian Art Museum in SF, Sept. 4–Oct. 11

InterAct Theatre Company’s world premieres of Christopher Chen’s Caught and Jen Silverman’s The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane are among the plays garnering multiple 2015 Barrymore Award nominations this year.

Justin Jain and Bi Jean Ngo star in Christopher Chen’s superb new comedy, CAUGHT at InterAct. (Photo courtesy of Kate Raines/Plate3Photography)

Rick Shiomi. Photo by Lia Chang

Chen’s Caught is up for five 2015 Barrymore Awards including Outstanding Overall Production of a Play, Outstanding Direction of Play for 2015 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award winner Rick Shiomi, Outstanding Scenic Design (Melpomene Katakalos) the Independence Foundation Award for Outstanding New Play and the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist for actress Bi Jean Ngo.

Jen Silverman’s The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane has received eight nominations in the categories of Outstanding Overall Production of a Play, Outstanding Direction of a Play (Pirronne Yousefzadeh), Outstanding Lead Actress (Aimé Donna Kelly), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play (Lynette Freeman), Clear Sound Award for Outstanding Sound Design (Daniel Perelstein), Outstanding Original Music (Daniel Perelstein), the Independence Foundation Award for Outstanding New Play, and the Virginia Brown Martin Philadelphia Award.

Aimé Donna Kelly (left) and Lynnette R. Freeman in InterAct Theatre Company’s world-premiere production of ‘The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane,’ a play it commissioned. (Photo courtesy of Kate Raines/Plate3Photography)

During the 2014/15 theatre season, an all-volunteer team of dedicated artists, critics, and scholars saw over 100 professional productions featuring the work of more than 550 artists throughout the Greater Philadelphia region.

The awards ceremony, celebrating the best of Philadelphia theatre, is on Monday, November 2 at 7pm at the Merriam Theater, 250 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19102. More than 140 nominees will be celebrated and and this year’s award recipients in 26 categories will be announced, receiving cash prizes totaling $68,000. The Awards Ceremony is followed by an After-Party featuring cash bar with two complimentary drinks, hors d’oeuvres by 12th Street Catering. Tickets can be purchased here.

The Barrymore Awards have served as Philadelphia’s professional theatre awards program since 1994, recognizing artists for excellence and innovation while increasing public awareness of the richness and diversity of our city’s thriving theatre community. The Barrymore Awards are a nationally recognized symbol of excellence for professional theatre in our region, raising the bar for the work produced by local theatres and individual artists while generating coverage in local and national media. The Barrymore Awards also include cash awards that strengthen companies and individual artists’ abilities to pursue artistic work of the highest caliber. Theatre Philadelphia seeks to leverage the Barrymore Awards to provide high-value marketing exposure for all participating theatres and artists.

Congrats to all of the nominees.

Outstanding Overall Production of a Play
Caught (InterAct Theatre Company)
The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane (InterAct Theatre Company)
In the Blood (Theatre Horizon)
Rapture, Blister, Burn (The Wilma Theater)
To The Moon (1812 Productions)
The Whale (Theatre Exile)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Theatre Exile)

Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical
Field Hockey Hot (11th Hour Theatre Company)
Herringbone (Flashpoint Theatre Company)
Into the Woods (Theatre Horizon)
Ragtime (Bristol Riverside Theatre)

Outstanding Direction of a Play
Joe Canuso (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Theatre Exile)
Matt Pfeiffer (To The Moon, 1812 Productions)
Matt Pfeiffer (The Whale, Theatre Exile)
Joanna Settle (Rapture, Blister, Burn, The Wilma Theater)
Rick Shiomi (Caught, InterAct Theatre Company)
Pirronne Yousefzadeh (The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane, InterAct Theatre Company)
Pirronne Yousefzadeh (In the Blood, Theatre Horizon)

Outstanding Direction of a Musical
Keith Baker (Ragtime, Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Matthew Decker (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)
Bill Fennelly (Herringbone, Flashpoint Theatre Company)
Megan Nicole O’Brien (Field Hockey Hot, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play
Pearce Bunting (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Theatre Exile)
Peter DeLaurier (QED, Lantern Theater Company)
Charlie DelMarcelle (The Glass Menagerie, Act II Playhouse)
Michael Genet (Fences, People’s Light)
Scott Greer (To The Moon, 1812 Productions)
Scott Greer (The Whale, Theatre Exile)
Jered McLenigan (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Wilma Theater)

Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play
Carla Belver (The Glass Menagerie, Act II Playhouse)
Kim Carson (Nora, Delaware Theatre Company)
Melanye Finister (Fences, People’s Light)
Eleanor Handley (Lost in Yonkers, Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Aimé Donna Kelly (The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane, InterAct Theatre Company)
Mary McDonnell (The Cherry Orchard, People’s Light)
Catharine Slusar (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Theatre Exile)

Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical
Derrick Cobey (Ragtime, Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Ben Dibble (Herringbone, Flashpoint Theatre Company)
Michael Thomas Holmes (Ragtime, Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Steve Pacek (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)

Outstanding Leading Actress in a Musical
Rachel Camp (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)
Kim Carson (Arthur and the Tale of the Red Dragon, People’s Light)
Liz Filios (Passion, Arden Theatre Company)
April Woodall (Souvenir, Montgomery Theater)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play
Akeem Davis (In the Blood, Theatre Horizon)
Charlie DelMarcelle (The Jungle Book, Arden Theatre Company)
Dan Hodge (The Fair Maid of the West, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective)
Dave Johnson (The Taming of the Shrew, Lantern Theater Company)
Anthony Lawton (To The Moon, 1812 Productions)
Graham Smith (The Cherry Orchard, People’s Light)
Ed Swidey (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Wilma Theater)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play
K.O. DelMarcelle (Detroit, Philadelphia Theatre Company)
K.O. DelMarcelle (The Taming of the Shrew, Lantern Theater Company)
Lynette Freeman (The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane, InterAct Theatre Company)
Emilie Krause (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Theatre Exile)
Campbell O’Hare (Rapture, Blister, Burn, The Wilma Theater)
Campbell O’Hare (The Whale, Theatre Exile)
Susan Riley Stevens (Nora, Delaware Theatre Company)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical
Alex Bechtel (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)
Charlie DelMarcelle (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)
Michael Doherty (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)
Michael Phillip O’Brien (Field Hockey Hot, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical
Liz Filios (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)
Leigha Kato (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)
Ciji Prosser (Ragtime, Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Leah Walton (Field Hockey Hot, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

Outstanding Scenic Design
Scott Bradley (brownsville song (b-side for tray), Philadelphia Theatre Company)
Brian Dudkiewicz (In the Blood, Theatre Horizon)
Melpomene Katakalos (Caught, InterAct Theatre Company)
Lance Kniskern (The Taming of the Shrew, Lantern Theater Company)
Kristen Robinson (Rapture, Blister, Burn, The Wilma Theater)
Jason Simms (Lost in Yonkers, Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Jason Simms (Ragtime, Bristol Riverside Theatre)

Outstanding Costume Design
Esther Arroyo (Nora, Delaware Theatre Company)
Maggie Baker (Penelope, Inis Nua Theatre Company)
Marie Anne Chiment (Arthur and the Tale of the Red Dragon, People’s Light)
Marla Jurglanis (Bach at Leipzig, People’s Light)
Marla Jurglanis (The Cherry Orchard, People’s Light)
Rosemarie McKelvey (La Bête, Arden Theatre Company)
Lauren Perigard (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)

Outstanding Lighting Design
Russell H. Champa (brownsville song (b-side for tray), Philadelphia Theatre Company)
Cecilia Durbin (In the Blood, Theatre Horizon)
Dennis Parichy (The Cherry Orchard, People’s Light)
Thom Weaver (Passion, Arden Theatre Company)
Thom Weaver (Rapture, Bister, Burn, The Wilma Theater)
Thom Weaver (The Whale, Theatre Exile)
Yi Zhao (Hamlet, The Wilma Theater)

Clear Sound Award for Outstanding Sound Design
Christopher Colucci (The Hound of Baskervilles, Lantern Theater Company)
Christopher Colucci (Uncanny Valley, InterAct Theatre Company)
Christopher Colucci (The Whale, Theatre Exile)
Jorge Cousineau (Bach at Leipzig, People’s Light)
Daniel Perelstein (The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane, InterAct Theatre Company)
Daniel Perelstein (Passion, Arden Theatre Company)
Ryan Rumery (brownsville song (b-side for tray), Philadelphia Theatre Company)

Outstanding Original Music
Alex Bechtel (To The Moon, 1812 Productions)
Christopher Colucci (The Whale, Theatre Exile)
ILL DOOTS (Hands Up: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments, Flashpoint Theatre Company)
Michael Ogborn (Arthur and the Tale of the Red Dragon, People’s Light)
Michael Ogborn (Field Hockey Hot, 11th Hour Theatre Company)
Daniel Perelstein (The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane, InterAct Theatre Company)
Stew (Rapture, Blister, Burn, The Wilma Theater)

Outstanding Choreography/Movement
Samantha Bellomo (Bach at Leipzig, People’s Light)
Stephen Casey (Ragtime, Bristol Riverside Theatre)
Michael Cosenza (The Fair Maid of the West, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective)
Dann Dunn (Catch Me If You Can, The Eagle Theatre)
Ellie Mooney (Field Hockey Hot, 11th Hour Theatre Company)
Ian Rose (As You Like It, Quintessence Theatre Group)
Ian Rose (The Three Musketeers, Quintessence Theatre Group)

Outstanding Music Direction
Dan Kazemi (Field Hockey Hot, 11th Hour Theatre Company)
Dan Kazemi (Herringbone, Flashpoint Theatre Company)
Amanda Morton (Into the Woods, Theatre Horizon)
Ryan Touhey (Ragtime, Bristol Riverside Theatre)

Outstanding Ensemble in a Play
Bach at Leipzig (People’s Light)
The Fair Maid of the West (Philadelphia Artists’ Collective)
The Hound of Baskervilles (Lantern Theater Company)
In the Blood (Theatre Horizon)
The Jungle Book (Arden Theatre Company)
Little Rock (Passage Theatre Company)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Theatre Exile)

Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical
Arthur and the Tale of the Red Dragon (People’s Light)
Field Hockey Hot (11th Hour Theatre Company)
Into the Woods (Theatre Horizon)
Ragtime (Bristol Riverside Theatre)

Independence Foundation Award for Outstanding New Play
Caught by Christopher Chen (InterAct Theatre Company)
The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane by Jen Silverman (InterAct Theatre Company)
Hands Up: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments by The New Black Fest (Flashpoint Theatre Company)
To The Moon by Jennifer Childs (1812 Productions)

F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist
Alex Bechtel
Benjamin Camp
Akeem Davis
Katherine Fritz
Bi Jean Ngo

Virginia Brown Martin Philadelphia Award
The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane (InterAct Theatre Company)
The Gun Show (Passage Theatre Company)
In the Blood (Theatre Horizon)
Speech and Debate (Azuka Theatre)
The Whale (Theatre Exile)

June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre Company
The Berserker Residents
EgoPo Classic Theater
Flashpoint Theatre Company
Philadelphia Artists’ Collective
Quintessence Theatre Group
Simpatico Theatre Project

Lifetime Achievement Award
Johnnie Hobbs, Jr.

Lia Chang

↧

Video: Jackie Chan, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Si-won Choi & Lin Peng star in DRAGON BLADE; In Theaters and On Demand – September 4

August 26, 2015, 5:15 pm

≫ Next: Oscar® winning documentary filmmaker Ruby Yang’s MY VOICE, MY LIFE opens at Cinema Village in New York

≪ Previous: InterAct Theatre Company’s world premieres of Christopher Chen’s CAUGHT and Jen Silverman’s THE DANGEROUS HOUSE OF PRETTY MBANE garner multiple Barrymore Award nominations; Full List of Nominees

LIONSGATE PREMIERE

presents

DRAGON BLADE

dragonblade_us poster.jpg

In Theaters and On Demand – Rated R

September 4, 2015

Starring: Jackie Chan, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Si-won Choi & Lin Peng

Written & Directed By: Daniel Lee

Action Director – Jackie Chan

A massive success this year in its native China, DRAGON BLADE brings action spectacle on a grand scale to US audiences. Featuring an international cast led by Jackie Chan, John Cusack and Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody, the film features the fight for the Silk Road when East and West collide. When corrupt Roman leader Tiberius (Adrien Brody) arrives with a giant army to claim the Silk Road, Huo An (Jackie Chan) and his group of trained warriors teams up with an elite legion of defected Roman soldiers led by General Lucius (John Cusack) to maintain the delicate balance of power in the region. To protect his country and his new friends, Huo An gathers the warriors of thirty-six ethnic nations together to fight Tiberius in an incredible epic battle. DRAGON BLADE is directed by Daniel Lee (“Black Mask”) and produced by Jackie Chan and Susanna Tsang and also starring international stars Siwon Choi and Lin Peng.

Lia Chang

↧

Oscar® winning documentary filmmaker Ruby Yang’s MY VOICE, MY LIFE opens at Cinema Village in New York

August 28, 2015, 1:30 am

≫ Next: Metropolitan Museum Extends Hours for Final Weekend of China: Through the Looking Glass

≪ Previous: Video: Jackie Chan, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Si-won Choi & Lin Peng star in DRAGON BLADE; In Theaters and On Demand – September 4

Oscar® winning documentary filmmaker Ruby Yang’s newest film, MY VOICE, MY LIFE follows an unlikely group of misfit students from four Hong Kong middle and high schools cast in a musical theater performance. From low self-esteem to blindness, each student confronts unique personal challenges in the process of developing his or her character. This moving and insightful film chronicles the trials and tribulations of a group of these underprivileged students as they go through six months of vigorous training to produce a musical on stage. A life-affirming journey of self-discovery and growth, the stories of these young people will challenge every parent, teacher and policy maker to reflect on our way of nurturing the young.

Many of the musical theater troupe’s students come from Hong Kong’s underprivileged schools, which admit the territory’s academically underperforming students. Others come from a school for the blind that seeks to teach its students how to perform basic tasks and function in the sighted world.

Bad boy Jason regularly cuts class, smokes, and is generally a troublemaker. Coby feels she is mediocre at everything, and struggles to stay focused. Tsz Nok lost his eyesight last year, and confronts his family’s disgrace at his blindness. Wing Wing immigrated to Hong Kong two years ago, and just wants to fit in. Fat Yin is repeating a grade in school, and hides behind a tough guy attitude.Tabitha feels immense shame that unlike her other friends, she did not make the cut for the top tier secondary schools. High school dropout Jessica is an 18-year-old who went back to grade 8 in the hope of getting her life back.

Brought together to sing, dance, and act, the students question their own abilities and balk at the spotlight. Teachers and administrators question whether this ragtag band will be able to work together, much less put on a successful musical. But Nick Ho, director of the production, holds onto hope that his tough love approach will unite the students and bring out their inner performers.

MY VOICE MY LIFE is presented by the L plus H Creations Foundation, in association with the Lee Hysan Foundation. The net proceeds from the film’s ticket sales will go towards youth educational programs.

Opening New York – August 28 – Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St.

Click here to purchase tickets.

Opening Los Angeles – September 4 – Laemmle Music Hall

91 Minutes – In Cantonese with English Subtitles

AWARDS & FILM FESTIVALS

WINNER

Nashville Film Festival, USA, 2015 NPT Human Spirit Award

Hong Kong Film Directors’ Guild, 2015
Best New Director Ruby Yang

Top 10 Chinese Language Film of 2014
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong Film Critics Associations, 2015

NOMINEE

Hong Kong Film Awards, 2015
Best New Director Ruby Yang

Feature Films
Manchester Film Festival, UK, 2015

OFFICIAL SELECTION

Music Films / Music City Competition
Nashville Film Festival, USA, 2015

Feature Films
Manchester Film Festival, UK, 2015

Documentary Feature Film
Asian Pacific Screen Awards, Australia, 2014

Asian American International Film Festival (Opening Night Film)

New York City, NY, USA – July, 2015

San Francisco, CA, USA – March, 2015
CAAMFest (North America Premiere) SF ASIAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Taiwan
Hong Kong Contemporary Film Showcase 2014

Hong Kong International Film Festival (Panorama Section)
Hong Kong – March, 2015

Macao International Film and Video Festival
Macau – March, 2015

“Made In Hong Kong” Film Festival (Opening Night Film)
Washington, D.C., USA – July, 2015

Singapore Chinese Film Festival
Singapore – April, 2015

The Hong Kong Film Festival 2014
Guangzhou, China

The SXSWedu® Conference & Festival
Austin, TX, USA – March, 2015

Vail Film Festival (Colorado Premiere)
Vail, Colorado, USA – March, 2015

Lia Chang

↧

Metropolitan Museum Extends Hours for Final Weekend of China: Through the Looking Glass

August 28, 2015, 7:17 am

≫ Next: In Conversation With Tzi Ma

≪ Previous: Oscar® winning documentary filmmaker Ruby Yang’s MY VOICE, MY LIFE opens at Cinema Village in New York

Gallery View Anna Wintour Costume Center, Imperial China.
Designs from Laurence Xu, a “Dragon Robe” dress, 2011, Yellow silk satin embroidered with polychrome silk and metal thread, Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Given by Laurence Xu; John Galliano for the House of Dior, (French, founded 1947) Dress, autumn/winter 1998–99 haute couture Yellow silk damask embroidered with polychrome silk and gold metallic thread, Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture, on display with a Semiformal Robe for the Qianlong Emperor (1736-95) and a Formal Robe for the Tongzhi Emperor, 1862-1874 Silk and metallic thread, Rogers Fund, 1945
(45.37), in the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute exhibition “China: Through the Looking Glass.” Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery View Anna Wintour Costume Center, Imperial China.
Ralph Lauren (American, born 1939), Ensemble, autumn/winter 2011–12
Jacket of red silk shantung and black silk satin embroidered with polychrome silk and gold metallic thread; shirt of white cotton broadcloth; pants of black and white pinstriped wool-synthetic twill, Courtesy of Ralph Lauren Collection;
Chinese Theatrical costume Made during the Reign of the Qianlong Emperor, 1736-95, Red silk satin brocaded with polychrome silk thread, Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Photo by Lia Chang

The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced extended hours for the final weekend of its extraordinarily popular Costume Institute exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass. On Friday, September 4, and Saturday, September 5, the exhibition will remain open to the public for three additional hours, closing at midnight. The Museum normally closes at 9:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings. The exhibition closes on Labor Day, Monday, September 7.

The Museum’s Great Hall Balcony Bar, adjacent to the exhibition’s final gallery, will be open with appetizers and full bar service until midnight. The Met Store’s exhibition shop for China will also be open, and features a range of products inspired by the exhibition, including the exhibition catalogue and an exclusive collection of fashion accessories, jewelry, and stationery. The China: Through the Looking Glass galleries are the only galleries open to the public during the extended hours.

The exhibition, which opened on May 7, has already been extended by three weeks–from August 16 to September 7–and has so far drawn more than 730,000 visitors, surpassing the record-breaking Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011) to become The Costume Institute’s highest attended exhibition ever. The McQueen exhibition, which was the Met’s eighth most popular show, had a total of 661,509 visitors.

Encompassing approximately 30,000 square feet in 16 separate galleries in the Museum’s Chinese and Egyptian Galleries and Anna Wintour Costume Center, it is The Costume Institute’s largest special exhibition ever, and also one of the Museum’s largest. With gallery space three times the size of a typical Costume Institute major spring show, China has accommodated large numbers of visitors without lines.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Charlotte C. Weber Galleries, Ancient China- Yves Saint Laurent (French, 1936–2008),
Ensemble, autumn/winter 1977–78 haute couture
Coat of gold lamé matelassé and black fox fur; trousers of black silk velvet, Courtesy of Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent, Paris;
Chinese Ritual Wine Container (Hu) Eastern Zhou dynasty, Spring and Autumn period (770–476 B.C.), early 5th century B.C.
Bronze inlaid with copper,
Rogers Fund, 1999
(1999.46a,b). Photo by Lia Chang

“This exhibition is one of the most ambitious ever mounted by the Met, and I want as many people as possible to be able see it,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Met. “It is a show that represents an extraordinary collaboration across the Museum, resulting in a fantastic exploration of China’s impact on creativity over centuries.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Charlotte C. Weber Galleries, Ancient China- House of Givenchy (French, founded 1952), Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010), Ensemble, autumn/winter 1997-haute couture Dress of red-purple and gold silk brocade; jumpsuit of gray silk crêpe de chine and gray cockerel feathers, Purchase, Friends of the Costume Institute Gifts, 2013, (2013.564a,b);
Chinese Female Dancer, Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 9), 2nd century B.C., Earthenware with pigment, Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection, Gift of Charlotte C. and John C. Weber, 1992
(1992.165.19). Photo by Lia Chang

The exhibition explores the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries. High fashion is juxtaposed with Chinese costumes, paintings, porcelains, and other art, including films, to reveal enchanting reflections of Chinese imagery. The exhibition, which was originally set to close on August 16, is curated by Andrew Bolton. Wong Kar Wai is artistic director and Nathan Crowley served as production designer.

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010), Philip Treacy (British, born Ireland, 1967), “Chinese Garden” headdress, spring/summer 2005,
Carved cork, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alfred Z. Solomon–Janet A. Sloane Endowment Fund, 2007 (2007.307). Photo by Lia Chang

Below are excerpts from Wong Kar-Wai’s speech.

Filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai attends the ‘China: Through the Looking Glass’ press preview at the Temple of Dendur at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2015 in New York City. Photo by Lia Chang

“Putting together this show has been a truly remarkable journey for myself and everyone involved. Our creative team was comprised of experts across various disciplines including fine arts, fashion and cinema.Together we hope to offer you a collective perspective that is both compelling and provocative.

One of the most fascinating parts of this journey for myself was having the opportunity to revisit the Western perspective of the East through the lens of early Hollywood. Whether it was Fred Astaire playing a fan dancing Chinese man or Anna May Wong in one of her signature Dragon Lady roles, it is safe to say that most of the depictions were far from authentic.

Unlike their filmmaking contemporaries, the fashion designers and tastemakers of that period take those distortions as their inspiration and went on to create a Western aesthetic with new layers of meanings that was uniquely their own.

Anna May Wong in “Limehouse Blues,”1934.

In this exhibition, we did not shy away from these images because they are historical fact in their own reality. Instead, we look for the areas of commonality and appreciate the beauty that abounds.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Astor Forecourt. Travis Banton (American, 1894–1958) Evening dress, 1934, worn by Anna May Wong, Black silk charmeuse embroidered with gold and silver sequins, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Anna May Wong, 1956; Film Still of Anna May Wong in “Limehouse Blues,”1934, courtesy of Paramount Pictures, Archive Photos, and Getty Images. Photo by Lia Chang

With China: Through the Looking Glass, we have tried our best to encapsulate over a century of cultural interplay between the East and West that has equally inspired and informed. It is a celebration of fashion, cinema and creative liberty. It is an important time in the human history for cross cultural dialogue and I’m proud and delighted to contribute to the conversation.”

Yves Saint Laurent (French, 1936-2008)
Evening ensemble, spring/summer 1980
Jacket of black silk gazar embroidered with gold metallic thread, gold beads, and silver sequins; skirt of black silk satin with gold lamé, Gift of Diana Vreeland, 1984
(1984.607.28a-c). Photo by Lia Chang
“Anna May Wong in Picadilly,” 1929 Film still courtesy of the Kobal Collection

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), the heroine enters an imaginary, alternative universe by climbing through a mirror in her house. In this world, a reflected version of her home, everything is topsy-turvy and back-to-front. Like Alice’s make-believe world, the China mirrored in the fashions in this exhibition is wrapped in invention and imagination.

Yves Saint Laurent (French, 1936–2008)
Jacket, autumn/winter 1977–78 haute couture
Black and red silk ciré
Courtesy of Fondation Pierre Bergé – –Yves Saint Laurent, Paris.
Photo by Lia Chang

“From the earliest period of European contact with China in the 16th century, the West has been enchanted with enigmatic objects and imagery from the East, providing inspiration for fashion designers from Paul Poiret to Yves Saint Laurent, whose fashions are infused at every turn with romance, nostalgia, and make believe,” said Andrew Bolton, Curator in The Costume Institute. “Through the looking glass of fashion, designers conjoin disparate stylistic references into a fantastic pastiche of Chinese aesthetic and cultural traditions.”

Jean Patou (French, 1887–1936), Dress, 1920s Black silk chiffon embroidered with polychrome plastic beads Courtesy of Didier Ludot; Jean Patou (French, 1887–1936), Verreries Brosse (French, founded 1892), “Joy” perfume presentation, 1931, Flacon of green glass and red bakelite; box of gold paper Courtesy of Christie Mayer Lefkowith; Jean Patou (French, 1887–1936), Verreries Brosse (French, founded 1892), “1000” perfume presentation, 1972, Flacon of black glass, red bakelite, and gold metal; box of gold paper Courtesy of Christie Mayer Lefkowith; Chinese Snuff bottle with stopper, 18th-19th century Smoky quartz rock crystal, red coral, gilt metal, Gift of Heber R. Bishop, 1902 (02.18.937a,b).
Photo by Lia Chang

Designers featured in China: Through the Looking Glass include Cristobal Balenciaga, Bulgari, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, Callot Soeurs, Cartier, Roberto Cavalli, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano for Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Valentino Garavani, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Picciolo for Valentino, Craig Green, Guo Pei, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, Charles James, Mary Katrantzou, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, Ralph Lauren, Judith Leiber, Christian Louboutin, Ma Ke, Mainbocher, Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Alexander McQueen for Givenchy, Edward Molyneux, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Dries van Noten, Jean Patou, Paul Poiret, Yves Saint Laurent, Paul Smith, Vivienne Tam, Isabel Toledo, Giambattista Valli, Vivienne Westwood, Jason Wu, and Laurence Xu.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Douglas Dillon Galleries
House of Dior (French, founded 1947), John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960), Ensemble, spring/summer 2003 haute couture, Jacket of polychrome printed silk velvet with yellow, blue, and green silk organdy; skirt of white and blue-printed silk georgette,
Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture; Anne Allen (British, born 1749/50–1808 (?)), After Jean Pillement (French, 1728-1808), Chinoiserie from Nouvelle Suite de Cahiers Arabesques Chinois, 1790-1799 Etching à la poupée, Rogers Fund, 1921 (21.91.20); a British pair of mirror, ca. 1760, carved and gilt linden wood, glass Purchase, Morris Loeb Bequest, 1955 (55.43.1, .2). Photo by Lia Chang

The Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery
Emperor to Citizen
There are a series of “mirrored reflections” through time and space, focusing on the Qing dynasty of Imperial China (1644-1911); the Republic of China, especially Shanghai in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s; and the People’s Republic of China (1949-present) in The Anna Wintour Costume Center’s Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery. These reflections, as well as others in the exhibition, have been illustrated with scenes from films by such groundbreaking Chinese directors as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Ang Lee, and Wong Kar-Wai, artistic director of the exhibition. Several of the galleries also feature original compositions by internationally acclaimed musician Wu Tong.

“China: Through The Looking Glass,” on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, includes film clips from The Last Emperor and the robe, center, worn by China’s last emperor, Pu Yi, when he was 4 years old. Photo by Lia Chang

Upon entering the Costume Institute galleries, there’s a video tunnel showing Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, a broad and sweeping journey of Chinese history, and at the end of the tunnel is a festival robe worn by the last emperor, Pu Yi, when he was four years old.

Semi-formal Robe for the Xuantong Emperor, 1909-1911
Yellow silk satin embroidered with polychrome silk and metallic thread Courtesy of The Palace Museum, Beijing. Photo by Lia Chang

Western designers have been inspired by China’s long and rich history, with the Manchu robe, the modern qipao, and the Zhongshan suit (after Sun Yat-sen, but more commonly known in the West as the Mao suit, after Mao Zedong), serving as a kind of shorthand for China and the shifting social and political identities of its peoples, and also as sartorial symbols that allow Western designers to contemplate the idea of a radically different society from their own.

Yves Saint Laurent (French, founded 1961)
Tom Ford (American, born 1961)
Evening dress, autumn/winter 2004–5
Red silk satin embroidered with polychrome plastic sequins; gray fox fur Gift of Yves Saint Laurent, 2005
(2005.325.1). Photo by Lia Chang

Manchu Robe
In terms of the Manchu robe, Western designers usually focus their creative impulses toward the formal (official) and semiformal (festive) costumes of the imperial court in all of their imagistic splendor and richness. Bats, clouds, ocean waves, mountain peaks, and in particular, dragons are presented as meditations on the spectacle of imperial authority. Most of the robes in this gallery—several of which belong to the Palace Museum in Beijing—were worn by Chinese emperors, a fact indicated by the twelve imperial symbols woven into or embroidered onto their designs to highlight the rulers’ virtues and abilities: sun with three-legged bird; moon with a ”jade hare” grinding medicine; constellation of three stars, which, like the sun and moon, signify enlightenment; mountains to signify grace and stability; axe to signify determination; Fu symbol (two bow-shaped signs) to signify collaboration; pair of ascending and descending dragons to signify adaptability; pheasant to symbolize literary elegance; pair of sacrificial vessels painted with a tiger and a long-tailed monkey to signify courage and wisdom; waterweed to signify flexibility; flame to signify righteousness; and grain to signify fertility and prosperity.

Dries Van Noten (Belgian, born 1958) Ensemble, autumn/winter 2012–13. Jacket of black wool-silk hammered satin printed with polychrome dragon motifs; trousers of black wool twill. Courtesy of Dries Van Noten Archive
Photo by Lia Chang

In a surrealist act of displacement, the British milliner Stephen Jones, commissioned by the museum to create the headpieces in the exhibition, has relocated these symbols, whose placement on the imperial costumes of the emperor was governed by strict rules, to the head, where they appear as three-dimensional sculptural forms.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (French, 1883–1971), Evening jacket, ca. 1930, Reconfigured Chinese robe of blue silk gauze embroidered with polychrome silk and metal thread, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of the Smithsonian Institution, 1984, (2009.300.8101). Photo by Lia Chang

The Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery
Traditional and haute couture qipaos as interpreted by Western designers are on display in The Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery along with film clips from Wong Kar Wai’s The Hand from Eros, 2004 and In the Mood for Love, 2000; The Goddess, a 1934 film directed by Wu Yonggang; Lust, Caution, 2007 directed by Ang Lee; The World of Suzie Wong, 1960 directed by Richard Quine.

Nancy Quan and William Holden in The World of Suzie Wong, 1960 Directed by Richard Quine (Paramount Pictures, Courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Maggie Cheung in Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love, 2000 (Block 2 Pictures, Courtesy of Block 2 Pictures Inc., © 2000 Block 2 Pictures Inc.) All rights reserved

Joan Chen and Tang Wei (center) in Lust, Caution, 2007 directed by Ang Lee (Focus Features, Courtesy of EDKO FILMS LIMITED)

In the period between the two world wars, film actresses in Shanghai, known as the Hollywood of the East, were in the vanguard of fashion. Through their images on screen as well as in lifestyle magazines, they led new trends in the modern qipao. In the 1930s, the most eminent actress was Hu Die (Butterfly Wu), whose qipaos are on view.

Chen Jiazhen (Chinese) “Miss Hu Die,” 1934, from Portrait Albums of Chinese Actresses, series 1, no. 3, 1930s Ink on paper,  Courtesy of Private lender

Chu Hongsheng (Chinese, born 1918), Cheongsams, 1930s, Worn by Hu Die (Butterfly Wu, Chinese, 1908-1989) Cream silk lace, Courtesy of Collection Hanart 1918, Shanghai. Photo by Lia Chang

Elected the Queen of Cinema after a nationwide poll by the Star Daily newspaper in 1933, she won favor with her on-screen depictions of virtuous women and her off-screen persona of ladylike sophistication. In the West, Hu Die became an embodiment of Chinese femininity. Her photograph appeared in a 1929 issue of American Vogue as the example of modern “Chinese elegance.”

“China: Through The Looking Glass,” on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in The Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery features traditional and haute couture qipaos with film clips from Wong Kar Wai’s “In the Mood for Love.” Photo by Lia Chang

Over time, the silhouette of the qipao evolved, quoting Western, specifically Parisian and Hollywood, aesthetics. Its columnar, body-skimming silhouette of the 1920s, a narrower expression of the flapper’s chemise, became a contour-cleaving fit in the 1930s, similar to the haut monde’s and screen sirens’ glamorous bias-cut gowns.

Chinese Cheongsams, 1920s and 1930s. Courtesy of Hong Kong Museum of History. Photo by Lia Chang

From the 1920s to the 1940s, the modern qipao was considered a form of national dress in China. An aristocratic version was promoted during this period by images of Oei Hui- Ian, the third wife of the Chinese diplomat and politician Vi Kuiyuin Wellington Koo, and Soong Mei-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-shek, a military and political leader and eventual president of the Republic of China.

Qipaos worn by Oei Hui- Ian, the third wife of the Chinese diplomat and politician Vi Kuiyuin Wellington Koo, and Soong Mei-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-shek, a military and political leader and eventual president of the Republic of China. Photo by Lia Chang

While the qipao became the signature style of both women, who were known in the West for their sophistication, Oei Hui-Ian was also a couture client and would often mix her qipaos with jackets by Chanel and Schiaparelli. A 1943 issue of American Vogue features a Horst photograph of Oei Hui-Ian wearing the version on view here, which is embroidered with the traditional motif of one hundred children. The article in the same issue describes her as “a Chinese citizen of the world, an international beauty.”

Modern day qipao designs by Jean Paul Gaultier and John Galliano for the House of Dior on display in ‘China: Through The Looking Glass’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Photo by Lia Chang

The modern qipao is a favorite of Western designers, not only because of its allure and glamour but also because of its mutability and malleability, and it can be rendered in any print, fabric, or texture, conveying whatever desires and associations they stimulate in the minds of designers.

Jean Paul Gaultier (French, born 1952), Evening dress, autumn/winter 2001–2 haute couture Black lacquered silk satin and nude silk tulle embroidered with black synthetic thread Courtesy of Jean Paul Gaultier. Photo by Lia Chang

Egyptian Art Landing
In the Egyptian Art Landing, film clips of Chung Kuo: Cina (1972) directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, In the Heat of the Sun (1994) directed by Jiang Wen, and The Red Detachment of Women (1970) directed by Fu Jie and Pan Wenzhan play on the screens above the garments on display. The Zhongshan suit, or Mao suit as it is more commonly known in the West, remains a powerful sartorial signifier of China, despite the fact that it began disappearing from the wardrobes of most Chinese men and women, aside from government officials, in the early 1990s. For many Western designers, the appeal of the Mao suit rests in its principled practicality and functionalism.

Chinese Ensemble, 1983, Jacket and pants of blue polyester twill, Courtesy of Claire E. and Norma J. Taylor; Chinese Ensemble, 1980s, worn by Tseng Kwong Chi (American, born Hong Kong, 1950-1990), Gray cotton twill, Courtesy of Muna Tseng; Tseng Kwong Chi (American, born Hong Kong, 1950–1990) “New York, New York, 1979,” From the East Meets West series, 1979–89 Silver gelatin print, Courtesy of Muna Tseng; Vivienne Westwood (British, born 1941) Ensemble, spring/summer 2012, Gray cotton poplin, Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood. Photo by Lia Chang

Its uniformity implies an idealism and utopianism reflected in its seemingly liberating obfuscation of class and gender distinctions. During the late 1960s, a time of international political and cultural upheaval, the Mao suit in the West became a symbol of an anti- capitalist proletariat. In Europe, it was embraced enthusiastically by the left-leaning intelligentsia specifically for a countercultural and antiestablishment effect.

Chinese Ensemble, 1980s, worn by Tseng Kwong Chi (American, born Hong Kong, 1950-1990), Gray cotton twill, Courtesy of Muna Tseng; Tseng Kwong Chi (American, born Hong Kong, 1950–1990) “New York, New York, 1979,” From the East Meets West series, 1979–89 Silver gelatin print, Courtesy of Muna Tseng. Photo by Lia Chang

For Tseng Kwong Chi, who was born in Hong Kong and active in the East Village in the 1980s, the Mao suit was a vehicle to explore Western stereotypes of China. From his self- portrait series East Meets West (also known as the Expeditionary Series, 1979-90), he masqueraded as a visiting Chinese dignitary wearing mirrored sunglasses and a Mao suit, and stood in front of various cultural and architectural landmarks and natural landscapes. Exploiting the fact that people treated him differently based on his dress, the artist used his adopted persona, which he described as an “ambiguous ambassador,” to illustrate the West’s naïveté and ignorance of the East. The catalyst for East Meets West was President Richard M. Nixon’s trip to China in 1972, an event that the artist defined as “a real exchange [that] was supposed to take place between the East and West. However, the relations remained official and superficial.

Chinese Red Guard uniform, 1966–76, Suit of green cotton twill; armband of printed red synthetic satin, Courtesy of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, Australia; Purchased 1998; Vivienne Tam (American, born Guangzhou), “Mao Portrait Dress,” spring/summer 1995 Polychrome printed nylon mesh; Courtesy of Vivienne Tam; Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987) “Mao,” 1973, Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, Gift of Halston, 1983 (1983.606.1); Vivienne Tam “Mao Suit,” spring/summer 1995, White and black polyester jacquard, Courtesy of Vivienne Tam; House of Dior (French, founded 1947), John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960), Ensemble, spring/summer 1999 Jacket of green silk shantung with red silk satin piping and gold metallic frogging; skirt of pleated green silk jacquard, Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture. Photo by Lia Chang

The art of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) profoundly influenced the American and European avant-garde. Andy Warhol created his first screen-printed paintings of Mao Zedong in 1973, immediately following President Richard M. Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, and over time made nearly two thousand portraits in various sizes and styles. Both model and multiple, Warhol’s Mao is undeniably of the masses, like the original 1964 portrait that was reproduced in the millions as the frontispiece to the Little Red Book.

Vivienne Tam (American, born Guangzhou) “Mao Suit,” spring/summer 1995, White and black polyester jacquard, Courtesy of Vivienne Tam, Unidentified artist (Chinese, active 1960s) Chin Shilin (Chinese, born 1930) “Chairman Mao,” 1964, Gelatin silver print, Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2011 (2011.368). Photo by Lia Chang

In his Chairman Mao series (1989), Zhang Hongtu, who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, extended a Warholian sensibility to his own mode of Political Pop, lending a satirical eye to the 1964 portrait. For her spring/ summer 1995 collection, designer Vivienne Tam, who was born in Guangzhou, collaborated with Zhang to create a dress printed with images from the Chairman Mao series. The same collection also included a silk jacquard suit of the 1964 portrait.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Astor Forecourt. Photo by Lia Chang

In China: Through the Looking Glass, the Astor Forecourt gallery has been devoted to Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong. Haute Couture designs by Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren, Paul Smith and John Galliano for the House of Dior inspired by Ms. Wong, are displayed alongside a Travis Banton gown she wore in Limehouse Blues(1934). Ms. Wong can be seen in a montage of rare film clips edited by Wong Kar-Wai, vintage film stills and photographs by Edward Sheriff Curtis and Nickolas Muray.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Astor Forecourt, Anna May Wong Evening dress, John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960) for House of Dior (French, founded 1947), autumn/winter 1998–99 haute couture; Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture. Photo by Lia Chang; Anna May Wong, 1925 Photograph by Edward Sheriff Curtis (American, 1868-1952)

In terms of shaping Western fantasies of China, no figure has had a greater impact on fashion than Ms. Wong. Born in Los Angeles in 1905 as Huang Liushuang (”yellow willow frost”), she was fated to play opposing stereotypes of the Enigmatic Oriental, namely the docile, obedient, submissive Lotus Flower and the wily, predatory, calculating Dragon Lady.

Anna May Wong in The Toll of the Sea, 1922 directed by Chester M. Franklin (Metro Pictures Corporation, UCLA Film & Television Archive)

Anna May Wong in Daughter of the Dragon, 1931 directed by Lloyd Corrigan (Paramount Pictures, Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC).

Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong in Shanghai Express, 1932 directed by Josef von Sternberg (Paramount Pictures, Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC).

Film clips featuring Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong include Daughter of the Dragon, 1931 Directed by Lloyd Corrigan (Paramount Pictures, Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC); Limehouse Blues (1934) directed by Alexander Hall (Paramount Pictures UCLA Film & Television Archive); Piccadilly (1929) directed by E. A. Dupont (British International Pictures, Courtesy of Milestone Film & Video and British Film Institute); Shanghai Express, (1932) directed by Josef von Sternberg (Paramount Pictures, Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC); and The Toll of the Sea (1922) directed by Chester M. Franklin (Metro Pictures Corporation, UCLA Film & Television Archive) run on overhead screens in The Astor Forecourt.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Astor Forecourt. Ralph Lauren (American, born 1939), Evening dress, autumn/winter 2011–12
Black synthetic double georgette and net embroidered with black silk thread and beads Courtesy of Ralph Lauren Collection. Photo by Lia Chang; Film still of Anna May Wong in “Daughter of the Dragon,” 1931, courtesy of Paramount/The Kobal Collection.

Limited by race and social norms in America and constrained by one- dimensional caricatures in Hollywood, she moved to Europe, where the artistic avant-garde embraced her as a symbol of modernity. The artists Marianne Brandt and Edward Steichen found a muse in Anna May Wong, as did the theorist Walter Benjamin, who in a 1928 essay describes her in a richly evocative manner: “May Wong the name sounds colorfully margined, packed like marrow-bone yet light like tiny sticks that unfold to become a moon-filled, fragranceless blossom in a cup of tea,” Benjamin, like the designers in this gallery, enwraps Anna May Wong in Western allusions and associations, In so doing, he unearths latent empathies between the two cultures, which the fashions on display here extend through their creative liberties.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Astor Forecourt. House of Dior (French, founded 1947)
John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960)
Dress, autumn/winter 1998–99 haute couture
Pink silk jacquard and black silk satin embroidered with polychrome silk thread Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture. Photo by Lia Chang.
Anna May Wong, 1931
Photograph by Nickolas Muray (American, born Hungary, 1892-1965), courtesy of Paramount/The Kobal Collection. Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery- Astor Garden
The exhibition’s subtitle “Through the Looking Glass” translates into Chinese as “Moon in the Water,” that alludes to Buddhism. In the Met’s Astor Chinese Garden Court, a moon was projected onto the ceiling and reflected in what appears to be a shallow pool. Dresses by John Galliano and Martin Margiela—which appear like apparitions on the water—were inspired by Beijing opera.

“Through the Looking Glass” translates into Chinese as “Moon in the Water.” In the Met’s Astor Chinese Garden Court, a moon was projected onto the ceiling and reflected in what appears to be a shallow pool. Dresses by John Galliano and Martin Margiela—which appear like apparitions on the water—were inspired by Beijing opera. Photo by Lia Chang

Like “Flower in the Mirror,” it suggests something that cannot be grasped, and has both positive and negative connotations. When used to describe a beautiful object, “moon in the water” can refer to a quality of perfection that is either so elusive and mysterious that the item becomes transcendent or so illusory and deceptive that it becomes untrustworthy.

Chinese Theatrical Robe for the Role of a Guard, 18th century, Silk satin embroidered with polychrome silk and metallic-thread with silk appliqué Rogers Fund, 1929 (30.76.33). Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery View of The Astor Court- Chinese Theatrical Robe for the Role of a Guard, 18th century, Silk satin embroidered with polychrome silk and metallic-thread with silk appliqué Rogers Fund, 1929 (30.76.33). Photo by Lia Chang

The metaphor often expresses romantic longing, as the eleventh-century poet Huang Tingjian wrote: “Like picking a blossom in a mirror/Or grabbing at the moon in water/I stare at you but cannot get near you.” It also conveys unrequited love, as in the song “Hope Betrayed” in Cao Xueqin’s mid-eighteenth-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber: “In vain were all her sighs and tears/In vain were all his anxious fears:/As moonlight mirrored in the water/Or flowers reflected in a glass.”

Gallery View of The Astor Court- House of Dior (French, founded 1947)John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960)Ensemble, spring/summer 2003 haute coutureCoat of pink silk jacquard embroidered with green and blue silk and gold metallic thread; dress of pink silk organza, Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture. Photo by Lia Chang

Two other garments by Maison Martin Margiela are recycled opera costumes from the 1930s that have been repurposed as haute couture, an extraordinarily East-meets-West display of technical virtuosity.

Two other garments by Maison Martin Margiela are recycled opera costumes from the 1930s that have been repurposed as haute couture, an extraordinarily East-meets-West display of technical virtuosity. Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery View of The Astor Court- Maison Martin Margiela (French, founded 1988),Smoking coat, autumn/winter 2013-14 Artisanal Black silk satin and black wool suiting embroidered with polychrome sequins and crystal bugle beads, Courtesy of Maison Martin Margiela. Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery Ming Furniture Room
Film clips of Raise the Red Lantern (1991) directed by Zhang Yimou, Farewell My Concubine (1993) directed by Chen Kaige, Mei Lanfang’s Stage Art (1955) and Two Stage Sisters (1964) directed by Xie Jin serve as a vivid backdrop to the designs on display in the Ming Furniture Room.

Ming Furniture Room Gallery View-Evening dresses, Valentino SpA (Italian, founded 1959), “Shanghai” collection 2013; Courtesy of Valentino SpA. Photo by Lia Chang

In Chinese culture, the color red, which traditionally corresponds to the element of fire, symbolizes good fortune and happiness. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, red also came to represent the communist revolution. In the West, the color is so strongly associated with China that it has come to stand in for the nation and its peoples. When Valentino presented its Manifesto collection in Shanghai in 2013, the creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli dedicated it to “the many shades of red.” In choosing the color as the theme, they were also referencing the history of Valentino, as red has long been a signature color of the house. As early as the 1960s, its founder, Valentino Garavani, employed it throughout his collection, especially in his lavish evening designs. In this gallery are several gowns from the Manifesto collection, which epitomize the atelier’s exquisite lacework and meticulous and magnificent embroideries.

Gallery: Export Silk
Ever since the silk trade between China and the Roman Empire blossomed in the late first and early second centuries, Western fashion’s appetite for Chinese silk textiles has been insatiable. This craving intensified in the sixteenth century, when sea trade expanded the availability of Chinese luxury goods, giving rise in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to a lasting taste for chinoiserie.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Douglas Dillon Galleries, Export Silk. Chinese Shawl, early 20 century, White silk crepe embroidered with polychrome silk floral motifs, Gift of Mrs. Maxime L. Hermanos, 1968 (C.I.68.64.1) and two evening dresses by Cristóbal Balenciaga (Spanish, 1895–1972), 1962 White silk dupioni embroidered with polychrome silk thread, Courtesy of Hamish Bowles; 1960 White silk satin embroidered with crystals and polychrome silk and metal thread, Courtesy of Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa, Getaria, Spain. Photo by Lia Chang

Chinese export silks, like export wallpapers, have sometimes been subsumed into the history of the applied arts in the West. Yet despite their Western-inspired decoration, they remain part of the history of the material culture of China, particularly the port city of Canton (now Guangzhou). The relationship between producer and consumer, however, is complicated by the transmission of design elements between East and West. Like the sinuous motifs on the painted silks and wallpapers in these galleries, Chinese export art reveals multiple meanderings of influence from the earliest period of European contact with China, leading to the accumulation of layers and layers of stylistic translations and mistranslations.

American Robe à la Polonaise, 1780-85
Yellow silk taffeta hand-painted with polychrome floral motifs. Gift of heirs of Emily Kearny Rodgers Cowenhoven, 1970 (1970.87a,b); French
Robe à la Polonaise, ca. 1780, White silk taffeta hand-painted with polychrome floral motifs Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Alan S. Davis Gift, 1976 (1976.146a, b). Photo by Lia Chang

Cristobal Balenciaga (Spanish, 1895–1972)
Ensemble, 1955–56
White silk taffeta hand-painted with polychrome floral motifs Courtesy of The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan. Photo by Lia Chang

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010) Dress, autumn/winter 2006–7
Cream and polychrome silk brocade Courtesy of Alexander McQueen. Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery – Calligraphy
Western fashion’s abiding interest in Chinese aesthetics embraces the graphic language of calligraphy, which in China is considered the highest form of artistic expression. Designers are typically inspired by calligraphy for its decorative possibilities rather than its linguistic significance. Chinese characters serve as the textile patterns on the dresses by Christian Dior and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in this gallery.

(L-R) Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (French, 1883–1971) Dress, ca. 1956 White silk surah printed with black Chinese character motifs Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of H. Gregory Thomas, 1959 (2009.300.261a–c); Christian Dior (French, 1905–1957) “Quiproquo” cocktail dress, 1951 White silk shantung printed with black Chinese character motifs Gift of Mrs. Byron C. Foy, 1953 (C.I.53.40.38a–d). Zhang Xu (ca. 675–759); Letter about a Stomachache 19th-century rubbing of a 10th-century stone carving Ink on paper Seymour and Rogers Funds, 1977 (1977.375.31a). Photo by Lia Chang

Because this language is seen as “exotic” or “foreign,” it can be read as purely allusive decoration. Dior and Chanel were likely unaware of the semantic value of the words on their dresses, which in the case of Dior has resulted in a surprising and humorous juxtaposition. The dress is adorned with characters from an eighth- century letter by Zhang Xu in which the author complains about a painful stomachache. Language that constitutes communication, it would seem, is also capable of conveying miscommunication. Here, the letter is presented as a rubbing, as are the other calligraphic examples in the surrounding cases. Before photography, rubbings were the key technology for transmitting calligraphy across generations. Some of the greatest treasures of Chinese calligraphy, including the Letter on a Stomachache that inspired Dior, survive only through such impressions.

Frances Young Tang Gallery – Blue and White Porcelain
The story of blue-and-white porcelain encapsulates centuries of cultural exchange between East and West. Developed in Jingdezhen during the Yuan dynasty (1271– 1368), blue-and-white porcelain was exported to Europe as early as the sixteenth century.

Gallery view, Chinese Galleries, Frances Young Tang Gallery, Blue and White Porcelain. Chinese Vase with plum blossoms, 19th century, Porcelain with underglaze blue and white decoration, Gift of Mrs. Donald V. Lowe (63.173); Chinese Covered Jar with Decoration of Blossoming Plum and Cracked Ice, late 17th-early 18th century, Porcelain painted in underglaze blue, Purchase by subscription, 1879 (79.2.265a, b); Chinese Dish, Yongzheng period (1723 – 1735), Blue-ground porcelain with reserve decoration and relief, Purchase by subscription, 1879 (79.2.129) Chinese Vase with Decoration of Blossoming Plum, Kangxi period (1662–1722) Porcelain painted in underglaze blue, H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.304). Photo by Lia Chang

As its popularity increased in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in tandem with a growing taste for chinoiserie, potters in the Netherlands (Delft), Germany (Meissen), and England (Worcester) began to produce their own imitations.

Evening dress, Roberto Cavalli (Italian, born 1940), autumn/winter 2005–6; Courtesy of Roberto Cavalli. Photo by Lia Chang

One of the most familiar examples is the Willow pattern, which usually depicts a landscape centered on a willow tree flanked by a large pagoda and a small bridge with three figures carrying various accoutrements. Made famous by the English potter Thomas Minton, founder of Thomas Minton & Sons in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, it was eventually mass- produced in Europe using the transfer-printing process.

Gallery view, Chinese Galleries, Frances Young Tang Gallery, Blue and White Porcelain.
(L-R) House of CHANEL (French, founded 1913),Karl Lagerfeld (French, born Hamburg, 1938), House of Lesage (French, founded 1922), Evening dress, spring/summer 1984 haute couture, White silk organza, tulle, and taffeta embroidered with blue, white, and crystal beads Courtesy of Collection CHANEL, Paris; Guo Pei (Chinese, born 1967), Evening gown, spring/summer 2010 haute couture, Blue and white silk satin embroidered with crystals and blue and white silk thread, Courtesy of Guo Pei. Photo by Lia Chang

With the popularity of Willow-pattern porcelain, Chinese craftsmen began to produce their own hand-painted versions for export. Thus a design that came to be seen as typically Chinese was actually the product of various cultural exchanges between East and West.

Gallery view, Chinese Galleries, Frances Young Tang Gallery, Blue and White Porcelain. (L-R) Valentino Garavani (Italian, born 1932), Evening gown, autumn/winter 1968–69, haute couture White and blue-printed silk satin, Courtesy of Valentino S.p.A.; Valentino S.p.A. (Italian, founded 1959) Dress, autumn/winter 2013, White and blue-printed silk organza, Gift of Valentino S.p.A., 2015 (2015.491.1); Giambattista Valli (Italian, born 1966), Coat, autumn/winter 2013 haute couture, White and blue-printed silk faille, embroidered with navy, blue, and white silk thread, clear synthetic sequins, crystals, and appliqué of blue and white silk organza, Courtesy of Giambattista Valli; Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture, House of Dior (French, founded 1947), John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960),
Evening gown, spring/summer 2009 haute couture, White silk organza and lace, and white silk satin embroidered with blue silk thread, Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture; House of Dior (French, founded 1947), John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960), Ensemble, spring/summer 2005 haute couture, Coat of white silk jacquard embroidered with blue and white silk thread; dress of white silk organza embroidered with crystals, gold and green silk, and silver metallic thread, Courtesy of Christian Dior Couture. Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery – Perfume
Part of the power of perfume lies in its synesthetic possibilities, and the idea of China, confected from Western imagination, affords the perfumer a multiplicity of olfactory opportunities charged with the seductive mysteries of the East. Paul Poiret, famous for his fashions a la chinoise, was the first designer to produce a perfume fueled by the romance of China. Called Nuit de Chine, it was created in 1913 by Maurice Schaller and presented in a flacon inspired by Chinese snuff bottles designed by Georges Lepape, In the early 1920s, Poiret, excited by his dreams of Cathay, crafted several other perfumes, including orient and Sakya Mouni, both packaged in bottles inspired by Chinese seals.

Perfume bottles on display in “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

The 1910s and 1920s saw an influx of China-inflected perfumes, partly stimulated by the well- publicized archaeological excavations of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Like Nuit de Chine, many were presented in flacons fashioned after Chinese snuff bottles, including Jean Patou’s Joy, Roger & Gallet’s Le Jade, and Henriette Gabilla’s Pa-Ri-Ki-Ri, named after a musical revue starring Mistinguett and Maurice Chevalier.

Chinese Shoe, 1800–1943,
Red silk satin embroidered with polychrome silk thread, Gift of Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, 1943 (C.I.43.90.60a, b).
One of the more unusual flacons was created by the Callot Soeurs for the perfume La Fille du Roi de Chine. Shaped after a ”lotus shoe” for a bound foot, it explicitly associated perfume, in Western eyes, with the exotic practice of foot-binding. Photo by Lia Chang

One of the more unusual flacons was created by the Callot Soeurs for the perfume La Fille du Roi de Chine. Shaped after a ”lotus shoe” for a bound foot, it explicitly associated perfume, in Western eyes, with the exotic practice of foot-binding.

(ALCOVE)

Paul Poiret (French, 1879–1944), “Steppe” coat, 1912
Black wool embroidered with blue, white, and gray silk thread; gray fox fur Catharine Breyer Van Bomel Foundation Fund, 2005 (2005.209)
Paul Poiret (French, 1879–1944) “Mademoiselle” dress, 1923, Black and red wool crepe with polychrome striped wool twill Catharine Breyer Van Bomel Foundation Fund, 2005 (2005.210)
Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (French, 1879-1933) “Chinoise” dressing table, ca. 1927, Lacquered wood, silver plated bronze, and mirror Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Chow, 1986 (1986.399.3a,b)
Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (French, 1879-1933), “Retombante” stool, ca. 1916-18, Lacquered beech wood, silvered bronze, and modern upholstery, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Chow, 1986 (1986.399.4). Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery – Saint Laurent & Opium
To this day, fashion’s most flamboyant expression of chinoiserie is Yves Saint Laurent’s extravagant fall/winter 1977 haute-couture collection. In a dazzling mélange of Chinese decorative elements, Saint Laurent reimagined Western ideas of Genghis Khan and his Mongol warriors and the imperial splendor of the Qing court under Dowager Empress Cixi (1835–1908). Of the collection, Saint Laurent commented, “I returned to an age of elegance and wealth. In many ways I returned to my own past.”

Yves Saint Laurent (French, 1936–2008), Jacket, 1977
Black silk ciré embroidered with gold, black and white silk, and gold sequins Courtesy of Fondation Pierre Bergé –Yves Saint Laurent, Paris. Photo by Lia Chang

His designs merge authentic and imaginary elements of Chinese costume into a polyglot bazaar of postmodern amalgamation. Scallop patterns, pagoda shoulders, and frog and tassel closures are combined with conical hats and jade and cinnabar jewelry to convey a sumptuous, seductive impression of Chinese style as luxurious and glamorous as Paul Poiret’s fantasies five decades earlier.

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868), Inrō (Portable Tiered Medicine Container) with Phoenix and Paulownia, first half 19th century, Four cases; lacquered wood with gold and silver hiramaki-e and gold foil application on red lacquer ground, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.839): Yves Saint Laurent (French, 1936–2008) “Opium” perfume bottle, 1977, Plastic and silk cord, Courtesy of Dominique Deroche. Photo by Lia Chang

The collection coincided with the launch of Saint Laurent’s fragrance Opium, a name controversial even in the hedonistic 1970s because of its perceived endorsement of drug use; trivialization of the mid-nineteenth-century Opium Wars between China and Britain; and objectification of women through its highly sexualized advertisement photographed by Helmut Newton and featuring Jerry Hall. Setting the tone for the so-called power scents of the 1980s, the perfume is composed of myrrh, amber, jasmine, mandarin, and bergamot notes.

Yves Saint Laurent (French, 1936–2008), Ensemble, autumn/winter 1977–78 haute couture, Polychrome printed black silk damask,
Courtesy of Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, Paris. Photo by Lia Chang

Film Clips Edited by Wong Kar-Wai: Broken Blossoms, 1919, Directed by D. W. Griffith, (D.W. Griffith Productions, Courtesy of Kino Lorber); Flowers of Shanghai, 1998 Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien (3H Productions and Shochiku Company, Courtesy of Shochiku Company) © 1998 Shochiku Co., Ltd.; Once Upon a Time in America, 1984 Directed by Sergio Leone (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment); The Grandmaster, 2013 Directed by Wong Kar Wai (Block 2 Pictures, Courtesy of Block 2 Pictures Inc.) © 2013 Block 2 Pictures Inc. All rights reserved.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Douglas Dillon Galleries, Chinoiserie-Yves Saint Laurent (French, founded 1961), Tom Ford (American, born 1961),
Ensemble, autumn/winter 2004–5, Jacket of purple-red quilted silk satin; skirt of red silk satin
Ensemble, autumn/winter 2004–5, Jacket of blue-green quilted silk satin; skirt of green silk crepe with green silk satin and tulle, Courtesy of Tom Ford Archive. Photo by Lia Chang

Chinoiserie
The idea of China reflected in the haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear fashions in this gallery is a fictional, fabulous invention, offering an alternate reality with a dreamlike, almost hallucinatory, illogic. This fanciful imagery, which combines Eastern and Western stylistic elements into an incredible pastiche, belongs to the tradition of chinoiserie (from the French chinois, meaning Chinese), a style that emerged in the late seventeenth century and reached its pinnacle in the mid-eighteenth century. China was a land outside the reach of most travelers in the latter century (and, for many others, still an imaginary land called “Cathay”), and chinoiserie presented a vision of the East as a place of mystery and romance.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Douglas Dillon Galleries, Chinoiserie- Valentino Garavani (Italian, born 1932), Ensemble, autumn/winter 1990-91 haute couture, Jacket and skirt of beige silk satin and organza, embroidered with brown and gold silk yarn and metal thread, red-orange, gold, bronze, and silver plastic sequins, beads, and crystals, Courtesy of Valentino S.p.A.; Chinese Screen with Birthday Celebration for General Guo Ziyi, 1777, Carved red lacquer, Gift of Mrs. Henry-George J. McNeary, 1971 (1971.74a-h). Photo by Lia Chang

Stylistically, its main characteristics include Chinese figures, pagodas with sweeping roofs, and picturesque landscapes with elaborate pavilions, exotic birds, and flowering plants. Sometimes these motifs were copied directly from objects, especially lacquerware, but more often they originated in the designer’s imagination. Chinoiserie’s prescribed and restricted vocabulary directly produces its aesthetic power.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Douglas Dillon Galleries, Chinoiserie- House of Chanel (French, founded 1913), Karl Lagerfeld (French, born Hamburg, 1938), House of Lesage (French, founded 1922), Dress, autumn/winter 1996–97
Red silk organza embroidered with red, gold, and silver plastic sequins, and gold beads, Courtesy of Hamish Bowles; Evening dress, autumn/winter 1996–97 haute couture Red silk organza embroidered with red, gold, and silver plastic sequins, and gold beads Courtesy of Collection CHANEL, Paris. Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery- Ancient China

China’s varied and vibrant artistic traditions have served as sources of continuous invention and reinvention for Western fashion. Works of art from the seventeenth century onward resonate most strongly with designers. As this gallery and the adjacent gallery reveal, however, designers have also found inspiration in earlier forms, including Neolithic pottery, Shang-dynasty bronzes, Tang-dynasty mirrors, Han-dynasty tomb figurines and architectural models, early Buddhist sculpture and iconography, and ancient Chinese literature, including wuxfa.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Charlotte C. Weber Galleries, Ancient China Dress, House of Givenchy (French, founded 1952), autumn/winter 1997-98 haute couture; Courtesy of Givenchy. Photo by Lia Chang

These cross-cultural comparisons, as with others in the show, have an appeal that rests on their clarity and legibility that is, on one’s ability to decode the motifs and stylistic references. The comparisons demonstrate how the creative process is inherently transformative, a phenomenon seen here in works of art that boldly reduce a complex matrix of meanings into graphic signs that say ‘China’ not as literal copies but as explicit allusions to a prototype.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Charlotte C. Weber Galleries, Ancient China- Vivienne Tam (American, born Guangzhou) “Kuan Yin” dress, spring/summer 1997 Polychrome printed nylon mesh, Courtesy of Vivienne Tam. Photo by Lia Chang

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Charlotte C. Weber Galleries, Ancient China- Jeanne Lanvin (French, 1867–1946), Robe de Style, spring/summer 1924, Black silk taffeta embroidered with green silk and silver metallic thread, and synthetic pearl, silver, black, and gold beads and paillettes; silver lamé and ivory silk tulle embroidered with metallic silver thread,
Gift of Mrs. Albert Spalding, 1962 (C.I.62.58.1); Chinese
Mirror, Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), 8th century Silver, Gift of Ernest Erickson Foundation, 1985 (1985.214.22). Photo by Lia Chang

The Small Buddha Gallery – Guo Pei
Like their Western counterparts, Chinese designers frequently find inspiration in the aesthetic and cultural traditions of the East. Paradoxically, they often gravitate toward the same motifs and imagery. While it is important to distinguish between internal and external views of the East, such affinities support, at least in fashion, a unified language of shared signs. The small Buddha gallery is devoted to this single gown by the Chinese designer Guo Pei, in which Buddhist iconography provides the primary source of inspiration.

Guo Pei (Chinese, born 1967), Evening gown, spring/summer 2007 haute couture, Gold lamé embroidered with gold and silver silk, metal, and sequins Courtesy of Guo Pei. Photo by Lia Chang

The bodice is shaped like a lotus flower, which is one of the eight Buddhist symbols and represents spiritual purity and enlightenment. The motif is also embroidered onto the skirt. In an act of Occidentalism, the shape of the skirt, which has no archetypes in Eastern dress traditions, is based on the inflated crinoline silhouette that emerged as modish apparel in the West in the 1850s. As with the Western designers in this exhibition, Guo Pei does not practice an exoticism of replication but rather one of assimilation, combining Eastern and Western elements into a common cultural language.

Gallery – Wuxia
For many Western designers, some of the most compelling fantasies of China are in wuxia, a literary genre that is more than 2000 years old and scenes from Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers (2004) and A Touch of Zen (1971) play in this final gallery.

China: Through The Looking Glass
Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Wuxia Ensemble, Jean Paul Gaultier (French, born 1952), autumn/winter 2001-2; Courtesy of Jean Paul Gaultier. Photo by Lia Chang

Wuxia, which roughly translates as “martial hero,” relates the adventures of wandering swordsmen whose martial- arts skills are so highly developed that they can internalize their qi (life force) and unleash such superhuman powers as “thunder palms,” “shout weapons,” and “weightless leaps.” The stories often take place in an underworld calledjiang hu (rivers and lakes), in which martial artists cohabit with monks, bandits, and burglars. The heroes are governed by xia, a strict code of chivalry, whose common attributes include justice, honesty, benevolence, and a disregard for wealth and desire. Such traits have led many wuxia novels to be read as expositions on Buddhism, an association played out in this gallery, which displays some of the museum’s earliest examples of Chinese Buddhist art.

Gallery View Chinese Galleries, Charlotte C. Weber Galleries, Ancient China- House of Givenchy (French, founded 1952)
Alexander McQueen (British, 1969-2010)
Chopine, autumn/winter 1997 haute couture
Black silk satin embroidered with polychrome silk thread, Courtesy of Alexander McQueen. Photo by Lia Chang

Related Content and Programs
A publication by Andrew Bolton accompanies the exhibition, produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press, and is on sale. The exhibition are featured on the Museum’s website, www.metmuseum.org/ChinaLookingGlass, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using #ChinaLookingGlass, #MetGala, and #AsianArt100.

The exhibition is featured on the Museum’s website, www.metmuseum.org/ChinaLookingGlass, as well as on Facebook,Instagram, and Twitter using #ChinaLookingGlass and #AsianArt100. It is also on Weibo using @大都会博物馆MET_中国艺术

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Crafting a Career

↧

In Conversation With Tzi Ma

August 28, 2015, 10:08 am

≫ Next: American Museum of Natural History previews The Butterfly Conservatory and a new book, The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale’s Lost Manuscript

≪ Previous: Metropolitan Museum Extends Hours for Final Weekend of China: Through the Looking Glass

Actor Tzi Ma attends the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

At the end of July, Tzi Ma breezed into Manhattan for the Asian American International Film Festival to attend the screening of his latest television project, AMC’s “Hell on Wheels”, with Executive Producer and Showrunner John Wirth and cast members Byron Mann and Angela Zhou, and the screening of Dax Phelan’s Jasmine which stars Jason Tobin, Eugenia Yuan and “HOW” cast mate Byron Mann at Village East Cinema.

Lia Chang, Bea Soong, Phil Nee, Elizabeth Sung, Eugenia Yuan, Jason Tobin, Tzi Ma and Vic Huey at the #AAIFF2015 screening of Jasmine at Village East Cinema in New York on July 30, 2015. Photo by Ursula Liang

Asian CineVision and cable network, AMC partnered for the first time in festival history to screen the first and third episodes of “Hell on Wheels” at Village East Cinema. It was a homecoming of sorts for Ma, who was born in Hong Kong, but grew up in New York where he spent his formative years honing his craft as a theater actor before heading to LA. The New York Asian American community turned out to support, filling the theater to capacity. It was a marvelous reunion for us.

Byron Mann, Tzi Ma, Angela Zhou and John Wirth attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Circling around the history of the transcontinental railroad and how immigrant Chinese workers became an integral part of it’s construction, this contemporary Western tells the story of Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount), whose experience with Union Pacific’s construction of the first transcontinental railroad takes him westward into a lawless melting pot of a town called “Hell on Wheels”.

In Season 5A, Cullen Bohannon finds himself a stranger in a strange land – the mountain town of Truckee, California, home to the Central Pacific Railroad. This rough railroad town teems with thousands of Chinese workers, foreign in language, culture and traditions. Despite the challenges of corralling his new workforce, Cullen leads the herculean effort to tunnel through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, sometimes achieving only inches a day in the race to complete the first Transcontinental Railroad.

Anson Mount and Tzi Ma in AMC’s Hell on Wheels. Photo by Lia Chang

Tzi plays Tao, who is originally from a village in Guangdong in Southern China, and is now “head man” for a group of Chinese railroad workers on the Central Pacific Railroad. A former scholar, his natural leadership abilities and facility with the English language make him essential to Cullen’s work on the Central Pacific. He’s a highly capable man, but harbors a secret, and goes out of his way to avoid attention.

Angela Zhou as Fong/Mei in Hell on Wheels. Photo by Lia Chang

Angela Zhou, plays Fong/Mei, a strong, independent, and a capable railroad worker, fighting to leave the old ways of the traditional Chinese behind and embrace the new world customs of California. One of the few Chinese who speak English well enough to work as a translator, Fong becomes important to Cullen Bohannon as a key player in blasting through the tunnels of the High Sierras.

Byron Mann as Chang in AMC’s Hell on Wheels. Photo by Lia Chang

Byron Mann plays Chang, the primary labor contractor for the Central Pacific Railroad who runs a small empire in Truckee, California’s “Chinatown,” providing food, sundries, opium, and whores to the Chinese workers he’s contracted to the railroad. A former rebel who fought in the Taiping Rebellion, Chang is caught between the peasant Chinese workers and the railroad’s white overlords, whose racist attitudes keep him in his place.

Don’t miss the Midseason Finale of “Hell on Wheels” when it airs on Saturday, April 29th. You can watch Tzi in the first six episodes of Season 5A of “Hell on Wheels” on AMC on Demand, and on October 16th, when USA’s “Satisfaction” returns for its second season where he plays the Zen Master. Other films in the can include Pali Road, with Elizabeth Sung as his wife, and the period psychological drama Diablo with Scott Eastwood.

At dinner with Lia Chang, Tzi Ma and Kevin Bang.

I enjoyed a couple of meals with Tzi while he was in town where we discussed “Hell on Wheels”, what role the Chinese played in the building of the railroads, his early theater days with Tony award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, how he transitioned into TV and Film, what he’s up to next, and how he’d like Asian American actors to discover their own brand of sexy.

He flew to Montreal the next morning to work on Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi movie Story of Your Life, where he portrays the pivotal role of General Shang opposite Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forrest Whitaker. He agreed to a telephone interview and below are excerpts of our chat.

Tzi Ma with the community at the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What did it feel like to come home to your community and such a receptive audience?
Tzi: Warm and fuzzy. That’s the first thing that came to mind. Very proud that all these friends and family came to support the evening. I brought something back that everybody can be proud of. It’s not just a piece, it’s not just about artistic expression. This is a well-funded, highly polished well put together TV show. The subject matter is so close to the community’s heart and also, it is a sheer historical moment. This has never been done before. No on has ever seen anything like this in the way it is being presented. In telling the story with really wonderful writing, great characters. I was so happy that the community really got a chance to see something that they really should be very proud of.

AAIFF2015 Festival Director Judy Lei, Byron Mann, Executive Producer and Showrunner John Wirth, Angela Zhou and Tzi Ma during the Q&A at the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

I am also happy that our executive producer and show runner John Wirth was there, a very accomplished producer who stood in front of an audience that is so knowledgeable. The people know the story and you can’t get anyway with anything.

Tzi Ma and Byron Mann pose with the staff of AAIFF2015 after a screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What does it mean to you have this story told?
Tzi: You should see some of the reactions on Twitter. People were talking, “Oh my God, these people are actually speaking Cantonese properly. Hurray!”

Judge Doris Ling-Cohan and Tzi Ma attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Cinema Village East in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

You have this kind of response to people who are going to continue to do shows. That’s important. It’s important that the community is showing up to let you know that you need to tell these stories the way it should be told, in it’s proper historical perspective or we are going to bust you. It was really exciting. John was so appreciative. He said,”Not only are they warm and supportive, but the fact that they know what’s real. what’s important, and that they’ve come out to support.”

Byron Mann, Tzi Ma, Angela Zhou and John Wirth attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Cinema Village East in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

I couldn’t find a better way to share this, really, with all the people I’ve know most of my adult life, my formative years. It’s tremendous to have this kind of environment for us. Hopefully, there’s a lot more to come. Hopefully, because of these experiences, there will be more stories produced with meaning to us, to Asian Americans. The fact that the community also learned a lesson, that they need to come out and be accounted for. It should be something that they are more vocal about. They they need to let people know that they support this. Advertisers need to know. They need to pay attention because this is a very important segment of the population that spends a lot of money. I think it is a lesson bridging all of these cultural gaps that we have. We’re taught one way, but we are also taught another way. We need to participate as Americans. Hopefully all of that will start to pan out and be much more effective in terms of how they tell our stories. And not just gloss over, not just background color. It is important for us to be the focal point of series and films.

Tzi Ma and Angela Zhou play father and daughter in AMC’s Hell on Wheels. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: How did “Hell on Wheels” come to you?
Tzi: They called around March and asked for my availability and interest in the show. I knew about the show. I knew the show in it’s first season. People in the community, back in season one when the pilot was shot and the fact that it was going to happen, people were asking, “Are you going to tell our story?” I tell you, they couldn’t answer that question because they didn’t know if the show was going to go one season, two seasons. I think the powers that be, knew they were going to tell the story chronologically. You couldn’t promise to tell the Chinese story because that didn’t happen until the end. In some ways, it’s kind of weird or strategic for AMC, that they didn’t really address it early on. We did ask, “What about telling the Chinese side of it?” There was no answer from them. Now we understand, the fact that they had the chance to do the whole building of the railroad story, it is a fitting end for the series, season 5 is devoted to the most difficult part of the connection of East and West on the railroad.

Grace Truman (Stephanie Szostak) and Zen Master (Tzi Ma). (c) USA Network

The problem was that I was pretty busy. I had a lot on my plate. I was going to shoot a film in Europe, either in Lithuania or some other local. I was also shooting a series in Atlanta, “Satisfaction”, we were going into our second season. And it didn’t look like I was going to be available to do it. So finally, my manager, Andrew Ooi, really worked hard to give me a hard out for the film, that I was going to finish by April 20th, no matter what. Actually that film didn’t happen because the financing fell through. But I still had “Satisfaction” to deal with. “Satisfaction” was always very cooperative.

Tzi Ma as Cheng Zhi in 24: Live Another Day
Photo: FOX

The first season I was shooting “24: Live Another Day” in London, and they were able to accommodate my schedule overseas and were able to shoot three episodes, back to back in one sitting. So this year, they did the same thing. I am grateful to them for allowing me to do “Hell on Wheels”.

So they sent me a NDA. I had to sign that before they sent us any scripts. They sent me the first two scripts and I thought, “These guys really did their homework.”

I basically knew the story, I’m very familiar with the story because of David Henry Hwang’s The Dance and The Railroad, a play about these two Chinese railroad workers building the continental railroad, that I did in the 80’s. It was a two character play, with me and John Lone at The Public Theater. So we know something about that time period and what these people are about. The first two scripts totally rang true. They found Professor Gordon H. Chang from Stanford, who has devoted his life to trying to research this story of us building the railroad. In that sense, I was really happy with it. I couldn’t be happier with the writing. Because they are so well researched, they feel confident and unencumbered to tell the story dramatically. They were able to tell a story in a compelling way, through characters. They really understand the subject. They didn’t write characters that are just black and white. All of these characters have their flaws. Everybody has their reasons of being. They exist in a time, that’s what resonates with the people in the audience.

Byron Mann as Chang and Tzi Ma as Tao in AMC’s Hell on Wheels. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What does it mean to you to have a show like “Hell on Wheels” tell the story of the Chinese and the railroads? Did John Wirth and the writers encourage your imput with regards to the role and the story being told? What else did you bring to the character?
Tzi: I felt Tao shouldn’t be this British engineering school guy. I felt that he should be more of a working class guy, who did have an opportunity to go to a missionary school. I really wanted it to be an American school. That’s how open these guys were. With the British character, they are always presenting this upper crust, which I did not want to represent. The missionaries provided these unique education opportunities because they wanted you to find Jesus. It’s all good for them, they don’t care what class you come from as long as they can convert you. Obviously they weren’t that successful, even in history, some were converted, the Baptist are very strong in China. I wanted this guy, the fact that he was bilingual, he was American influenced, he’s really into this new way of governing called Democracy, a Republic, that people get to be elected. It’s fascinating to him.

Gail and John Wirth attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

This was discussed with John and all of the writers. And since Byron covered the British end, they loved it because it offered a kind of contrast. It widens the net for us to see these different kinds of colors, from all these different characters. If not, then everything is kind of lumped into this period British thing. I am trying to break that kind of mold. Every time they get into this period thing, they have to talk like they’re from Britain. I said, “No, I think we have to think that period dialogue does not have to be sound like everybody is from England. We have a history too.” I really wanted that.

Byron Mann, John Wirth and Tzi Ma attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

You have to reconcile with certain things. There were certain things that could not be done. You couldn’t put everybody in queues. So, that is difficult. It’s a compromise we had to make. Normally, everybody would have a queue.

Tzi Ma and Angela Zhou play father and daughter in AMC’s Hell on Wheels. Photo by Lia Chang

So in order for Fong to work and to make her, more him, short hair is definitely something you need to do. So I need to justify that too, because she is in disguise. Normally she would have long hair and she would braid it, but she would look too feminine. We have to make that kind of connection. I felt it was important for Tao to really know that Fong would probably be here, staying in America, and that he would go home to the reform in China. It enriches the character. He was going to go back. He was going to be the Sun Yat Sen if he had lived. But he didn’t. Unfortunately, he gets killed in the show. And that of course is important as well because it adds that kind of dramatic bridge that the audience is going to react too. And they did. Twitter just lit up when that episode aired. People were, “Oh my God, no, they killed Tao!” That’s pretty weird. I’ve never experienced anything like it because I’ve never done social media in any way. My niece actually set it up for me. My phone was jumping off the table, it was vibrating so much. The reaction to his death was overwhelming. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was crazy. It was an eye opener for me.

This is the season, 2015, there are only 7 episodes. You can see the transition after my death, the transition is going to focus on the race itself, how both sides got to the middle in Utah. You can see the switch already. So it was important that we promote and got the community out there to support.

Byron Mann, Tzi Ma, Angela Zhou attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What was it like to work with Angela and Byron?
Tzi: It was kind of cool. It was three generations. You have Byron, who is in the middle, I’m like the old guard. Time passes and you don’t really see it until you are looking at Byron and Angela, who just graduated from Duke a year ago. It’s been a great opportunity for her and showcases her talent. She’s really gifted. It is enlightening. Learning never stops. I look at Byron and I look at Angela and I watch the way they approach their work. It is something that I can’t help, it is within my DNA to continuously observe. That is what I do. That is what any actor would do, to observe and see how people work, what they bring to the table, how serious they are. It’s very important to me. Particularly when you are an actor of the same shade of color as me. I keep an eye on it. I need to know what the pool is like. I need to know what’s coming down in the pipeline. I need to know who I am going to be working with in the future. And knowing what our future looks like, will they be representing the community well? I am very encouraged that you have these guys who are very serious about their work. Who devote a lot of time in what they pursue. It’s been a wonderful experience and I’ve learned a lot from them.

Actors Tzi Ma and Angela Zhou, who play father and daughter in AMC’s Hell on Wheels, attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Village East Cinema in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: How old were you when you decided to pursue a life in the arts?
Tzi: I was 23. It was something I always wanted to do. I was going to do that no matter what, come hell or high water. The reactions in a Chinese American family, the fact that you are going into this business. It comes from a good place, a practical place. They don’t want to see you struggle. It builds character. The fact that they were not happy that I took this road, I use it when the perfect opportunity arises. It’s a blessing. I didn’t have to guess what my life path would be. I knew what my life path was going to be. It’s just how was I going to get there? That was the question.

Tzi Ma was a “Kurogo” with Calvin Jung & Willy Corpus in David Henry Hwang’s FOB at The Public Theater (1980’s) Photo by Martha Swope

Lia: Can you describe your early years in New York when you started your acting career in theatre?
Tzi: It was so exciting. In the 70’s, there was money around because there was a tremendous amount of funding. There were at least two or three federal agencies that gave a lot of money to the arts. We don’t have that anymore, it’s gone. They don’t exist, which is a shame. Doing theater in New York was really exciting. I never thought about myself as an actor of color. At the time, it was about exploration, it was about doing experimental theater. There was so much funding. We were in residence at Nassau Community College because they had money. It’s a community college so you had the chance to teach, which is kind of weird because you didn’t really know anything. The good thing was that I was only teaching movement, that was something I was most familiar with. I was earning money while I was studying as an actor. You can’t find those environments today where you can earn a living and do what you love to do, develop your skills and craft as an actor.

Tzi Ma played the “Monkey King” in his first professional play, “Monkey King in the Yellow Stone King” in 1975 in New York City.
Photo:http://caamedia.org/blog/2014/09/17/actor-tzi-ma-in-satisfaction-and-24/

The first play I ever did was for an audience of 5,000 to 10,000 people. It was an outdoor theater at Roosevelt State Park. One of those Shakespeare in the Park kind of experiences. The show was Monkey King in the Yellow Stone King. It was an adaptation of a Beijing Opera. It was 1975 and we’re doing amazing experimental stuff, to introduce a Long Island audience to Beijing Opera. Are you kidding me? It was an out-of-body experience. Full Beijing opera makeup. I was playing Monkey King. I’ve been very blessed in that sense. Very early on in my career, I was able to play leading roles. I’ve never felt that I needed to be the second spear chucker from the left. I never had that experience. I’ve always had been able to participate in a manner that was meaningful to myself, and hopefully to the audience. It was really an auspicious beginning. I’ve always been grateful. I’ve worked with some wonderful actors and directors and collaborators of the theater.

David Henry Hwang, Kathryn Layng and Tzi Ma at a rehearsal for Yellow Face at the Mark Taper Forum. (2007)
Photo by Craig Schwartz

Lia: David Henry Hwang wrote The Dance and the Railroad for you, and you won a CINE Golden Eagle Award and Dramalogue Award for Best Director and Best Choreographer. Can you elaborate on working with David then, and then having the opportunity to revisit his work with Flower Drum Song and Yellow Face?
Tzi: When is this going to happen? – was always the question. It took that long. From 1980, I’ve worked with David so often and so much. He is one of my best friends. I’ve done at least five or six of his plays – FOB, Yellow Face, Flower Drum Song. I did his film, Golden Gate. And I had many more opportunities to work with David. In many ways I feel bad that I couldn’t be a better friend to him. I could have done Golden Child, all of those wonderful plays that were open to me to do. It’s all economics. Theater is really getting to a point where it is an elitist endeavor, where you really have to have money to do it. A lot of those opportunities, like I didn’t get to do Yellow Face in New York, was because of money. I couldn’t afford to do another play. We already did it in LA. On the other hand, I was happy that someone else got to do those wonderful roles in Yellow Face. That’s the silver lining.

John Lone and Tzi Ma in a poster of The Dance and The Railroad. Courtesy of Tzi Ma

Working with David has always been a pleasure. It’s so collaborative, he’s so giving and generous with his time. I always tell him, he’s too generous. I think he needs to hold on to his writing a little more. The Dance and the Railroad, he rewrote every day. We’d go to rehearsal, we’d go to lunch at 1pm. By the time we came back, we’d have changes. That’s how he works. He is so gifted, so quick. He’s actually made for TV. A credit to David that he could make a living as a playwright is remarkable. Most playwrights are broke.

Julienne Hanzelka Kim, Tzi Ma (foreground) and Hoon Lee in the world premiere of David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face” at the Mark Taper Forum which is produced by Center Theatre Group and The Public Theater, in association with East West Players. Directed by Leigh Silverman. (2007) Photo Credit: Craig Schwartz

Lia: How did In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe, written by Emmy award nominee Eric Overmyer, change the course of your career?
Tzi: It’s all timing really. In 1988, there was the writers strike. That was the longest writers strike in history, that they actually went out for 4-6 months. At that time, I was doing the play at Southcoast Rep in Orange County. Normally, these theaters, they are supposed to be showcases for actors so that people from Film and TV can see whether or not they have any talent at all. If the season were going and TV and Film production was in full swing, nobody would be going to Orange County to see a play. It was too far and too difficult to get to. The writers strike, they had nothing to do, they were bored out of their minds because they caught them flat-footed. The first strike they didn’t stock pile. They had nothing. They were doing reruns all the time.

At that time I wasn’t interested in TV or movies because I didn’t know the medium. The show was written for me and gave me an opportunity to do a lot of different things. I played 3 or 4 characters, very different, contrasting characters. Some subtle, some very dramatic. The main character that I played was this boyfriend of this white woman. They are ghost writers. It was kind of quirky and edgy. It’s about the yellow peril, race. Unfortunately, some of the stuff that they covered in that play still rings true today about the Right-wing. All of these things were fascinating to the “Hollywood” crowd.

Doing theater, it’s all at night. I didn’t have much to do during the day. They started calling me to have meetings and to read. They had nothing to do. It was crazy. They would call and ask, “Does Tzi want to come up and have a meeting?” It was with these casting directors, I didn’t know who they were. It was kind of fun because I had nothing to do. The other thing that was fascinating was that I was a New York actor. Back in the day, if you were a New York actor, you were a better actor. There’s this bias. Obviously, we know that’s not true, but that was the reputation of the day. If you are a TV actor, you do TV. If you are a Film actor, you do Film. Very few crossovers. And the fact that you are a New York actor, you must be Marlon Brando. You have that kind of edge. I am a New Yorker through and through, so I bring that into the room as well.

When the show closed in October on a Sunday, the strike was over on that same Sunday and the writers went back to work next day. Somebody’s doing something out in the ethers, it wasn’t me. I was working on Wednesday, “L.A. Law” was my first show. A nondescript role. It wasn’t specifically written Asian at all. He brought me in for a meeting and he gave me this monologue to read, with Steven Bochco in the room. Steven Bochco had nothing to do. It wasn’t because I was so great as an actor in cold reading. It was the piece. It was a fantastic monologue. Anybody that would have read that would have been great. Timing is something that you really can’t fathom and you can’t judge what it is going to do for you. It was a beautiful monologue about this lawyer who practiced law, but didn’t have a degree, didn’t pass the bar, never went to Law School, and he’s defending himself. He sat there and told the entire story about his life on that one page – about where he is from, how much he loved justice vs. the law. Even talking about it gives me chills. On Wednesday, I was working on “L.A. Law”.

Lia: What have been your favorite roles or projects and the most fulfilling?
Tzi: They are all fulfilling. It’s important for actors of color to pick and choose their projects and be more selective. I think it develops good taste. That you understand and that you know what you can do with the role and the script. Once I commit to a particular project, every project brings it’s uniqueness to it.

Dante’s Peak : Arabella Field, Grant Heslov, Tzi Ma, Charles Hallahan, Kirk Trutner Copyright: Universal Studios

Dante’s Peak, big budget, 150 million dollars, the role was an American role. No one ever questioned the ethnicity of these characters. They were all Americans. They were volcanologists, they worked for the United States Geological Survey. That’s what they do. It gave you the opportunity to be part of the American fabric. They were American scientists who go all over the world just to tell you this is going to blow. It’s a volcano that is going to blow. I appreciate that.

In Rapid Fire, I finally got to do an antagonist role. I used to turn those down all the time because I didn’t want to be the villain. Because that is all we would get, we would always portray these villains. But the difference in Rapid Fire, Brandon Lee was the hero, Brandon Lee gets the girl. When you have an Asian American hero on the screen, I can be the baddest motherfucker you’ve ever seen. And I’ll do it to the max. There’s value to that. After that, I’d get a lot of offers for these roles –being a bad guy with Steven Segal, being a bad guy with Jean-Claude Van Damme. I said no. Because they are not Asian Americans. They are not heroes. I want to see people of my skin, of my color as the hero, and a balance of good and evil of my race in this particular project. It had to be the same project, it couldn’t be separate projects.

Ryan Hurst, Tom Hanks, Tzi Ma and J.K. Simmons in The Ladykillers (2004). Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon, SMPSP - © 2004 - Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved.

The Ladykillers, working with the Cohen Brothers, this ensemble of crazy fun stuff that you do and you get to explore doing chain reaction with Morgan Freeman, Keanu Reeves. Million Dollar Arm with Jon Hamm. The Quiet American with Michael Caine. As an actor you are able to play these characters- Hinh was a true life character. He was still alive when I did that role. We shot in Vietnam, I got to meet that guy. A spy for 35 years and never caught. As an actor, I’ve met extraordinary people. You go and you meet President Obama and you shake his hand. But you get to be President Obama, not just shake his hand. That’s what it’s like. That’s the gift that we get as actors. We get a chance to play these real life characters who if they were Japanese, would be national treasures. Not just meeting them, but to be them. Every role has its place and meaning and I appreciate all of them.

Tzi Ma and Michael Caine in The Quiet American. (2002)

Lia: Over the course of your career, what have been your observations of how Asian Americans and specifically Asian American men have been portrayed in film and television?
Tzi: There seems to be progress. I don’t separate film and television because it is our major export, it influences the entire world on how we are viewed. I think with “The Mentalist”, we’re still not sexy. That’s something that we need to work on. For the younger male actors, they need to think about their sexuality in their own way. Don’t do your normal sexy, your normal hunk. We have our own brand of sexy. We get too influenced by Pop culture. I feel that their sexy is not our sexy. When we try to be their sexy, we’re not sexy.

Lia: What would you like to see change?
Tzi: I want us to go beyond what the majority culture is dictating to us. I want us to present us as us. I don’t want us to be so contained or marginalized. Online, we are taking center stage, we are the stars. We need to empower ourselves. The community needs to come out and support.

Elizabeth Sung and Tzi Ma play husband and wife in the upcoming film Pali Road. Photo by Lia Chang

Tzi has worked in film, television, and on stage for four decades creating such memorable characters as his recurring role as Cheng Zhi, nemesis to Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer on the hit series “24” and later on “24: Live Another Day”, to Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of The Ladykillers opposite Tom Hanks.

Over the years, Tzi has amassed a distinguished body of work, including roles in such films as Million Dollar Arm, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 3, The Quiet American, Akeelah and the Bee, Dante’s Peak, Chain Reaction, Golden Gate and Rapid Fire. His television credits include “Satisfaction”, “Commander-in-Chief”, “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, “Once Upon a Time”, “Hawaii Five-O”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Fringe”, “The Practice”, “Law & Order”, “ER”, “NYPD Blue”, “Boomtown” and “Chicago Hope”.

Tzi was born the youngest of seven children in Hong Kong and was reared in New York City. His family ran the first Chinese-American restaurant on Staten Island.

Tzi Ma and Lia Chang. Photo by Elizabeth Sung

John Wirth, executive producer and show runner for AMC's Hell on Wheels. Photo by Lia Chang

Tzi Ma and Jennifer Lim attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Cinema Village East in New York on July 31, 2015. Both have appeared in plays by David Henry Hwang, Ma in The Dance and The Railroad, Lim in Chinglish. Photo by Lia Chang

Actress Angela Zhou and Executive Producer and Showrunner John Wirth attend the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Cinema Village East in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Actor Byron Mann attends the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Cinema Village East in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Actress Angela Zhou attends the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Cinema Village East in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Actor Tzi Ma attends the AAIFF2015 screening of AMC’s Hell on Wheels at Cinema Village East in New York on July 31, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

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American Museum of Natural History previews The Butterfly Conservatory and a new book, The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale’s Lost Manuscript

September 1, 2015, 8:36 pm

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The Butterfly Conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

The wildly popular Butterfly Conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History, now in its 18th year, opens on Saturday, September 5, and runs through Monday, May 29, 2016. American Museum of Natural History is located at Central Park West at 79th Street in New York.

An Owl Butterfly at The Butterfly Conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

The Butterfly Conservatory houses up to 500 iridescent butterflies that hover above visitors in a 1,200-square-foot vivarium filled with lush foliage and blooming tropical flowers.

The Butterfly Conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

The conservatory’s butterflies come from farms in Florida, Costa Rica, Kenya, Thailand, Malaysia, Ecuador, and Australia.Featured species include iridescent blue morpho butterflies, striking scarlet swallowtails, large owl butterflies, and beautiful green birdwings.

The Butterfly Conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Because the average life span of many butterflies is only two to three weeks, roughly 500 butterfly pupae will be shipped to the Museum weekly for the duration of the exhibit, and the butterflies will be released into the vivarium after emerging. Other pupae hang in a case in the vivarium, giving visitors a firsthand look as adult butterflies emerge from chrysalises and fly away only hours after adjusting to their new surroundings. Video screens outside the vivarium will also display a short film about this process.

The Butterfly Conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

Colorful educational displays outside the vivarium explain the life cycle of butterflies, the worldwide efforts to protect their diverse habitats, and the variety of butterfly species in New York State. Visitors can learn about interesting adaptations, from the colored scales that form butterfly wings’ intricate designs to the intriguing relationships between butterflies and other animal species—monarchs, for example, are toxic to birds.). Other panels explain how scientists rely on wild butterflies to gauge the health of an ecosystem and how the Museum’s butterfly specimens offer a wealth of information to butterfly and moth researchers around the world.

Click here for more information on The Butterfly Conservatory.

Before the press preview of The Butterfly Conservatory today, David Grimaldi, curator of The Butterfly Conservatory, who is also in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, Tom Baione, Harold Boeschenstein Director of the Museum’s Research Library and Barbara Rhodes, Conservator of the American Museum of Natural History’s Research Library at the American Museum of Natural History were on hand to introduce the new book The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale’s Lost Manuscript, recently published by Abrams. (September 1, 2015; U.S. $40; hardcover).

David Grimaldi, curator of The Butterfly Conservatory and in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, Tom Baione, Harold Boeschenstein Director of the Museum’s Research Library and Barbara Rhodes is Conservator of the American Museum of Natural History’s Research Library at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on September 1, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

A never-before-published manuscript, illustrated with plates prepared more than 100 years ago, The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale’s Lost Manuscript brings to light a lost masterpiece of natural history from the American Museum of Natural History’s Rare Book Collection.

Original, vibrant color plates of numerous butterflies by celebrated American artist and naturalist Titian Ramsay Peale II (1799–1885). Photo by Lia Chang

Brimming with original, vibrant color plates of numerous butterflies by celebrated American artist and naturalist Titian Ramsay Peale II (1799–1885), the new book includes a foreword by Museum President Ellen V. Futter and text by Professor Kenneth Haltman and Museum Curator David A. Grimaldi that describes the art and science this talented artist brought to his extraordinary work.

Click here for the New York Times review and here to purchase the book.

The American Museum of Natural History is open daily from 10 am-5:45 pm, except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. For more information on the museum, call 212-769-5100 or check out the website at www.amnh.org.

Lia Chang

Other Articles
AsAmNews.com: Actor Tzi Ma Rides ‘Hell On Wheels’ to New Heights
AsAmNews.com: Sesame Street’s Alan Muraoka Directs New Off Broadway Drama THE REPORT
AsAmNews.com: The King and I’s Jose Llana, Ruthie Ann Miles and Betsy Morgan Perform Concert in the Park
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: First Look at THE REPORT as Part of FringeNYC
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: Phylicia Rashad, Andre De Shields & More Original Cast Members from THE WIZ Reunite in Central Park!
AsAmNews.com: China: Through the Looking Glass Extended by The Met until Labor Day
AsAmNews.com: Arthur Dong’s Forbidden City, USA: Chinese American Nightclubs, 1936-1970 wins American Book Award
AsAmNews.com: Future Looks Bright for Asian American Cinema
#AAIFF2015: Top Ten Winning Films of the Film Lab’s 11th Annual 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition- Awards and Wrap Party
AsAmNews.com: Asian American Tweeters Get Special Shout-out in Playbill
Playbill.com: Retweet! BroadwayGirlNYC’s Picks For Most Useful Theatre Women on Social Media
AsAmNews.com:Playing Hide And Seek With Actress Lia Chang
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA Cast Reunion featured in BLACK BELT MAGAZINE August/September 2015
Drumhead Magazine: Living Colour Drummer Will Calhoun, Photos by Lia Chang
AsAmNews.com: A Chat with Broadway’s New King of Siam, Jose Llana
AsAmNews.com: Lunch with Tony Winner Lea Salonga and George Takei, Stars of ALLEGIANCE
AsAmNews.com: AAPI Heritage Month: My Grandmother’s Detention on Angel Island
Crafting a Career

↧

Martin Casella wins 2015 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award for Playwriting for The Report; Full List of 2015 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award Winners

September 2, 2015, 3:21 am

≫ Next: Film Lab & Time Warner Screening & Panel on Media Constructions of BEAUTY featuring Rick Guidotti, Becky Curran, Blue Michael, Jennifer Betit Yen and Lia Chang on October 7

≪ Previous: American Museum of Natural History previews The Butterfly Conservatory and a new book, The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale’s Lost Manuscript

Martin Casella receives 2015 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award for Playwriting for his compelling new drama The Report at Drom in New York on August 3o, 2015. Photo by Sarahbeth Grossman

Congratulations to Martin Casella who received a 2015 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award for Playwriting for his compelling new drama The Report, adapted from the novel by Jessica Francis Kane, and directed by Alan Muraoka, which had its world premiere at the Lynn Redgrave Theater @ Culture Project during the New York International Fringe Festival in August.

Broadway veteran Michael Countryman (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, A Few Good Men, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Common Pursuit, You Can Count on Me) lead a marvelous ensemble of British, Welsh, Canadian and American actors including Philippa Dawson, Denny Desmarias, Natalie Frost, Jenny Green, Louis Lavoie, James Physick, Sophie Sorensen, Jonathan Stephens, Zoë Watkins, David Wells and Stuart Williams.

The Report’s director Alan Muraoka, playwright Martin Casella, star Michael Countryman and author Jessica Francis Kane after a Q & A at the Sheen Center in New York on August 15, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

The Report examines the true, unknown story of the British government’s cover-up of the largest civilian disaster of World War II. On March 3, 1943, 173 people died in London’s Bethnal Green tube station, which served as a bomb shelter during air raids. But not a single bomb was dropped that fateful night. The cause of this tragedy was kept secret for almost 30 years, until a young BBC journalist making a documentary began to uncover what actually took place. As the truth is revealed, we discover how trauma, fear and the paranoia of war impact our very humanity, and how the specter of a single public calamity resonates throughout multiple generations.

Michael Countryman (center) and the cast of The Report. Photo by Lia Chang

Playwright Martin Casella. Photo by Lia Chang

During his acceptance speech, Casella said, “May the memories of the 173 who died in the Bethnal Green tube station over 70 years ago always be a blessing. And may this beautiful and haunting play remind the world of the humanity required from everyone as we deal with overwhelming refugee populations in so many countries across the globe.”

Casella received the Outstanding Playwrighting Award in the 2005 FringeNYC for The Irish Curse, which has enjoyed successful Off-Broadway and worldwide productions. Other recent theater credits include the award-winning Directions for Restoring the Apparently Dead and Scituate. He is the screenwriter of Tom’s Dad starring Will Ferrell and directed by Lasse Hallstrom, and The Land of Sometimes, an animated British feature film.

Craig Zehms, Zoë S Watkins, Martin Casella, Sarahbeth Grossman, Barry Goralnick and Keith Gordon at the 2015 FringeNYC Awards at Drom in New York on August 30, 2015. Photo courtesy of Barry Goralnick

The Report is being presented by Barry Goralnick, Sarahbeth Grossman, Craig Zehms in association with Cutting Hedge Productions.

The cast, creative team and producers of The Report after the opening performance of The Report at The Lynn Redgrave Theater at Culture Project in New York on August 15, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Winners of the 2015 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Awards were announced by festival Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy during a brief ceremony at Drom in New York on August 30, 2015. As selected by an independent panel of over 30 theater professionals, the winners are as follows:

Overall Play:
The Broken Record
Divine Intervention
Little One
Maybe Tomorrow
Night of the Living

Overall Musical:
The Crack in the Ceiling
Far From Canterbury
Popesical

Solo Performance:
butyou’reaman or: The Seven Men I Came Out to in India
An Inconvenient Poop
Tiananmen Annie

Ensemble:
The Curious Case of Phineas Gage
Running Interference
Stockholm Savings
Verano Place

Playwriting:
Martin Casella – The Report
Ashley J. Jacobson – The American Play
Lisa Lewis – Schooled
Jim Shankman – The Screenwriter Dies Of His Own Free Will

Directing:
Stephen Broteback – St. Francis
William Oldroyd – Fuente Ovejuna
Courtney Ulrich – Sousepaw: ‘A Baseball Story’

Costumes:
Jennifer Brawn-Gittings – She-Rantulas From Outer Space in 3-D!

Video Design:
Lianne Arnold – The Mad Scientist’s Guide to Romance, Robots and Soul-Crushing Loneliness

Acting:
Lauren LaRocca – Coping
Lori Hammel – Hell Is For Real
Jesse Carrey – To Dance – The Musical
Rebecca Vigil & Evan Kaufman – Your Love, Our Musical
Xander Johnson – The Boys Are Angry
David Logan Rankin – Night with Guests

The critics raved about The Report:

Stuart Williams and Michael Countryman in The Report. Photo by Lia Chang

“A more scrupulous approach to history is offered in The Report. The story itself is gripping, and the script hops ably between 1943 and 1973…the actors, among them the Broadway veteran Michael Countryman, are excellent.” – Alexis Soloski, New York Times

Stuart Williams, Sophie Sorensen and Michael Countryman in THE REPORT. Photo by Lia Chang

4 STARS! “Gripping. The outstanding (Michael) Countryman plays Dunne as both a young investigator brought in to speak to witnesses and an old man looking back on his legacy. The play’s powerful depiction of wartime panic, guilt and ethical confusion offers a fascinating look into a forgotten corner of England’s wartime experience.” —Dana Varinsky, Time Out

The cast of The Report. Photo by Lia Chang

“The play is as challenging as it is worthwhile, sure to haunt you for days as you try to unfold the conflicting accounts and motives of the characters involved. Director Alan Muraoka marshals the 12-person ensemble through a barrage of overlapping scenes jumping across time and space. With the help of Darren Lee’s hyper-specific choreography and Lauren Halpern’s utilitarian set, Muraoka thrillingly succeeds in not only keeping everything straight, but adding the little details that one would expect from a particularly good mystery novel. Brian Hemesath’s handsome costumes give us a sense not only of the period, but the individual personalities at play. The Report tells the story of the messy relationship between truth and reconciliation, two concepts that don’t necessarily go hand in hand.” – Zachary Stewart, TheaterMania

Denny Desmarais, Philippa Dawson and James Physick in The Report. Photo by Lia Chang

“This is a show not to miss and a producers dream … a play that could win the Pulitzer Prize and possibly the Tony. Martin Casella’s script is heartbreaking and powerful. From the first moment we are drawn in. Michael Countryman performance is a layered well thought out masterpiece. Director Alan Muraoka, draws us in and keeps the suspense. The scenic design by Lauren Helpern, costume design by Brian Hemesath, lighting design by Michael O’Connor, sound design by Chris Sassano, specialty movement by Darren Lee and incidental music by Paul Rudolph are all first rate and add to the over all feeling. – Suzanna Bowling, Times Square Chronicles

Sophie Sorensen, Stuart Williams, Michael Countryman and the company of The Report. Photo by Lia Chang

NY Post Pick! “the rare Fringe show to sport a big-ish cast and an ambitious subject, as Martin Casella — switching genres after his comically endearing “The Irish Curse” — revisits a catastrophe that killed 173 people in the London tube during WWII.” – Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post

David Wells, Jonathan Stephens and James Physick in The Report. Photo by Lia Chang

“…this play is all about shades of gray. The nuanced writing by Martin Casella, based on the novel by Jessica Francis Kane, is strong. Alan Muraoka provides smart and inventive direction and lead actor Michael Countryman is mesmerizing. It’s a serious, superb production that will likely go on to a commercial run. If you’d enjoy an exceptionally well done dramatic play, take a break from the cake and ice cream of most Fringe shows and partake of this steak dinner. – Hy on the Fringe

Denny Desmarais, Louis Lavoie and Natalie Frost in Martin Casella’s The Report. Photo by Lia Chang

One of the Festivals hottest shows. Not to be missed! – Playbill

Soldout house for The Report at the Lynn Redgrave Theater at Culture Project in New York on August 15, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

“One of the shows leading the pack in ticket sales. Saw The Report w/ Michael Countryman at Fringe Saturday. It is a moving and complex play that succeeds both as melodrama and thoughtful serious play. Excellent production by any standard. Should sell out quickly. – Talkinbroadway.com/All That Chat

Curtain Call of the opening performance of The Report at The Lynn Redgrave Theater at Culture Project in New York on August 15, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Playwright Martin Casella during the Q & A at the Sheen Center in New York on August 15, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Playwright Martin Casella, director Alan Muraoka and choreographer Darren Lee at the opening night party of The Report at The Crooked Knife in New York on August 15, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Carolyn Quinn, Martin Casella, Lisa McGahey Veglahn, Sarahbeth Grossman, Jon Radulovic and Herb Perry at the opening night party of The Report at The Crooked Knife in New York on August 15, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

For more information about THE REPORT, please visit www.TheReportThePlay.com.

AsAmNews.com: Sesame Street’s Alan Muraoka Directs New Off Broadway Drama THE REPORT
Theaterscene.com: The Report
Times Square Chronicles: Fringe Festival: Calling All Producers The Report is the Play to See
nytheaternow.com:THE REPORT
StageBuddy.com: FringeNYC Review: The Report

FringeNYC is a production of The Present Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy. In 1997, New York City became the seventh US city to host a fringe festival, joining Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston, Orlando and San Francisco. FringeNYC has presented over 3000 performing groups representing every continent, prompting Switzerland’s national daily, Neue Zuercher Zeitung, to declare FringeNYC as “the premiere meeting ground for alternative artists.” FringeNYC has also been the launching pad for numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway transfers, long-running downtown hits, and regional theater productions including Urinetown, Matt & Ben, Never Swim Alone, Jammer, Debbie Does Dallas, Dog Sees God, Brandon Teena, Dixie’s Tupperware Party, 21 Dog Years, Bash’d, The Irish Curse, Jurassic Parq, The Fartiste, Silence! The Musical and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche; movies including WTC View and Armless; and even a TV show (‘da Kink in My Hair). FringeNYC alumni include Bradley Cooper, Melissa Rauch (Big Bang Theory), Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me, CNN’s Inside Man),Mindy Kaling, Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Pippin), Alex Timbers (Rocky), Leigh Silverman (Violet), W. Kamau Bell (Totally Biased), Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story), Chris Lowell (Enlisted), David Anders (iZombie) and Kristen Schall (Last Man on Earth), among countless other success stories.

The 20th Annual New York International Fringe Festival will run in August 12 – 28, 2016 and will once again feature nearly 200 of the worlds best emerging theater and dance artists. Applications for the 2015 festival will be available online in November; completed applications are due February 14, 2016. For more information visit www.FringeNYC.org

Lia Chang

Other Articles
AsAmNews.com: Actor Tzi Ma Rides ‘Hell On Wheels’ to New Heights
AsAmNews.com: The King and I’s Jose Llana, Ruthie Ann Miles and Betsy Morgan Perform Concert in the Park
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: First Look at THE REPORT as Part of FringeNYC
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: Phylicia Rashad, Andre De Shields & More Original Cast Members from THE WIZ Reunite in Central Park!
AsAmNews.com: China: Through the Looking Glass Extended by The Met until Labor Day
AsAmNews.com: Arthur Dong’s Forbidden City, USA: Chinese American Nightclubs, 1936-1970 wins American Book Award
AsAmNews.com: Future Looks Bright for Asian American Cinema
AsAmNews.com: Asian American Tweeters Get Special Shout-out in Playbill
Playbill.com: Retweet! BroadwayGirlNYC’s Picks For Most Useful Theatre Women on Social Media
AsAmNews.com:Playing Hide And Seek With Actress Lia Chang
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA Cast Reunion featured in BLACK BELT MAGAZINE August/September 2015
Drumhead Magazine: Living Colour Drummer Will Calhoun, Photos by Lia Chang
AsAmNews.com: A Chat with Broadway’s New King of Siam, Jose Llana
AsAmNews.com: Lunch with Tony Winner Lea Salonga and George Takei, Stars of ALLEGIANCE
AsAmNews.com: AAPI Heritage Month: My Grandmother’s Detention on Angel Island

↧

Film Lab & Time Warner Screening & Panel on Media Constructions of BEAUTY featuring Rick Guidotti, Becky Curran, Blue Michael, Jennifer Betit Yen and Lia Chang on October 7

September 2, 2015, 10:05 am

≫ Next: Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center hosting 2nd annual Wikipedia APA in September; photos from NY Editathon at Museum of Modern Art

≪ Previous: Martin Casella wins 2015 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award for Playwriting for The Report; Full List of 2015 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award Winners

Mass Media Constructions of Beauty: The Consequences of Allowing Judgment Based On What We Look Like Rather Than Who We Are
A Special Film Lab/Time Warner/Turner/HBO Event

Hide and Seek, a short film that I created with my producing partner Garth Kravits, will be screened at Mass Media Constructions of Beauty, presented by Film Lab, Time Warner and the APEX group, during a special screening of films from the 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking competition, on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 at the Time Warner Theatre, One Time Warner Center, 10th fl. Screening Room (58th St. between 8th & 9th Ave. Columbus Circle) in New York. The films that are being shown have themes that focus on mainstream constructions of beauty and their consequences. The event is from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. Click here to RSVP.

I will also be on a panel moderated by Jennifer Betit Yen, Actor and President of the Asian American Film Lab, that features Rick Guidotti, award winning fashion photographer and advocate for those with genetic differences; Becky Curran, SAG-AFTRA Coordinator for Equal Employment and Diversity; and Blue Michael, Model and Founder of Blue Michael Cosmetics. We’ll address the societal implications of mainstream beauty images. A networking reception follows the discussion.

Rick Guidotti

Rick Guidotti, an award-winning former fashion photographer, has spent the past fifteen years working internationally with advocacy organizations/NGOs, medical schools, universities and other educational institutions to effect a sea-change in societal attitudes towards individuals living with genetic difference; his work has been published in newspapers, magazines and journals as diverse as Elle, GQ, People, the American Journal of Medical Genetics, The Lancet, Spirituality and Health, the Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly and Life Magazine. He founded Positive Exposure, an innovative arts, education and advocacy organization, working with individuals living with genetic, physical, cognitive and behavioral differences. His photographic exhibition, Positive Exposure; The Spirit of Difference, premiered at the People’s Genome Celebration, June 2001, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in DC. and continues to exhibit in galleries, museums and public arenas internationally.

Blue Michael

Blue Michael was born a raised in NYC from Puerto Rican parents. As a performer in Lower Eastside of Manhattan, he picked up the natural talent of Makeup Artistry. After many years of working with other brands he decided to start Blue Michael Cosmetics. A brand that mirrors his true belief in #BYourBeautiful “Let us celebrate You”.

Jennifer Betit Yen

Jennifer Betit Yen is an award winning actress, writer, producer, and a “recovering” attorney. She is the President of the Asian American Film Lab, a nonprofit dedicated to the promotion and support of gender and ethnic diversity in media, the CEO of MyJennyBook, a company providing multimedia stories for children, and is currently in production on a film entitled “The Opposite of a Fairy Tale,” designed to draw light to the issue of elder abuse, funded by a grant from the Ms. Foundation. As an actor, Betit Yen has appeared in productions at East West Players and Lodestone in Los Angeles and at the Manhattan Theatre Source and Snapple Theatre in New York. Her television credits include Royal Pains, Dirt, Film Lab Presents, The Beacon Street Girls, Reading Rainbow, and America’s Most Wanted, among others.

Becky Curran

Becky Curran is coordinator of EEO & diversity for SAG-AFTRA. Since joining SAG-AFTRA in April 2014, she has assisted with several diversity and inclusion efforts within the entertainment and news media industries. Curran graduated with a bachelor’s of science in marketing degree from Providence College in 2006, then moved to Los Angeles where she worked for one of Hollywood’s top talent agencies, Creative Artists Agency (CAA). After CAA, she worked at CBS Television Studios in casting. Curran also served as the marketing director and co-founding board member of the Catalina Film Festival.

Lia Chang

Lia Chang is an award-winning filmmaker, a Best Actress nominee, a photographer, and the Arts and Entertainment reporter for AsAmNews.com. Chang recently received a Best Actress nomination at the 2015 Asian American Film Lab 72 Hour Shootout. 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, Taxman and Hide and Seek. She is a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, a Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media and a Western Knight Fellow at USC’s Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age. She is the recipient of the AAJA 2001 National Award for New Media and the OCA 2000 Chinese American Journalist Award. Avenue Magazine named her one of the “One Hundred Most Influential Asian Americans”. She is featured in Joann Faung Jean Lee’s book “Asian American actors: oral histories from stage, screen, and television”. She is profiled in Jade Magazine and FebOne1960.com Blog.

About the Asian American Film Lab
The Film Lab is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes ethnic and gender diversity through outreach, education and production. The Film Lab provides free or low cost programming ranging from screenwriting workshops to panels to seminars to screenings. The Film Lab produces the television series “Film Lab Presents” and a wide variety of online content on AAFL TV. The Film Lab management team consists of Jennifer Betit Yen (President and Board Member, founder of AAFL TV Production Arm), Huseina Sulaimanee (Treasurer and Volunteer), Daryl King (Secretary and Board Member), Cecilia Mejia (Unfinished Works), Youn Jung Kim (2015 72 Hour Shootout Coordinator), along with a dedicated Board, interns and event volunteers. Board members include James Kyson, Ed Wong and Aaron Woolfolk, among others.

www.asianamericanfilmlab.com

Other Articles

AsAmNews.com: Actor Tzi Ma Rides ‘Hell On Wheels’ to New Heights
AsAmNews.com: The King and I’s Jose Llana, Ruthie Ann Miles and Betsy Morgan Perform Concert in the Park
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: First Look at THE REPORT as Part of FringeNYC
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: Phylicia Rashad, Andre De Shields & More Original Cast Members from THE WIZ Reunite in Central Park!
AsAmNews.com: China: Through the Looking Glass Extended by The Met until Labor Day
AsAmNews.com: Arthur Dong’s Forbidden City, USA: Chinese American Nightclubs, 1936-1970 wins American Book Award
AsAmNews.com: Future Looks Bright for Asian American Cinema
AsAmNews.com: Asian American Tweeters Get Special Shout-out in Playbill
Playbill.com: Retweet! BroadwayGirlNYC’s Picks For Most Useful Theatre Women on Social Media
AsAmNews.com:Playing Hide And Seek With Actress Lia Chang
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA Cast Reunion featured in BLACK BELT MAGAZINE August/September 2015
Drumhead Magazine: Living Colour Drummer Will Calhoun, Photos by Lia Chang
AsAmNews.com: A Chat with Broadway’s New King of Siam, Jose Llana
AsAmNews.com: Lunch with Tony Winner Lea Salonga and George Takei, Stars of ALLEGIANCE
AsAmNews.com: AAPI Heritage Month: My Grandmother’s Detention on Angel Island

↧

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center hosting 2nd annual Wikipedia APA in September; photos from NY Editathon at Museum of Modern Art

September 4, 2015, 8:28 am

≫ Next: Late Night at the Met: China Through the Looking Glass open until Midnight

≪ Previous: Film Lab & Time Warner Screening & Panel on Media Constructions of BEAUTY featuring Rick Guidotti, Becky Curran, Blue Michael, Jennifer Betit Yen and Lia Chang on October 7

I had a surreal moment at the #WikiAPA Editathon at The Museum of Modern Art in New York on Wednesday night when I walked to the front of the room and was greeted by my own Wikipedia page being edited in real time by someone in the room.

Lia Chang and her Wikipedia page on the screen at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Vic Huey

Since this was an evening focused on Wikipedia editing, dedicated to creating, updating, and improving articles about Asian Pacific American art and artists, it just goes to show you that we all could use a little improvement.

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

A view of the sculpture garden at Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Hosted at The Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and Wikimedia NYC, this meetup focused on unearthing information about our creatively-rich community that has historically been overlooked.

Resources provided by the A/P/A INSTITUTE AT NYU at Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

It was dedicated to increasing the presence of cultural, historic, and artistic information on Wikipedia pertaining to Asian Pacific American (“APA”) experiences. Books on the Asian Pacific American experience were provided by the A/P/A INSTITUTE AT NYU for reference.

Adriel Luis, Curator -Digital & Emerging Media, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center speaks at Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Upon my arrival, I was handed a Wikipedia markup cheatsheet which covers the formatting needed for editing Wikipedia articles with wiki markup.

Wikipedia markup cheatsheet at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

It was a great turnout, and while some brought laptops, some attendees could be seen working on their iPads, tablets and smartphones.

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Ann Matsuuchi, Instructional Techology Librarian/Professor, LaGuardia Community College, Adriel Luis, Curator -Digital & Emerging Media, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and Nancy A. Bulalacao-Leung, co-founder of Filipino American Museum (FAM), were among the speakers.

Lia Chang, Adriel Luis and Ann Matsuchi attend the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Check back for my in-depth interview with Adriel.

FAM co-founder, Nancy A. Bulalacao-Leung speaks at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

The event kicks off a month-long series of #WikiAPA meetups across the U.S. hosted by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Washington DC (9/4), Los Angeles (9/13), Seattle (9/17), Oakland (9/18), Bangkok (9/26), Chicago (9/29), San Diego (9/30) as well as remotely, with participants taking part from all throughout the world. More are still being added.

Washington, DC

Date: Friday, September 4, 2015
Time: 1:00 pm.– 5:00 pm EDT
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
Details: WikiAPA Editathon 2015 in Washington, DCCheck out the #WikiAPA in the city near you.

For more information about the #WikiAPA series, please visit Smithsonian APA – Wiki or follow #WikiAPA on Twitter.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Wikipedia_APA

http://smithsonianapa.org/wiki/

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Ann Matsuuchi, Instructional Technology/Librarian/Associate Professor, LaGuardia Community College speaks at Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Karen Li-Lun Hwang and Ann Matsuuchi, Instructional Technology/Librarian/Associate Professor, LaGuardia Community College at Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Artists Lorin Roser and Nina Kuo attend Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's Editathon at Museum of Modern Art in New York on September 2, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang

Los Angeles / Pasadena

Date: Sunday, September 13, 2015
Time: 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Location: Art Center College of Design, James Lemont Fogg Memorial Library

Oakland

Date: Friday, September 18, 2015
Time: 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm PDT
Location: Oakland Museum of California
RSVP: Eventbrite

Seattle

Date: Thursday, September 17, 2015
Time: 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Location: Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, at 719 S King Street
Public transit: Link Light Rail (International District/Chinatown), King County Metro
Proposed scope of work
Please RSVP: here

Click here to RSVP for Chicago’s #WikiAPA on Tuesday, September 29, 2015.

San Diego

Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Time: 2:00 pm.– 5:00 pm PST
Location: Geisel Library, University of California San Diego
RSVP: WikiAPA Editathon 2015 in San Diego, California

Global Campaign: Asia

Bangkok

Date: Saturday, September 26, 2015
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: dtac headquater, Chamchuri Square [1]
Public transit: MRT (Bangkok)
Please RSVP: m:Wikimedians in Thailand/2015 Smithsonian APA

Lia Chang

Other Articles
FebOne Blog: THE VERSATILE LIA CHANG
AsAmNews.com: Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Ruby Yang talks about her new film, My Voice, My Life
AsAmNews.com: Actor Tzi Ma Rides ‘Hell On Wheels’ to New Heights
AsAmNews.com: First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian Art Museum in SF, Sept. 4–Oct. 11
AsAmNews.com: Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center to host 2nd annual Wikipedia APA in September
AsAmNews.com: What’s Next for Sesame Street’s Alan Muraoka, Director of Critically Acclaimed The Report
AsAmNews.com: Eric Ting is the New Artistic Director of the California Shakespeare Theater
AsAmNews.com: Longtime Asian American Reporter in New York Wins Lifetime Achievement Award
AsAmNews.com: Sesame Street’s Alan Muraoka Directs New Off Broadway Drama THE REPORT
AsAmNews.com: The King and I’s Jose Llana, Ruthie Ann Miles and Betsy Morgan Perform Concert in the Park
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: First Look at THE REPORT as Part of FringeNYC
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: Phylicia Rashad, Andre De Shields & More Original Cast Members from THE WIZ Reunite in Central Park!
AsAmNews.com: China: Through the Looking Glass Extended by The Met until Labor Day
AsAmNews.com: Arthur Dong’s Forbidden City, USA: Chinese American Nightclubs, 1936-1970 wins American Book Award
AsAmNews.com: Four Playwrights to Explore the Intersections of Orange County Diversity Through SCR’s CrossRoads
AsAmNews.com: Future Looks Bright for Asian American Cinema
AsAmNews.com: Asian American Tweeters Get Special Shout-out in Playbill
Playbill.com: Retweet! BroadwayGirlNYC’s Picks For Most Useful Theatre Women on Social Media
AsAmNews.com:Playing Hide And Seek With Actress Lia Chang
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA Cast Reunion featured in BLACK BELT MAGAZINE August/September 2015
Drumhead Magazine: Living Colour Drummer Will Calhoun, Photos by Lia Chang
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Late Night at the Met: China Through the Looking Glass open until Midnight

September 4, 2015, 2:11 pm

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For the final weekend of the extraordinarily popular Costume Institute exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition will remain open to the public for three additional hours, closing at midnight tonight and tomorrow. The Museum normally closes at 9:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings. The exhibition closes on Labor Day, Monday, September 7.