See the Fawzis, an Egyptian immigrant family in southern California struggling to find their place within American society. Marvel as they painstakingly navigate inter-generational conflict, their Islamic faith, and the values of two cultures.
East meets West meets mayhem in this Muslim-American family comedy evoking universal themes of faith, culture, belonging, and desire. Ten Acrobats adds a brand new chapter to the American immigrant narrative as captured on stage.
Dragon Lady. Lotus Blossom. The woman who died a thousand deaths. China Doll is the story of a Chinatown girl who dreams about making it big in Hollywood. An award-winning play, this sensual fantasia takes inspiration from the remarkable life of Anna May Wong, America’s first and brightest Chinese American movie star: her loves, her struggles, her humiliations, her triumphs. From her humble beginnings to the rigors of training in the studio system of Louis B. Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn, to the heights of success in such classic films as Shanghai Express with Marlene Dietrich, this is a loving and unflinching homage to a woman ahead of her time.
Celestial Motions tells the story of what happens when Leela’s parents, who immigrated to the US from India, are forced to confront a big mistake—they had forgotten to take daylight savings time into account when they had Leela’s Hindu astrological chart drawn at her birth. Accordingly, they have the chart redrawn and the startling prediction sets the 25-year old woman on a journey of arranged dating and cyber romance as her parents desperately try to preserve their family’s identity. Little do they realize that Leela’s destiny is closer than either they or Leela can imagine. An intercultural romantic comedy.
See the Fawzis, an Egyptian immigrant family struggling to find their place within American society. Marvel as they painstakingly navigate inter-generational conflict, their Islamic faith, and the values of two cultures. East meets West meets mayhem in this Muslim American family comedy evoking universal themes of faith, culture, belonging, and desire. Ten Acrobats adds a brand new chapter to the American immigrant narrative as captured on stage.
In Calling Aphrodite, the exquisite and distinctive Keiko Kimura’s life is critically altered when war arrives in Japan. Standing at ground zero in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb falls, she is horribly disfigured. An American philanthropist engages a New York surgeon to take on the case of Keiko and other women scarred in the bombing—“the Hiroshima Maidens” of legend. As Keiko’s crisis crosses borders, her life becomes a quest for enlightenment, restoring her faith in humanity’s integrity and grace.
Performed as part of Woman Warrior Festival 2005
Gibran chronicles the epic and turbulent life of renowned artist-poet Khalil Gibran, from his poverty-stricken boyhood in Ottoman-controlled Lebanon to his adult travels as an artist in Cairo, Paris, Boston and New York City in the early 1900s. Although born with a broken heart and a tortured soul, Gibran struggles to deliver his message to the world: We are all infinitely more than we think and all we can do is find out how much we are. In the end this dream, combined with the tragic and breathtaking events of his life, compels him to write The Prophet, a book that is now the second-best-selling book in American history.
What happened to the women of the Japanese American internment? How did these brave women keep hope in the American dream alive? Based on transcripts, documents, personal testimonies, and interviews with Japanese American female internees, Chay Yew’s Question 27, Question 28 is both heart-wrenching and inspiring, weaving together stories of the struggles, resilience and courage of Japanese American female detainees held in the American internment camps during World War II.
Performed as part of the Day of Remembrance
Two government officials pay an Arab American man, Khalid, a seemingly innocuous visit. What begins as a “friendly” inquiry soon devolves into a chilling, full-blown investigation of Khalid’s presumed ties to terrorists. Alternating between the surreal and comic, Back of the Throat examines the way in which facts, evidence and (mis)perceptions are used to distort the truth and how notions of cultural “otherness” impact the relationship between the accusers and the accused.
