The Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists’ (CAATA) 3rd National Asian American Theater Festival will feature the works of Asian American performers and stories from around the world and local Los Angeles companies. The presenters will hail from all areas, including New York, Massachusetts, the San Francisco Bay Area and reaching as far as Munich, Germany. The festival will feature an eclectic array of multidisciplinary arts that include traditional theatre, dance, multimedia, storytelling, aerial arts and spoken word. The festival will take place June 16–26, 2011 in Los Angeles, with the core of the performances happening June 23–26, 2011.
The core participating performers of the festival are:
The National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO)
RasaNova Theater
Performance Artist Denise Uyehara
Navarasa Dance Theater
Performance Duo: Aerial Artist/Actor Kennedy Kabasares and Multidisciplinary Performance Artist Traci Kato-Kiriyama
Multidisciplinary Artist Soomi Kim
Post Natyam Collective
Writer/Performer Jason Magabo Perez
Comic Duo: Writer/Performer Prince Gomolvilas and Singer/Songwriter Brandon Patton
Writer/Performer May Lee-Yang
These core participating performers will present their productions in alternating performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 23–25, 2011 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 2 p.m and 4 p.m.
The two theatrical productions include NAATCO’s presentation of A Number by Caryl Churchill—when Bernard learns that he was cloned he confronts his father who knew all along—featuring an all Asian American cast, and RasaNova Theater’s presentation of Dancing on Glass by Ram Ganesh Kamatham. This dark comedy is an eloquent response to the rapid changes in the cityscape of Bangalore in 2004, in the thick of the outsourcing buzz.
Three of the shorter performance pieces will be presented together in one time-slot. Denise Uyehara’s Archipelago: Islands of Land, Water and Legend will utilize video, monologues, music and ritual to narrate the origin myths of Okinawa and Native people of the American Southwest. Navarasa Dance Theater will use dance to explore the different kinds of ways people Encounter each other in contemporary human life. And in Pull Kennedy Kabasares and Traci Kato-Kiriyama will blend monologues, recorded interviews and aerial arts to tell stories of people’s obsessions.
The growing use of projection in theatrical story-telling will be featured in three festival pieces. Soomi Kim’s new work Dictee is a multi-media dance theater performance based on the text of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s seminal literary collage. Post Natyam Collective’s Sunoh! Tell Me Sister layers video, dance and theater to bring to life subversive stories of women’s erotic power and resistance. Jason Magbo Perez’s The Passion of El Hulk Hogancito is a transdisciplinary, multi-media, literary performance that is a semi-autobiography of Perez’s life.
Comic story-telling will also be highlighted by two performances. Comic duo Prince Gomovilas and Brandon Patton’s Jukebox Stories is a critically acclaimed story-telling, song-singing, bingo-playing performance that has toured nationwide. In May Lee-Yang’s Ten Reasons Why’d I’d Be a Bad Porn Star, she employs comedic storytelling, on-site sex toy demonstrations and some cultural competency training as she explores relationship and taboo topics.
In addition, there will be performances by partner organizations. East West Players will present its new hip-hop musical Krunk-Fu Battle Battle. The Geffen Playhouse will presents the world premiere of Extraordinary Chambers. And two of the winners from 2008 East West Players’ Pacific Century playwriting competition will be presented; The Colony Theatre Company will presents the 3rd place winner Year Zero and The Company of Angels will present the 1st place winner Sun Sisters. Recently added are Grove Theater Center’s A Book By its Cover by Damon Chua (June 24 – July 23) and Kollaboration’s Acoustic 5 (June 17)
2011 National Asian American Theater Festival Promo
More about Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA)
The Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists envisions a strong and sustainable Asian American Theater community that is an integral presence in national culture—evocative of our past, declarative of our present, and innovative towards our future. Our mission is to advance the field of Asian American Theater through a national network of organizations and artists. We collaborate to inspire leaning and sharing of knowledge, and resources to promote a healthy, sustainable artistic ecology.
