Queens Theatre's NEW AMERICAN VOICES
Rob Urbinati, Director of New Play Development
presents
SHORTS!
An Evening of Short Plays
Featuring plays by Lucy Wang, Nina Ki, and Cary Wong
Directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar and Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li
A Is For American
by Lucy Wang, directed by Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li
Bad Chinese Daughter
by Lucy Wang, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar
One Small Step
by Nina Ki, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar
Our House (in the middle of our street)
by Cary Wong, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar
Primary Colors
by Nina Ki, directed by Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li
Suffragette Sixteen
by Lucy Wang, directed by Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li
CAST
Borah Ahn, Subin Kara Ahn, Shan Y. Chuang,
Stuart Green, Nancy Yao Maasbach, Charles Pang,
David Price, and Yeena Sung
Meet the Artists
Nina Ki - Playwright (she/her/hers) is a Queerean (Queer + Korean) American playwright who was born and raised in Los Angeles, but currently lives in Brooklyn. She graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2008 with a BFA in Dramatic Writing, and her plays have been read and produced nationwide, including with Queens Theatre, Brave New World Repertory, The Classical Theater of Harlem, The Living Room Theater, the HBMG Foundation, Funhouse, InspiraTO, and Another Country Productions. She is a recipient of ALAP's Diversity Fellowship, and recently her play “Moon Bear” was given special consideration for the Relentless Award. Her work has been published in LGBT Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny, the In Full Color anthology, and YouthPLAYS. To contact her or learn more about her work, please visit her website at www.nina-ki.com.
Aneesha Kudtarkar - Director (she/her) is a New York-based theatre director. She is a trained Indian Classical dancer who calls upon her background in dance to create compositionally driven pieces of theatre that often centralize and celebrate underrepresented communities. Her directorial projects include The Cherry Orchard (The New School) Romeo and Juliet (Two River Theatre, TinyShakes) The Who and the What (TheaterWorks Hartford) Men on Boats (Southern Methodist University), [Veil Widow Conspiracy] (National Asian American Theatre Company), Trouble in Mind (Yale School of Drama), The Purple Flower (Yale Cabaret), Mud (Hangar Theatre). Aneesha has also developed new work with Clubbed Thumb, Gingold Theatrical Group, and the Hunter MFA Playwriting Program. She is an alumna of the Yale School of Drama.
Lucy Wang - Playwright writes, teaches and performs. Her plays have been performed all over, and are available at Original Works Publishing, JAC Publishing, Amazon, One Act Depot, and YouthPLAYS. Wang has also written two short films (one of which she directed), and sold a pilot to Disney. Her awards include the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, Best New Political Social Play from the Katherine and Lee Chilcote Foundation, Berrilla Kerr Foundation, James Thurber Fellowship, CAPE’s New Writers TV Award, NATPE Diversity Fellow, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Honorary Fellow, Annenberg Community Beach House Writer in Residence. She currently teaches at E-script.ws and her papers are archived at the Huntington Library in San Marino.
Cary Wong - Playwright. Cary is a playwright and a critic. His play “Mirrors Remembered,” was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club, produced by New York Stage and Film and is available in print. Cary has enjoyed many great readings at Queens Theater including “The Cello Plays,” “Off-White/Eclipse,” “The Day After My Suicide” and two 10-minute plays in the Queen Scene series. His plays have had readings at New York Shakespeare Festival, East West Players, New Dramatists, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Mark Taper Forum. He was a founding member of the playwriting group at Queens Theater and the Asian American Playwrights Lab at the Public. As a film and theater critic, Cary received a third-place citation from the LA Press Club’s National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award. He recently started a reviews website at InterestedBystander.com. Cary’s biggest honor to date is winning the New Yorker’s Cartoon Caption Contest.
Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li - Director. Originally from Taiwan, Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li is a director, playwright, performer, and a performance artist. Dennis' works explore diaspora, sexuality, and power structure. Dennis is especially interested in adapting rarely produced modern classics by connecting them with the current socio-political phenomenon and issues. Dennis earned his MA in Performance Studies at New York University. Dennis worked extensively with The Living Theatre as an associate artistic director, and is an alumnus of the New York Directing Fellowship of Drama League and the Institute Fellowship of Target Margin Theater. Dennis is also a member of Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. Dennis is one of the grant recipients from the Queens Arts Fund of Queens Council on the Arts for his bilingual play, "Rhapsody M." Currently, Dennis works on the artistic director team of the newly founded Al Límite Collective. www.dennisyuehyehli.com
Queens Theatre
Staff
Taryn Sacramone, Executive Director
Connie Baker, Rentals and Events Manager
Victor Catano, Production Manager
Dominic D'Andrea, Director of Community Engagement
Richard Hinojosa, Director of Education
Alexis Lubin, Finance Manager
Willy Mosquera, Front of House Manager
Gregg Mozgala, Director of Inclusion
Bernadette Ott, Development Manager
Jay Rogers, General Manager
Rob Urbinati, Director of New Play Development
Board of Directors
Executive Committee
Gary Kesner, President
Tracy Capune, Vice President
Bruce Levine, Treasurer
Mark Misk, Secretary
Members
Georgiana Benatti
Bob Blenderman
Steve Chen
Salvatore DiMartino
Susan B. Lipsky
Irene Zoupaniotis
Ex-Officio
Frances A. Resheske, Board President Emeritus
Bill DeBlasio, New York City Mayor
Gonzalo Casals, Commissioner, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
Donovan Richards, Queens Borough President
Michael Dockett, Queens Borough Commissioner, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation