Two Obie Award-winning theater companies -- The Play Company and Ma-Yi Theater -- will collaborate this spring to present the New York premiere of Lloyd Suh's new play AMERICAN HWANGAP, with previews to begin May 9, prior to an official press opening May 17 Off-Broadway at The Wild Project (195 East 3rd Street) in Manhattan. Trip Cullman directs an ensemble cast featuring some of the country's most accomplished Asian American actors, including James Saito (TV's "Eli Stone" and Obie winner for DURANGO), Michi Barall (Charles Mee's QUEENS BOULEVARD), Mia Katigbak (DOGEATERS), Peter Kim (THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE), and Hoon Lee (YELLOWFACE).
AMERICAN HWANGAP is Mr. Suh's comedy, set in a West Texas suburb where a Korean American family prepares for the return of the husband and father who left them 15 years earlier to go back to his native Korea. Having chosen to return to the U.S. to celebrate his "hwangap" -- the Korean expression for the traditional, much-revered milestone of one's 60th birthday -- patriarch Min Suk Chun sets off all manner of comic and heart-wrenching speculation and suspicion amongst his wife and grown children about the real reason for his homecoming. That one of them should end up sitting naked in a tree before the "hwangap" is concluded is just part of what makes this family reunion so memorable and unique.
Mr. Suh -- author of THE CHILDREN OF VONDERLY presented Off-Broadway by Ma-Yi Theater in 2007 -- notes that he was prompted to write AMERICAN HWANGAP as his family was preparing for his own father's "hwangap" in 2005, which coincided with the 60th anniversary of Korean Independence Day, a milestone not truly marked in a nation that still leaves families divided between North and South Korea.
AMERICAN HWANGAP opens in New York following its world premiere this April at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, with subsequent productions, including an engagement at Tanghalang Pilipino in the Philippines slated for next year. Mr. Suh's play is the first work to be presented as part of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's recent grant to the NY-based Lark Play Development Center that will "create a movement" around new plays by providing funding for successive multiple productions (including an international venue) of a new play. Kate Loewald, Founding Producer of The Play Company, and Ralph B. Peña, Artistic Director of Ma-Yi, are thrilled to be joining forces to produce this new work, stating that "a 'rolling premiere' that gives a play multiple productions in many different communities truly supports new American writing in an exciting way: plays have the chance to deepen over time, taking shape and growing in front of audiences."
James Saito, featured on television's "Eli Stone," won a 2007 Obie Award for his performance in Julia Cho's DURANGO at The Public, and has appeared on Broadway in THE KING AND I and David Henry Hwang's GOLDEN CHILD, in addition to numerous television, film and Off-Broadway credits, including Ms. Cho's BFE and Fay Kanin's RASHOMON.
Mia Katigbak, recently co-starred in the National Asian American Theatre Company's world premiere of Karen Hartman's LEAH'S TRAIN and revival of Tennessee William's OUT CRY, and has appeared Off-Broadway in DOGEATERS at The Public and LIGHT RAISE THE ROOF at New York Theatre Workshop.
Michi Barall appeared in Sung Rno's wAve (Ma-Yi) and Yoji Sakate's THE ATTIC (The Play Co.), in addition to several Off-Broadway plays, including John Guare's A FEW STOUT INDIVIDUALS, Charles Mee's QUEENS BOULEVARD (THE MUSICAL), and Sarah Schulman's Carson McCullers (HISTORICALLY INACCURATE).
Hoon Lee recently appeared in David Henry Hwang's YELLOW FACE at The Public, portrayed Rosencrantz in the 2008 Shakespeare in the Park staging of HAMLET, and co-starred in Mr. Miyagi Theater Company's SIDES: THE FEAR IS REAL.
Peter Kim made his Broadway debut in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE; Off-Broadway he has been featured in Mr. Miyagi Theater Company's SIDES: THE FEAR IS REAL and Yoko Ono's musical NEW YORK ROCK.
AMERICAN HWANGAP has scenic design by Erik Flatmo, costume design by Junghyun Georgie Lee, lighting design by Paul Whitaker and sound design by Fitz Patton.
Playwright Lloyd Suh is also the author of THE CHILDREN OF VONDERLY, THE GARDEN VARIETY (South Coast Repertory commission), and MASHA NO HOME (first produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre; West Coast Premiere at East West Players), as well as several shorter plays, including NOT ALL KOREAN GIRLS CAN FLY (EST Marathon 2006) and WITH A HAMMER &A NAIL (EST/Thicker Than Water 2002). A graduate of Indiana University and the New School, he is an alum of the Dramatists Guild Playwriting Fellowship program, EST's Youngblood, and the Lark Theatre's Playwrights' Workshop. He is Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writer's Lab and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Actors Studio. He directed NAATCO's world-premiere production of Michael Golamco's COWBOY V. SAMURAI.
Director Trip Cullman's Off-Broadway credits include Adam Bock's DRUNKEN CITY and SWIMMING IN THE SHALLOWS; Gina Gionfriddo's U.S. DRAG; Terrence McNally's SOME MEN; Burt V. Royal's DOG SEES GOD; Robert Aguirre-Sacassa's DARK MATTERS; The Play Company's productions of Bob Farquhar's BAD JAZZ, Roland Schimmelpfennig's ARABIAN NIGHT, and Brook Berman's SMASHING; Jonathan Tolins' THE LAST SUNDAY IN JUNE; Rinne Groff's OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS; and Sarah Schulman's MANIC FLIGHT REACTION; among other New York productions. Upcoming projects include Terrence McNally's UNUSUAL ACTS OF DEVOTION at La Jolla Playhouse.
AMERICAN HWANGAP is an apt co-production for The Play Company and Ma-Yi Theater with their respective missions to present new works by writers from international backgrounds: Along with new American works, The Play Company has presented premieres of plays by writers from Poland, England, Scotland, Romania, Japan, Germany, India and Russia, while Ma-Yi has presented numerous plays by Asian American playwrights.
The Play Company is dedicated to advancing an international view of contemporary playwriting, linking New York City artists and audiences to a whole world of plays, and placing American work in a global context. Play Co. produces unusual, ambitious work that reflects and responds to the issues and events that shape our time. Recent productions include the U.S. premieres of Przemyslaw Wojcieszek's MADE IN POLAND (Poland); Robert Farquhar's BAD JAZZ (England), directed by Mr. Cullman; Vijay Tendulkar's SAKHARAM BINDER (India); Yoji Sakate's THE ATTIC (Japan); and The Presnyakov Brothers' TERRORISM (Russia); as well as world premieres of the American plays SMASHING by Brooke Berman and HIGH DIVE by Leslie Ayvazian. Play Co. received a 2007 Obie Award for its "unique contribution to the theatre community." The Play Company is under the guidance of Kate Loewald, Founding Producer, and Lauren Weigel, Managing Producer.
Ma-Yi Theater Company, one of the nation's leading theater companies presenting works by Asian American writers about the Asian American experience, most recently presented the premiere of Mr. Suh's play THE CHILDREN OF VONDERLY Off-Broadway at CSC in 2007, a play Neil Genzlinger called, "sensitive and savvy, an insightful and risk-taking new drama" about a multi-cultural family comprised of disabled orphans ruled by a domineering Jewish matriarch.
In its 20-year history, the company's best-known production is the multiple Obie Award-winning play THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO by Lonnie Carter. Ma-Yi was founded to develop new plays and performances about Asian American experiences -- challenging the perceptions of what culturally specific theater should be by producing forward-thinking plays by today's emerging playwrights. Recent productions include SOUL SAMURAI and TRIAL BY WATER by Qui Nguyen; the Drama Desk-nominated, Off-Broadway premiere of Tony Award-winner Warren Leight's NO FOREIGNERS BEYOND THIS POINT; Mr. Miyagi's Theatre Company's SIDES: THE FEAR IS REAL; Sung Rno's wAve; Han Ong's MIDDLE FINGER and WATCHER; and Alice Tuan's LAST OF THE SUNS. Ma-Yi Theater Company is under the guidance of Ralph B. Peña, Artistic Director, and Jorge Z. Ortoll, Executive Director.
Performances of AMERICAN HWANGAP run May 9-June 7 at The Wild Project (195 East 3rd Street); Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 p.m; and Sundays at 4 p.m. (with the following exception, Sunday, May 17 at 6p.m.). Tickets are $25, and can be reserved by calling 212-352-3101.
