11/21/2014 7:30pm
The Performance Project @ University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002
Award-winning lyricist/librettist Robert Lee (Heading East, Takeaway) has curated an evening of short new musicals all inspired by traditional Asian ghost stories and created by Asian American composers and lyricists. The Asian American actors of Leviathan Lab will perform the first staged readings of these musicals; each performance will be followed by a talk-back and reception. Join us for this creative celebration of New York’s Asian American theater community.
Leviathan Lab, in collaboration with The Performance Project @ University Settlement present GHOST STORIES, two evenings of staged readings of new short musicals inspired by Asian ghost stories, featuring Asian American musical theatre writers and their collaborators. The short musicals will feature the writing teams of Sam Chanse & Bob Kelly, Katie Baldwin Eng & Jeff Tang, and Yan Li & Jason Purdy. The cast includes Cindy Cheung (Off-Broadway: THE GREAT IMMENSITY), Brooke Ishibashi (Off-Broadway: GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN, TAKARAZUKA!!!), Manna Nichols (NY Innovative Theatre Award Nominee), Thom Sesma (Broadway: THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’, MAN OF LA MANCHA, NICK & NORA), and Steven Eng (Board of Directors, National Asian Artists Project). The musical readings are curated by bookwriter/lyricist Robert Lee (TAKEAWAY, HEADING EAST; faculty, NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program), and directed by Tony Award-winner BD Wong (Broadway: M. BUTTERFLY; Law & Order: SVU, Oz, Jurassic World), with music direction by Andrew Wheeler (Off-Broadway: NAKED BOYS SINGING, NEWSICAL), dramaturgical advisor Donatella Galella (faculty, The New School), and Leviathan Lab Artistic Director Flordelino Lagundino (MFA in Directing 2015, Brown University). This creative celebration of New York’s Asian American theatre community will include artist talkbacks and reception led by Leviathan Lab Applied Theatre Initiative Co-Director Claro De Los Reyes.
Leviathan Lab’s GHOST STORIES is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and co-presented as part of Leviathan Lab’s 2014-2015 Artists Residency at the Performance Project at University Settlement.
For more information, please visit
http://www.leviathanlab.com/#/ghost-stories/