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Press Release
Pull Date: September 3, 2011
ReAct Presents the Northwest Premiere of David Henry Hwang's award-winning new play YELLOW FACE with the Pork Filled Players
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Richard Hugo House, August 5 - September 3, 2011: ReAct Theatre,
Seattle's only Multi-ethnic Philanthropic Theatre Company, and the Pork Filled Players, Seattle's oldest Sketch Comedy Troupe, proudly join forces to present the Northwest
premiere of YELLOW FACE, the Pulitzer-finalist and Obie-award winning comic mock documentary about mistaken racial identity by David Henry Hwang. Casting himself as the protagonist, Hwang recounts his hard-hitting attempts to protest yellow face casting in Miss Saigon on Broadway—and his own accidental casting of a white man as Asian. Mixing real events, real headlines and real people with fictional characters and
dramatic license, YELLOW FACE explores and pokes fun at the role of race in modern American society, media, politics and theatre.
YELLOW FACE opens on Friday, August 5th with an 8:00pm
performance and post-show gala. It runs Fridays at 8:00pm, and Saturdays at 2:00 pm and 8:00pm through September 3rd. All
performances will be held at the air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible
Richard Hugo House, which is located at 1634 Eleventh Avenue on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Street and paylot parking is available
throughout the neighborhood or in the Hugo House lot behind the building. Special door prizes are also raffled off at the
start of every performance.
Ticket prices are $15 General Admission; $12 Students/Seniors/Military/Disabled; and $9 for Children, with a $3 discount when purchased in advance. Additionally, the 2pm matinee performances on Saturday August 6th and Saturday August 13th are both "Pay-What-You-Can" performances. For more information and ticket reservations, please call the ReAct box office at (206) 364-3283 or visit online at www.reacttheatre.org. Advanced tickets are also available though the following outlets:
•Brown Paper Tickets: (800) 838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com for online, walk-up or charge-by-phone orders.
•Elliott Bay Book Company: (206) 624-6600 or (800) 962-5311 for walk-up orders starting July 1st.
Additional information is also available at:
•The Pork Filled Players: www.porkfilled.com.
Directed by ReAct's Artistic Director, David Hsieh, and co-produced by Pork Filled Players' Artistic Director, Roger Tang, this local premiere co-production of
YELLOW FACE stars the local multi-ethnic talents of Julia Beers, Jeremy R. Behrens, Stephanie Kim, Agastya Kohli, Lee Osorio, Henry Vu, and Moses Yim. Lighting designed by Maggie Lee, costumes by Jocelyne Fowler, sound by Johanna Melamed, and stage management by Jason Panzer.
David Henry Hwang's other plays include M. Butterfly (1988 Tony Award,
1989 Pulitzer Prize Finalist), Golden Child (1998 Tony Award nomination, 1997
OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), The Dance and the Railroad (1982 Drama
Desk Award nomination), Family Devotions (1982 Drama Desk Award nomination), Face Values
and Bondage. He wrote the libretti for the Broadway musicals Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song
(revival, 2002 Tony Award nomination) and Disney's Tarzan. In opera, his
libretti include four works with composer Philip Glass: The Voyage
(Metropolitan Opera), 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, Sound and Beauty (seen in
Chicago at the Court Theatre), and the upcoming Icarus at the Edge of Time; as
well as Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards), Unsuk Chin's
Alice in Wonderland (Opernwelt 2007 "World Premiere of the Year") and
Howard Shore's The Fly. Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden
Gate and Possession (co-author), and co-wrote the song "Solo" with Prince.
He sits on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, and served by appointment of
President Clinton on the President's Committee on the Arts and the
Humanities. His newest show, Chinglish, premieres at Chicago's Goodman
Theatre this July and will be at New York's Public Theatre for their 2011-12
season.
Established in 1993, ReAct strives to provide affordable quality entertainment using primarily non-traditional and multi-ethnic casting. Its purpose is to give artists of all backgrounds the opportunity to work on mainstream projects they might not normally have access to due to ethnicity, gender, age or experience. A federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit philanthropic company, ReAct also works to serve our community by using its productions to raise money, awareness and supplies for other arts and humanitarian organizations. ReAct's portion of this co-production will benefit the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, Theatre Puget Sound, and other charities.
Since 1997, the Pork Filled Players have waged a never-ending battle to
tickle the funny bone of audiences of every race, creed and gender across the
Northwest. Beneath their guises as mild-mannered engineers, journalists and
office workers, the Players have honed humor like a scalpel (or is it dull
meat cleaver?) to whack away at notions of race, class and gender in 21st
Century America. Writing their own, original sketch comedy or producing
Northwest premieres of traditional comedic plays, the Players are the
Northwest's longest-lived institution for Asian American theatre, with humor
to achieve maximum tongue-in-cheekiness, biting cultural/political satire and
hilarious racial disharmony with Amazing Kung-Fu Grip(tm) zaniness.
Performance Fact Sheet:
WHO: The Repertory Actors Theatre (ReAct Theatre) and the Pork Filled Players.
WHAT: YELLOW FACE
by David Henry Hwang.
WHERE: Richard Hugo House
1634 Eleventh Ave, Seattle, WA
WHEN: August 5 - September 3, 2011
playing Fridays at 8:00pm, and Saturdays at 2:00pm and 8:00pm.
HOW: Tickets/Reservations: Call (206) 364-3283 or visit http://www.reactacttheatre.org
General Admission: $15
Students/Seniors/Military/Disabled: $12
Children (ages 8-11): $9
Save $3 off admission by purchasing tickets in advance. Save $1 Off admission with a foodbank donation presented at the ReAct Box Office.
Two "Pay-What-You-Can" performances at 2:00pm on Saturday, August 6th at 2:00pm and on Saturday August 13th at 2:00pm.
Group Discount Rates are also available for parties of 10 or more.
Special ($6) Day of Show Rush Tickets for Theatre Artists are also available as space allows.
Advanced discounted tickets are also available through Brown Paper Tickets (800) 838-3006,
http://www.brownpapertickets.com ; and other fine outlets, including the
Elliott Bay Book Company on Capitol Hill.
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PUBLICITY PHOTOS:
Please Click on thumbnail for Hi-Res image
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Lee Osorio as Marcus, Stephanie Kim as Leah and Moses Yim as DHH in ReAct's Northwest Premiere of Yellow Face.
Photo: David Hsieh.
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The cast of ReAct's local premiere of Yellow Face
Photo: David Hsieh.
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Moses Yim as DHH with Henry Vu as HYH in ReAct's staging of Yellow Face.
Photo: David Hsieh.
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Moses Yim as DHH with Jeremy R. Behrens as Anthony in a scene from ReAct's local premiere of Yellow Face playing at Richard Hugo House.
Photo: David Hsieh.
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Julia Beers as Jane and Lee Osorio as Marcus in a scene from ReAct's Seattle Premiere of Yellow Face.
Photo: David Hsieh.
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Additional images and graphics are available on our Box Office page or our Homepage.
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Press Release
Pull Date: August 15, 2011
ReAct and the Pork Filled Players welcome playwright David Henry Hwang
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The Pork Filled Players and Repertory Actors Theatre welcome David Henry
Hwang, the award winning playwright, who visits Seattle the weekend of
August 13. Winner of multiple Obies as well as the Tony for M. BUTTERFLY,
Hwang is in Seattle for the Pacific Northwest premiere of his play, YELLOW
FACE (which the Players and ReAct are producing).
Hwang will first attend the 8pm, August 13 performance of YELLOW FACE, at
the Richard Hugo House (1634 11th Ave., Seattle). YELLOW FACE runs August
5 to September 3, Fridays at 8 pm and Saturdays at 2 pm and 8 pm. Hwang
will participate in a talkback session after the play. YELLOW FACE is a
comic "mockumentary" where Hwang casts himself as the protagonist, who
battles Miss Saigon's casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Asian
engineer—nly to end up accidentally casting a white man as his Asian
hero. Tickets can be bought online at Brown Paper Tickets; for info, go to
www.reacttheatre.org, www.porkfilled.com or call (206) 364-3283.
On Sunday, August 14, Hwang will be appearing at Elliot Bay Books (1521
10th Avenue, Seattle) starting at 2 pm, discussing his past works and
plays with local arts advocate Mayumi Tsutakawa, including his newest,
CHINGLISH, now finishing up its run at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and
is now preparing for a run on Broadway.
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NEWS PHOTOS:
Please Click on thumbnail for Hi-Res image
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Award-winning Asian American playwright, David Henry Hwang.
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Press Release
Pull Date: Indefinite
ReAct Opens the Prima Vera Arts Center
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May 13, 2006. Seattle's only Multi-ethnic Philanthropic Theatre Company, ReAct, has
great news to share - the launching of Prima Vera Arts Center. Located in the
Seattle Center area at 112 5th Avenue North, 2nd Floor, the new center will be
ReAct's primary rehearsal and meeting space.
ReAct has been prominently featured in the news this year as a result of a
series of burglaries during three different productions at three different
locations over the past three years. After hearing of ReAct's bad luck and upon
seeing ReAct's most recent production of To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, Vera
and Joey Ing decided it was time to help ReAct turn their luck around. The 2nd
Floor of their property across the street from KOMO-TV's Fisher Plaza was
available, so the Seattle couple decided to donate the space for ReAct to use.
They are thrilled at the opportunity to create a gathering place for a
multi-ethnic company like ReAct, and want to see the space come alive with and
being utilized by artists. They adored not only To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, but also
ReAct's original adaptation of The Joy Luck Club, ReAct's premiere of Uncle Hideki and the Empty Nest
written by their close friend and local author Jean Davies Okimoto, and many other Asian American supportive theatre works to come.
Vera Ing serves on the Liquor Control Board and has been involved with many
civic organizations such as Seattle Center, Mt. Baker Community Club,
International District Improvement Association, International Rotary, and North
Seattle Community College Foundation. She has also served on the executive
boards of United Way, Asian American Management Association and the University
of Washington Women Resource Center. Joey Ing, retired, was the principal
architect with Ing & Associates. A few of his projects include the design for
the International Children's Park in Seattle's International District and
Anthony's at Pier 66.
ReAct will share the space with SIS Productions and Pork Filled Players.
All three performing arts companies focus on developing the writing, acting,
production and producing skills of local Asian American and multi-cultural
talent.
The three groups celebrated the opening of the
Prima Vera Arts Center, named after the space's benefactor, on Saturday, May 13, 2006 with a Ribbon Ceremony and Open House.
"It's appropriate that a new space that will serve the Asian American
performing arts groups in the area should open during May, which is recognized
as Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month," states David Hsieh, Managing
Artistic Director of ReAct.
The building is located between 5th Ave N. & Taylor Ave N. just off of
Denny Ave N. on the East side of the Seattle Center, right next to Fat City
Auto, across the street from KOMO-TV, and down the street from McDonald's. The
monorail track runs right in front of the building. The front of the building is
painted red and is a small, 2-story store front. The entrance is on the
back-side of the building (painted purple with gray trim) on the 2nd floor
(above the body building studio).
The Repertory Actors Theatre strives to produce quality theatrical
entertainment using primarily multi-ethnic and non-traditional casting, by:
• Giving theatre artists of all backgrounds and skill-levels the
opportunity to work together on mainstream projects that they might not normally
have access to due to race, sex, age, or experience.
• Using our productions to help raise awareness, supplies and financial
support for humanitarian and theatre-related charities and organizations.
• Developing in the general public, an increased appreciation for the dramatic
and performing arts.
SIS Productions is a production company that strives to create, develop and
produce quality works that involve Asian American women, their themes, and Asian
American issues. SIS Productions encourages opportunities and support for Asian
American women to be involved in all aspects of the production of artistic
endeavors.
The Pork Filed Players is Seattle second oldest sketch comedy group. Since
1997, PFP has been the Northwest's premiere Asian American sketch comedy group,
touring from Eugene, Oregon to Vancouver, BC, racking up appearances at the
very first two Seattle Sketchfests, Bumbershoot 2004 and SketchOff@%#?!, the
first international Asian sketch comedy competition. Over the years, the
Players have employed an ever changing cast of characters in their never-ending
battle for truth, pursuit of justice and finding out whatever the hell they
mean by the American way of life in the 21st Century.
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NEWS PHOTOS:
Please Click on thumbnail for Hi-Res image
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The building owners and leaders from ReAct, SIS Productions and PFP, open the Prima Vera Arts Center with a Ribbon Ceremony.
Photo: Roger Tang.
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The entrance of ReAct's new Prima Vera Arts Center.
Photo: Roger Tang.
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Another photo of the Prima Vera Arts Center.
Photo: Roger Tang.
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Press Release
Pull Date: Indefinite
ReAct's Storage Facility Broken Into and Ransacked
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Seattle, March 22, 2006: As the staff of ReAct Theatre was preparing for their 2006 season opener later
this week, the poignant family drama TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY, they
discovered that their south Seattle storage unit had been broken into, and
thousands of dollars worth of irreplaceable costumes, props, set pieces and
supplies had been stolen and ransacked.
The company's artistic director, David Hsieh, made the discovery yesterday
afternoon when he visited their Public Storage rented facility on Martin
Luther King Jr Way near Boeing Field, on Tuesday. He was stopping by to
retrieve additional props, set dressings, lobby display tables and opening
night party supplies. Hsieh was shocked and devastated. ReAct's storage unit
was left in shambles, and even at first glance he could instantly tell that a
lot of the company's assets, accumulated from nearly 15 years of production
had been taken or damaged. The storage unit is located at 10020 M.L. King Way
South.
For any company, this is a difficult hit to take... But this
crime is particularly difficult for ReAct, a small non-profit theater company
which donates its production proceeds to other arts and humanitarian
charities, and works to provide opportunities for artists of color. This is
unluckily the third theft crime that ReAct has had to endure in the past four
years... A rash of theater break-ins by vagrants at the Bathhouse Theatre
during the summer of 2003, cost the company an estimated $3000+ in pilfered
period props and costumes, photographic equipment and concessions supplies
when ReAct rented the space for their critically acclaimed production of the
World War II drama, THE HASTY HEART. And just one year ago during ReAct's
production of THE SHAPE OF THINGS by Neil LaBute, their locked dressing rooms
at Richard Hugo House were accessed and the company lost $1500 worth of
electronic projection equipment that was used in that show.
"I can't believe it! This sucks!" exclaimed ReAct Board member Angela DiMarco,
yesterday when Hsieh contacted the company's board and supporters to inform
them of the news. "It's just about all we have." The locking mechanism of
ReAct's storage unit had been pulled completely off. There has reportedly been
a string of recent break ins at that Public Storage facility in the past
several months. Hsieh last visited the unit three weeks ago to grab some set
pieces that needed to be repainted, and at that time, all was fine.
With ReAct's impending show opening tomorrow night, it will probably take the
company's bare-bones staff and volunteers days just to even begin cleaning up
and accessing the total loss. Sadly, other companies are also affected, as
ReAct regularly loaned costumes, props and set pieces to other theater
companies, including the Village Theatre, SiS Productions, and Theater
Schmeater, just to name a recent few, as well as to many individual artists.
If you have any information regarding these thefts, you are urged to please
contact Officer Lee at the Seattle Police Department, case #06-116237. If you would like to
help in any other way, please contact ReAct Theatre at (206)364-3283 or by email.
For ReAct, as always, the show must go on. The cast, crew and board has
scampered to replace some of the lost stored items that were going to be used
in their current show. Although many of the items taken or damaged may not
have any high "street value"... to a theater company this size, they hold a
great deal of monetary, intrinsic and not to mention historical and
sentimental value, and the loss is a huge setback. ReAct's new Seattle
production of TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY by Michael Brady, the
heart-warming family drama ironically about a widowers struggle to overcome
his loss and grief, opens tomorrow and plays at Richard Hugo House through
April 9th.
If you would like to help, aside from making a tax-deductible donation, please
just spread the word to everyone you know about the incident. Someone
somewhere may knows something that could perhaps lead to the recovery of some
of the stolen property, or the apprehension of the culprit(s). A list of the
missing items will be posted on ReAct's website next week after total loss and
damages are assessed this weekend. ReAct also encourages you to please come
support their current show if you can...Tickets are very inexpensive. It won't
bring back their loss, but it will certainly help the company survive and move
forward.
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NEWS PHOTOS:
Please Click on thumbnail for Hi-Res image
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To access ReAct's storage unit the cuplrits tore ReAct's lock clean through the gate locking mechanism.
Photo: David Hsieh.
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The ransackers left ReAct's storage unit in shambles after pilfering through everything.
Photo: David Hsieh.
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