ELIZABETH WONG'S SHORT PROGRAM BIOGRAPHY AND PLAYSCRIPT LIST
THE OFFICIAL 8 X 10 GLOSSY PHOTO
WONG RECEIVES BEST DIRECTOR NOD FROM ATLANTA'S FOTE AWARD FOR DATING AND MATING IN MODERN TIMES
In the men's room, in front of the urinals, with the entire Atlanta cast of DATING AND MATING IN MODERN TIMES. The playwright/director smack in the middle.
Elizabeth Wong holds an MFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and she's proud of the recent accomplishments of fellow classmates Neil LaBute, Lamar Damon, Ilkka Jarvilaturi and Jennifer Maisel.
Her Off-Broadway award-winning play Letters To A Student Revolutionary, the first play in the country to respond to the Tiananmen Square massacre, was originally produced by Artistic Director Tisa Chang of Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, and directed by Ernest Abuba, www.panasianrep.org.
Kimchee & Chitlins, a spicy comedy about race relations in America and media coverage of the Black boycott of Korean-owned stores in New York City, was originally produced by Artistic Director Dennis Zacek at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, www.victorygardens.org.
"I was a general assignment newspaper reporter for 10 years, covering everything from cops and city hall in San Diego to aviation and transportation in Hartford, CT., but contrary to popular belief, I never covered the black boycott of the Korean stores in NYC. The inspiration for that play was Lai Ling Jew, a producer friend of mine at DATELINE in NYC," -- Elizabeth Wong
NYC debut. West End Theatre.
With the Pan Asian Rep cast and crew of CHINA DOLL. Left to right: Jamie Cummings, Sandy York as Marlene Dietrich, Peter von Berg, the playwright, Michael Scott, Rosanne Ma as Anna May Wong, Ruth Zhang, Robert Wedig, Nathan Claus the assistant stage manager, and Jackson Ning as Anna May's father.
TEN-MINUTE VERSION OF CHINA DOLL AWARDED "BEST MONOLOGUE" AND "BEST ACTRESS" AT TALLAWAH COMPETITION -- JAMAICA, WEST INDIES
All Asian Cast from Lodestone Theatre reading during L.A. EdgeFest at the Gene Autry Museum, Los Angeles. Tamyln Tomita (Joy Luck Club, The Karate Kid) played Anna May Wong. Clyde Kusatsu played her father.
Reclaiming American Cinematic History...
CHINA DOLL
(The Imagined Life of An American Actress)
By Elizabeth Wong
A Chinatown girl dreams about making it big in Hollywood during the halycon days of the movie power brokers Samuel Goldwyn and LB Mayer. This award-winning sensual tragedy takes its inspiration from the passionate life of America's first Chinese-American actress icon, Anna May Wong -- also known as the dragon lady or the woman who died a thousand deaths.
Winner of the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award
Winner of the Petersen Emerging Playwright Award
Winner of the Jane Chambers Award
Featured in the first inaugural New American Play Reading Series - Arena Stage, Washington DC
Developed by Denver Center Theatre, Asian Theatre Workshop/Mark Taper Forum, Bowdoin College, Northwest Asian American Theatre, and Harvard University's AA Players.
Workbook for the Pan Asian Production archived at Lincoln Center's Billy RoseTheatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
A 10-minute version available in "Contemporary Plays By Women of Color: An Anthology, " edited by Perkins and Uno, Routledge, 1996.
Cast: 2f, 4m (all Asian); 35, 5m (multicultural cast), roles are doubled. Bare stage, minimal props.
Running Time: 90 minutes.
For more information, please contact Dramatic Publishing Company, www.dramatic publishing.com
At Arena Stage, New American Plays Reading Series. With playwright Kia Corthron (left), artistic director Molly Smith, artistic associate Wendy Goldberg, and Tom Prewitt of Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
In Chicago. From the 2005 Silk Road Theatre Project reading of "China Doll," starring Lisa Tejero as Anna May Wong. Cast includes: Marc Rita, Vanessa Greenway, Cherly Hamada, James Foster, Derek Czaplewski, Steven Gilpin, Doug Mackechnie, and ambra Anie. Directed by Jay Paul Skelton. Produced by Jamil Khoury and Malik Gillani.
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AT A GLANCE...MORE QUICK BIO INFO ABOUT THE WORK OF ELIZABETH WONG
In a rehearsal room at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. With Bobby Smith who played the title role in The Happy Prince during the FROM PAGE TO STAGE FESTIVAL workshop reading. "His voice soared. He and the entire cast were perfection." -- Elizabeth Wong
COMMISSIONS:
Silk Road Theatre Project
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Mixed Blood Theatre
Honolulu Theatre for Youth
Denver Center Theatre Company
Playwriting Center of Theatre Emory
Asian American Workshop/Mark Taper Forum/Dreamworks SKG
Omaha Magic Theatre (working with Joann Schmidman and Megan Terry)
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre
Actors Theatre of Louisville
Jewish Women's Theatre Project
Dramatic Publishing Company
SPECIAL HONORS:
Listed in "Dictionary of Literary Biography: 20th Century American Dramatists"
Oxford "Who's Who of American Women Writers."
Marquis "Who's Who of Women Writers."
TELEVISION CREDITS:
Staff Writer of the groundbreaking ABC television comedy series starring Margaret Cho, ALL AMERICAN GIRL.
AFFILIATIONS:
Playwrights Center, inaugural core member
PEN WEST
Dramatist Guild
Writers Guild West
Board Member of Theatre Emory
Board Member of ASSITEJ (an international organization promoting theatre for young and family audiences), www.usassitej@aol.com
ARTIST RESIDENCIES/TEACHING/GUEST LECTURING:
Adjunct visiting professor, College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Adjunct visiting professor, Theatre Dept., University of Southern California.
Guest Lecturer -- Loyola University, Emory University, Pepperdine University, University of Judaism.
Artist residencies at Texas A & M, Bowdoin College, Catawba College, University of Southern Maine, Harvard/Radcliffe Universities, California State University at Los Angeles, University of Washington, Western Washington University.
FOR IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS WITH ELIZABETH WONG:
Women Who Write Plays (Interviews with American Dramatists), edited by Alexis Greene, A Kraus and Smith Book, 2002, www.smithkraus.com
Playwrights of Color, edited by Meg Swanson with Robin Murray, International Publishing, 1999, www.amazon.com
A Conversation With Elizabeth Wong, by Caridad Svich, The Dramatist, Sept/Oct 2001, Vol. 4, www.dramatistsguild.com
The Archetypal Feminine in CHINA DOLL and the Movies: An Interview with Elizabeth Wong, an online interview by Laura Shamas, www.headlinemuse.com
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NEED MORE BIO INFO? CHECK OUT ASIAN AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS (A BIO-BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CRITICAL SOURCEBOOK), edited by Miles Xian Liu, Greenwood Press, www.greenwood.com
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FOR MORE INFO ON: ABC's GROUND-BREAKING "ALL-AMERICAN GIRL" WITH MARGARET CHO, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GARY JACOBS, http://www.tvtome.com/AllAmericanGirl/season1.html
ATTENTION STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS...
ELIZABETH WONG'S PLAYS (first drafts and drafts in progress, also production drafts)
ARE AVAILABLE IN A NEW ONLINE DATABASE
ALEXANDER STREET PRESS WWW.ALEXANDERSTREET.COM
Wong's work can be found in the NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS DATABASE and the ASIAN AMERICAN DRAMA DATABASE
(This database is available by subscription only.)
THE PLAY-OGRAPHY: LIST OF AVAILABLE PLAYSCRIPTS BY ELIZABETH WONG
Scripts in RED are published by the Playwriting Center of Theatre Emory.
SHORT PLAYS
FREEDOM TO BARE ARMS (AND ASSES) *New Play*
Badass of the RIP Eternal
Bu and Bun
Reveries of an Amorous Woman
Inside the Red Envelope
QUICK-DRAW GRANDMA *New Play*
Punk Girls
Scripts in BLACK, you can find in Humana Festival New American Play anthologies, edited by Michael Bigelow Dixon, A Smith and Kraus Book, www.smithkraus.com
From the Atlanta production of the comedy, "Dating & Mating in Modern Times."
Skatergirl finding her Sk8rboi in "Dating & Mating in Modern Times," -- Atlanta production.
LOOKING TO HIGHLIGHT WOMEN ACTORS? TRY...
DATING & MATING IN MODERN TIMES
Eleven
women, with eleven unique stories -- all with one goal -- to survive in
the frenzed, funny and frustrating world of sex, love, and lust in the
21st Century.
This
play is a series of sexy and timely monologues that can be performed by
3 to 11 bodacious actresses. It was commissioned by the Playwriting
Center of Theatre Emory and Artistic Director Vincent Murphy,
and presented last year to critical acclaim.
From
a Las Vegas showgirl lamenting a psycho boyfriend, to a Fortune 500 CFO
at a sperm bank, to a skateboarder chick losing her virginity, to a
beauty queen addicted to dating shows, to a penis-worshipping granny --
this play is definitely NOT for the faint-hearted.
"Tarot Cards a la Fornes: a Tribute,"Conducting A Life: Reflections on the Theatre of Maria Irene Fornes," edited by Maria M. Delgado and Caridad Svich, A Smith and Kraus Book,www.smithkraus.com
"On Writing: Inside A Red Envelope,"a personal diary chronicling the writing of a ten-minute play, "Playwriting Master Class: The Personality of Process and the Art of Rewriting," edited by Michael Wright, Heinemann, 2000.
"The Struggle to be an All-American Girl," "A Present For PoPo," and many other columns in the opinion/editorial section of The Los Angeles Times, every third Wednesday, from 1994-1996.
"Icarus Does an Ollie: Extreme Skateboarding." "Musing on the Mythology of Cats," "Golfing With The Gods: The Mysterious Allure of a Game and a Little White Ball," "Rising From the Rubble: The American Spirit," among others, all published on the web by an online magazine on mythology,www.headlinemuse.com
In Hawaii. With Mark Lutwak and Y York.
During a session of the Nautilus Music Theatre Workshop. Working on a song with composer Linda Kernohan.
Headline
CHINA DOLL -- Winner of the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award
