PAN ASIAN REPERTORY THEATRE
PRESENTS
THE RE-ENVISIONED MUSICAL
CAMBODIA AGONISTES
A PLAY WITH LYRICS BY ERNEST ABUBA
MUSIC BY LOUIS STEWART
DIRECTED AND MUSICAL STAGED BY TISA CHANG
CHOREOGRAPHY BY RUMI OYANA
PERFORMANCES BEGIN MAY 18, 2020
FOR A LIMITED ENGAGEMENT THROUGH JUNE 7, 2020
IN THE MEZZANINE THEATRE
AT A.R.T./NEW YORK THEATRES
(502 WEST 53RD STREET)
OPENING NIGHT IS SET FOR THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2020 AT 7:30PM
New York, NY (February 18, 2020) – Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (Tisa Chang, Founding Artistic Producing Director), supported by a prestigious $35,000 Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, has announced it will present a re-envisioned revival production of Cambodia Agonistes, with play and lyrics by Ernest Abuba and original music by Louis Stewart. Performances are set to begin Monday, May 18, 2020 at 7:30PM for a limited engagement through Sunday afternoon, June 7, 2020 at 2:30PM in The Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./NY Theatres (502 West 53rd Street). Opening Night is set for Thursday evening, May 21, 2020 at 7:30PM. Cast will be announced shortly.
Cambodia Agonistes is an epic music-theatre piece celebrating the resilience of the Cambodian people in the aftermath of genocide—the 1970s “killing fields.” The play’s soaring score, with full orchestral accompaniment, includes musical numbers ranging from operatic lyricism to beat café jazz. Its story is given renewed significance in the wake of recent refugee crises and civil wars. It tells the story through the lens of a traditional Cambodian dancer, suffering from psychosomatic blindness, who seeks refuge in New York.
“In 1979, I saw a newspaper photo of a thin young woman, facing the camera, as she walked down a dusty Southeast Asian road, and in her arms, she cradled the body of a dead child,” express Ernest Abuba, playwright and lyricist. “That photograph seemed to encompass not only the full horror of the Cambodian Holocaust, but also to symbolize the resilience of women, to survive.”
Composer Louis Stewart shared, “I elected to use a variety of musical styles to fit the subject’s drama as well as expressing the cultural milieu and theme of loss and vengeance.”
“The story could only be told in the artful frame of music, dance, visual elements and symbolizes the eternal struggle between good and evil, vengeance and redemption,” stated Tisa Chang, director. “Cambodia Agonistes is our tribute to all people who are displaced and seek refuge to overcome.”
The creative design team includes Set by You-Shin Chen, Lights by Leslie Smith, Costumes by Hyun Sook Kim, Sound by Ian Wehrle. The Stage Management team is Kristine Schlachter and Sabrina Morabito.
Cambodia Agonistes will play the following performance schedule: Tuesday – Saturday at 7:30PM, Saturday and Sunday at 2:30PM. PLEASE NOTE: Special first performance on Monday, May 18 at 7:30. There is no performance on Friday, May 22. Ticket information will be available in March at www.panasianrep.org or call (212-868-4030)
There will be Special Student Matinee performances on selected weekdays at 11:00 a.m. To bring your school to a performance and more information, please email info@panasianrep.orgor call (212) 868-4030.
For more information about Pan Asian Rep, visit www.panasianrep.org
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ernest Abuba (Playwright) is an award-winning actor, playwright, and director on stage, film, and TV. Plays written include: Kwatz! The Tibetan Project, Eat A Bowl of Tea, Dojoji: The Man Inside The Bell, and Cambodia Agonistes. He is the author/co-director of six short screenplays aired by WING Productions CBS/PBS and voiced His Holiness, the Dalai Lama on the audiobook The Art of Happiness. Recipient of an Obie, a Rockefeller Playwright Residency, five New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grants for Playwriting and Directing, and a Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS) Grant.
Louis Stewart (Composer) is an internationally renowned composer, conductor, teacher, and piano soloist. He serves as a Professor of Composition at the Berklee School of Musical, where he teaches orchestral conducting. Compositions: Cambodia Agonistes (1992) and Shanghai Lil’s (1998) at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre; Currents for Brass Trio and Piano (Anchorage Festival of Music, 2016); Music for Panama City (premiere, Panama City Pops Orchestra, 2009); Trumpet Concerto (commissioned and premiered, Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, 2005); Landscapes of T.S. Eliot (Chactonberry Chorus, England, 1992). Bachelor of Music (Whitman College), Master of Music (New England Conservatory), Doctor of Musical Arts (Peabody Conservatory).
Tisa Chang (Director, Cambodia Agonistes/Pan-Asian Founding Artistic Director) has led the company since inception, promoting stories seldom told and voices seldom heard. She has been a theatre professional for 5 decades as an actor, dancer, and director. Highlights include: 2015’s Sayonara; 2007’s The Joy Luck Club, intercultural epic Cambodia Agonistes which toured nationally and to Cairo and Johannesburg, Kwatz! The Tibetan Project, and Rashomon which was invited to Havana Theatre Festival in 2003. She has innovated premieres, in English and Mandarin Chinese, of the Peking opera, Return of the Phoenix, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, celebrating its 43rd Milestone Season, is the most veteran Asian American theatre company on the East Coast. Tisa Chang founded Pan Asian Rep in 1977 at Ellen Stewart’s La Mama ETC with the vision to promote equity and access that Asian Americans artists can equally follow, focusing on stories of probing social justice issues with distinctive Off-Broadway Productions, Tours, National Outreach, and Community Service. Mel Gussow of The New York Times described it as “A Stage for All the World of Asian –Americans” and wrote that “Before Pan Asian Rep, Asian Americans had severely limited opportunities in the theater….” The company has nurtured thousands of artists and is a “who-is-who” of Asian American theatre history, with notable alumni/ae:, Tina Chen, Philip Gotanda, Wai Ching Ho, David Henry Hwang, Daniel Dae Kim, Lucy Liu, Ron Nakahara, R.A. Shiomi, Lauren Yee, and Henry Yuk.
Pan Asian Rep Programs are made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; City Council member Margaret Chin; and major support from the Shubert, NY Community Trust, Howard Gilman, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels, Lucille Lortel Foundations; and generous individuals.
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