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Livestreamed on this page on Saturday 19 June 2021 at 4 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 6 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 7 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

United States
Saturday 19 June 2021

B·O·N·D 2021 Opening Panel: Originally from China

Makings of a New Theatermaker Identity

Produced With
Saturday 19 June 2021

Chuang Stage presented the B·O·N·D 2021 Opening Panel: Originally from China livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 19 June 2021 at 4 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 6 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 7 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

There's a small group of us out there with bios that start with "Originally from China...“. Some readers find it unique; some may find it leads to some undesired stereotypes, but most of the time, we rush to connect and hold hands with each other to celebrate what this identity has brought to our artistic careers.

What does "Originally from China" hold for the lives of generations of theatermakers? How did we find ourselves in the unique set of challenges, conversations, and ultimately liberated as artists under such identity? This is a conversation that we've never had before--and definitely not the last.

"Originally from China": Makings of a New Theatermaker Identity is the opening artist panel kicking off B·O·N·D Festival 2021, inviting global audiences to be in conversation with leading voices of Chinese/Chinese American theater artists; to investigate the paths of many generations of Chinese American theater artists and look into a more equitable future.

Guest artists:
Chongren Fan (Artistic Director of Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America)
Ran Xia (Playwright, Director)
Minghao Tu (Playwright)
Xiaoyue Zhang (Associate Producer, The Orchard Project)
Moderated by Tianding He (Artistic Director of BOND Festival)

Chongren Fan 范崇人 is a New York-based bilingual stage director from Shanghai, China. He is currently the Artistic Director of Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America and Resident Artist/Producing Associate at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Most recently Chongren directed Damon Chua’s The Emperor’s Nightingale for Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Currently, he is developing a new musical Shanghai Sonatas(Book by Alan Goodson, Music by Xiang Gao, and Lyrics by Joyce Hill Stoner). The musical is based on the memoirs of Jewish refugee musicians who escaped Nazi Germany and found refuge in Shanghai and how music helped them to survive the war. Chongren served as Deputy General Manager of China Performing Arts Agency North America overseeing large scale live performances from China to the United States from 2015-2020.

Ran Xia is a Shanghai-born, Brooklyn-based playwright, director, and sound artist. Resident Director at the Tank (Inaugural Artist of the Year award, 2019). Recent directing credits include the cinematic theatrical hybrid production of Prometheus Bound (Howard Rubenstein), In Blue (written and directed), world premiere of Independent Study by Ben Gassman, US premiere of The Tallest Man in the World by Ailis Ni Riain, etc. Beyond the Tank, her works have been seen in physical and virtual spaces around NYC and beyond, including Dixon Place, IRT, HERE arts center, The Brick, The Wild Project, and more. She was also a directorial collaborator on Risa Puno’s The Privilege of Escape with Creative Time. A frequent collaborator of Exquisite Corpse Co. (audio/visual installation Echo at the Memory House, on Governors Island, Co-wrote The Enchanted Realm of Rene Magritte, etc. Sound designer for the NYC Critic's Pick production of Zoetrope). Alumna of Pipeline Theater's Playlab 2019/2020 (Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird) and IRT Theater's 3B Residency. Artistic Resident at Access Theater. Assistant Directing credits include: The Invention of Tragedy (Mac Wellman, Dir. Meghan Finn at the Flea); The Great Leap (Lauren Yee, Dir. Taibi Magar at the Atlantic), and Refrigerated Dreams (Carrie Mae Weems, Nona Hendryx, Francesca Harper, and Niegel Smith at Joe's Pub). She's a commissioned writer at Vanderbilt University (To Stab a Butterfly through the Heart, Fall 2021), and will be guest directing Orlando (by Sarah Ruhl, after Virginia Woolf) at Barnard College (Fall 2021). Recipient of the 2021/22 Beatrice Terry Directing Residency at the Drama League. ranxia.info

Minghao Tu writes challenging plays that make people laugh, eclectic plays in which disparate worlds and styles collide. Born in Wuhan, China and based in NYC, he provokes people to think globally, to embrace the unfamiliar and foreign. He expands theatre of the ridiculous with a queer, transcultural POV. Currently, he is a member of Pipeline Theatre Company's 2020/2021 PlayLab, and a 2021 Travis Bogard Artist In Residence at the Eugene O'Neill Foundation. He is commissioned by Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America to adapt STRANGE STORIES FROM A CHINESE STUDIO for YouTube. His plays have been developed and presented/produced at Voyage Theater Company, Tofte Lake Center, New York Public Library, Ground Floor Theatre, Lucky Chaos Productions, and UT New Theatre; featured on The Steppenwolf Theatre’s The Mix; and semifinalists at PlayPenn, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, American Shakespeare Center, and the Many Voices Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center. He was a Jame A. Michener fellow at UT Austin.

Xiaoyue Zhang is a Chinese interdisciplinary artist, creative producer, and production manager working at the intersection of performance, dance, photography, and film. Her works center on exploring the porosity of ideological constructs through the lens of the body and bodily experience. Xiaoyue’s theater works have been shown at REDCAT New Original Works Festival and Hollywood Fringe Festival. Her film and video works have been presented at the Guangdong Museum of Art (China) and Short Film Corner of the 2018 Cannes International Film Festival. Her film producing works have been shown internationally in France, Germany, Athens, Vietnam, Ireland. She has worked as an associate producer for Ergao Dance Group and CalArts Center for New Performance. She is currently the associate producer at The Orchard Project (New York). She received her MFA in Creative Producing and Management at California Institute of the Arts and is currently living on the Tongva Land (also known as Los Angeles). She currently serves as the Associate Producer at The Orchard Project.

About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email tv@howlround.com, or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.

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