A series of monthly playreadings featuring Asian casts, directors and playwrights - we bring you the freshest contemporary scripts and the hottest new talent.

Get ready for our ambitious new season, where playwrights are challenged to complete a NEW play for the series: 9 debuts of Asian works over 2019

Thanks to all who grabbed a seat for the full-house reading of How to be a Great White Man, stay tuned for next month’s reading by Hweiling Ow!

"Let's face it, Tash - You’re Cio-Cio San, you’re Miss Saigon, you’re the go-go dancer in Bangkok who giggles at white dudes twice your age butchering your language." 

14-year-old Natasha had an ambition -  to leave a legacy like the white men in history books. She also made a vow - to never sleep with, let alone date, a cisgender, heterosexual white man.  After being Shortlisted for Playmarket's 2018 Playwrights B4 25 award for the clever and heart wrenching Maniac (On The Dance Floor), Natasha Lay presents her sharp new play How to be a Great White Man; a romp through issues of identity, reflecting on the ways we look at ourselves and others, and an attempt at measuring the space between our past and future selves.

OUR 2019 SEASON OF NEW WRITERS

Mar 20th: The Kamasutra Chronicles - Shriya Bhagwat-Chitale

Apr 17th: How To Be a Great White Man - Natasha Lay

May: Not Woman Enough - Hweiling Ow

June: What have you become? - Bala Murali-Shingade

July: The Doctors Monologue - Renee Liang

Aug: Homecoming - Janna Tay

Sept: Basmati B*tch - Ankita Singh

Oct: Sweet Sour and Salty - John Rata

Nov: Why can’t you see the words I don’t say? (WORKING TITLE) - Uhyoung Choi

Dec: (UNTITLED) - Gemishka Chetty

We are proud to be supported by Playmarket NZ, Unitec, The Basement, Q Theatre, Creative Communities Scheme, albert-eden local community board and The Asia NZ Foundation.

Thanks to all who came along to the SPOOKY ANTICS and PAT

Auckland Fringe Festival season of:

Tide Waits for No Man: Episode GRACE 

歲月不饒人: 雅安

"Complex, personal, beautifully executed...Tu-Bryant’s performance is a tour de force: powerful, flexible, committed, expressive." - Tim Stevenson, Theatreview

Tide Waits follows Grace [雅安], a modern Taiwanese artist who has grown up in Aotearoa. Tailoring her life to be as kiwi as they come, an unexpected call from her homeland sends Grace into a tailspin. A surreal battle of ancient culture and modern identity unfolds as she grasps for answers among her Ye-Ye’s patriarchal teachings. Shadow, puppetry and movement collide in this non-verbal show, suitable for non-English speakers, Deaf and hard of hearing audiences.

Thank you to everyone who came along to our sizzling new show -

ORIENTATION

By Chye-Ling Huang

presented as part of Q matchbox

Winner of the hackman cup for most original production of 2018

Shortlisted for the Adam Play Award 2018,

winner of the Asian Ink workshop 2017

A hot mess of sexual stereotypes, no Asian man is left un-turned in Mei’s quest to root herself back to her roots. When a shock event leaves her questioning everything about love, Chinese-Pakeha Mei dives ferociously back into the dating game. A film star from Singapore, an Indian Taika Waititi and the Asian answer to Channing Tatum lift the sheets on how sex and race collide in little old New Zealand, where Asianess is both fetishized and feared.

An ensemble of the sexiest storytellers from the Asian diaspora play out your wildest dreams and cringiest tropes as Mei learns that love is simple, but race is not.

“...a coming-of-age for Asian theatre. Bluntly sexy, chock-full of contemporary name-drops and pop-culture references, it's both a bold assertion of Asian women as sex sirens and a renunciation. It's a raw, uncomfortable and ultimately moving work showcasing talents who deserve more time on our stages."  - NZ Herald

Written and directed by Chye-Ling Huang, performed by Kyle Chuen, Natasha Daniel, Marwin Silerio, Eugene Yao, Mayen Mehta, produced by Kelly Gilbride with Nahyeon Lee, lighting by Ruby Reihana-Wilson, production design by Micheal McCabe, sound design by Emi Pogoni, poster design Lindsay Yee.

Thanks to Creative New Zealand, Foundation North, 

Unitec and the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust Fund.

presented as part of the Auckland Fringe Festival

and the Auckland Lantern FestivaL:

Roots

Written by Oliver Chong

Winner of Best Design at the Auckland Fringe Festival 2018

"Human being make mistakes. Our ancestors are human, too."

One of Singapore's most beloved solo shows, Roots is one woman’s quest to find her familial identity in the cultural confusion of Singapore. With parallels to New Zealand's youthful cultural identity, Roots is a universal story of the surprises and hardships in discovering who you are and what you're made of.

Presented in two venues, Uxbridge Arts Centre in Howick and Q Theatre in central city, winning Best Design (Fringe Awards) for its set of 125kgs of rice strewn across the stage and cymbals, with sprinkled rice and clanging gongs creating an analog soundscape. Roots was performed in both English and Mandarin for its New Zealand premier, with surtitles projected in both Mandarin and English.

With big thanks to The Finger Players, Oliver Chong and Natalie Chai.

Starring Amanda Grace Leo | Directed by Chye-Ling Huang

Produced by Julie Zhu | Sound design by Tom Dennison | Stage manager/operator/Chinese marketing by Helen Wu | Assistant Stage Manager: Nahyeon Lee | Poster design by Lindsay Yee | Poster image by Andi Crown 

Proudly Asian Theatre为您带来，

为奥克兰元宵灯会节及奥克兰Fringe艺术节节目之一：

根

编剧:  钟达成

“人类都会犯错。我们的祖先也是人。有没有人知道真相是什么？”

来到中国，Amanda 决心要甩掉她”文化孤儿”的标签。但她在这儿的根与许多秘密缠绕在一起-究竟谁和哪儿才是真正的家乡？

新加坡最受喜爱的独演话剧之一，钟达成的《根》是一个女人在文化迷乱的新加坡中，寻找自己家族身份的的故事。与新西兰青年文化身份接轨，《根》是一个能享誉全球，能让人们在欣喜和困难中寻找到自己的故事。

《根》将以中英双语在新西兰首映。界时将有中英双语字幕投影。

主演： Amanda Grace Leo 梁宿娴

导演：Chye-Ling Huang 黄采婈

Asian Men Talk About Sex

PAT breaks into film with the cheeky, no-holds-barred 3 minute Loading Docs documentary, Asian Men Talk About Sex!

Whether it be the nerdy best friend, silent kung-fu master or the tech wiz of the office, Asian men are desexualized at every turn. Why don’t we see Asian men on screen just being themselves, let alone as sexual beings? We interviewed 8 Asian men of different ethnicities, ages and orientations to challenge stereotypes and lift the lid on taboos.

Funny, surprising, intimate and wild - much like sex - these are their candid experiences, perspectives and stories on sex, love and dating.

A huge thanks to all our supporters on boosted, and the talented team behind the film, and especially to our incredible talent!

Let's start talking.

Check out the interview with director Chye-Ling Huang on VICE here

made with Eyes and Ears and loading docs

with support from BOOsted and Unitec.

Romance, bromance and...ducks? 

The Han Chronicles

A Samoan prince, an Irish girl with a fiery temper and an unsuspecting duck tell the true stories of a spunky young Chinese immigrant, Han Huang, who lands in New Zealand in the 70's. 

Lifting her Dad’s tall tales from interviews and spinning them into cheeky shorts, creator Chye-Ling Huang presents a funky, 70's twist on the Asian New Zealand immigrant story.

Narrated by Han Huang, produced by TVNZ and directed by Calvin Sang.

Starring Jarrod lee, Genevieve Kent and Dylan Thuracingham.

Episode One: The Duck

When young Han lands in Christchurch in the 70’s, his first cooking lesson comes from an unexpected place when he meets a Samoan prince.

Episode Two: Glenda

Han is knee deep in his studies - but things get derailed over a fateful pot of potatoes as a forbidden fling begins.

Made with TVNZ as part of the 'new blood' initiative.

Special thanks to Han huang and the fahey family.

About PAT

Proudly Asian Theatre is an Auckland based company dedicated to producing, empowering and enabling theatre and film by Asian talent in New Zealand.

Founded in 2013 by actors Chye-Ling Huang and James Roque as a reaction to the lack of non-stereotyped Asian stories in mainstream theatre and film, PAT continues to create fresh new works that challenge the narrative of Asian stereotypes in New Zealand and beyond.

In 2013 PAT presented the first New Zealand production of David Henry Hwang's FOB at The Basement. The following year PAT produced a sold-out, extra show added season of Renee Liang's Lantern at The Musgrove as part of the 2014 Auckland Lantern Festival, before taking home four awards including Best Independent Theatre Company and Best Director at the 2014 Short+Sweet Festival for their short original piece Call of the Sparrows.

In 2016, PAT debuted a full length version of their award winning short with support from Auckland Live and UNITEC and funding from Creative New Zealand and Foundation North. 2017 saw the launch of event 'Fresh off the Page', monthly playreadings for the public featuring Asian actors, directors and scripts from NZ and around the world, at the Basement Theatre. 

2018 Fringe show Roots by Oliver Chong won Best Set Design (with The Finger Players and Tom Dennison) and their following original show, Orientation by Chye-Ling Huang, was presented as part of Q Theatre’s Matchbox programme and won the 2018 Hackman Cup for most original production at the Auckland Theatre Awards. Tide Waits For No Man, a non dialogue puppetry and movement show developed over 2 years with SPOOKY ANTICS premiered in Wellington (BATS) and Basement for Auckland Fringe in 2019.

PAT is committed to supporting the Asian storytellers of Aotearoa; get in touch if you're interested in supporting us or getting involved!

pattheatrecompany@gmail.com