Hot off our Wellington season at BATS, we are excited to announce the
Auckland Fringe Festival season of:
Image: Hayden J Weal
"Complex, personal, beautifully executed...Tu-Bryant’s performance is a tour de force: powerful, flexible, committed, expressive."
How do we bridge the gap between where we come from
and who we have become?
PAT presents a collaboration from acclaimed creative Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant at the Basement Theatre this summer!
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.
Tickets are on sale now!
Feb 19th - 23rd | 6.30pm
BASEMENT THEATRE, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
Images: Hayden J Weal
Starring director and creator Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant and performers Chye-Ling Huang (Call of the Sparrows, Te Waka Huia) and choreographer Marianne Infante (Aroha Mai, RUMINATIONS) with lighting by Nic Cave-Lynch (Many Hands Lighting).
Guest dramaturg Yuyang Ellison Tan (SINGAPORE). Special thanks to Benjamin Teh, original cast in development workshops.
Fresh off the Page is a series of monthly playreadings hosted by PAT and performed at The Basement theatre. Featuring Asian casts, directors and playwrights from around the world, we bring you the freshest contemporary scripts and the hottest new talent - all for FREE.
Get ready for our most ambitious season yet - all new plays by Asian playwrights, who have taken up the challenge to complete a new play and have it read in front of a live audience every month!
Our 2019 plays are:
How To Be a Great White Man - Natasha Lay
What have you become? - Bala Shingade
The Kamasutra Chronicles - Shriya Bhagwat-Chitale
Not Woman Enough - Hweiling Ow
The Doctors Monologue - Renee Liang
Homecoming - Janna Tay
Basmati B*tch - Ankita Singh
Sweet Sour and Salty - John Rata
Why can’t you see the words I don’t say? (working title) - Uhyoung Choi
Spicy House (working title) - Gemishka Chetty
See you in 2019!
Thank you to everyone who came along to our sizzling new show -
By Chye-Ling Huang
“It is adventurous and wild...Orientation is a hugely significant work: sexy, smart, and not putting up with your shit."- Theatre-scenes
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 uncovers 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
Thank you to all our supporters! If you have feedback you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you at pattheatrecompany@gmail.com.
Written by Oliver Chong
Photo: Julie Zhu Photography
"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.
Photo: Andi Crown photography
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
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.
Ruby, Chye-Ling, Kelly and Calvin at the premier of AMTAS
Check out the interview with director Chye-Ling Huang on VICE here
Romance, bromance and...ducks?
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.
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.
Han is knee deep in his studies - but things get derailed over a fateful pot of potatoes as a forbidden fling begins.
Genevieve Kent as Glenda
Jen Huang, Director Calvin Sang and Helen Wu
Let us know what you think!
Send us your feedback to:
pattheatrecompany@gmail.com
Real-life Han Huang meets actor-Han, Jarrod Lee
“This video is WONDERFUL. It’s perfection.”
- Benjamin Law (The Family Law)
“We laughed and cried and goddam it's good.”
- Flat 3 productions (Flat 3, Friday Night Bites)
Helen Wu (left) and Jen Huang
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.
PAT broke into film with Asian Men Talk About Sex, a 3 minute documentary made as part of the Loading Docs platform, which won best webseries at the NZ TV awards. The Han Chronicles, a two episode webseries pilot, was made under TVNZ, telling the true story of a Chinese immigrant in love in 70's New Zealand.
PAT's Fringe show for 2018 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, premiered at BATS for PAT’s first Wellington season.
PAT is committed to supporting the Asian storytellers of Aotearoa; get in touch if you're interested in supporting us or being involved!
pattheatrecompany@gmail.com