New Asian Writers screenplays chosen for ongoing mentoring

Asian Writer's take the stage and come out in full force

This month, three New Asian Writers were chosen by PAT and the New Zealand Film Commission to take part in ongoing mentoring for their latest screenplays in development.

As part of Fresh off the Page monthly playreadings, three scripts from almost 30 submissions from Asian writers were announced at the playreading live at The Basement.

We are proud to announce:

Nahyeon Lee, Mayen Mehta and Hweiling Ow

as the recipients for the ongoing mentorship programme!

Nahyeon Lee and Marianne Infante (host/producer)

Nahyeon Lee and Marianne Infante (host/producer)

Mayen Mehta

Mayen Mehta

We were so impressed with the amount of submissions and the diversity in form, style and theme! PAT will be reaching out to the writers who submitted in the coming months for feedback to help further these amazing projects. Stay tuned!

Thanks to the Basement Theatre, NZFC and Albert Eden Community Trust.

DSC07106.jpg

 

 

 

 

Gird your loins - Orientation, PAT's new show is coming in September

Pat is proud to announce our latest show:

Orientation

Presented by Q Theatre and Proudly Asian Theatre as part of MATCHBOX 2018

Orientation q banner.png

What do Jackie Chan, Steven Yuen, and Raybon Kan have in common? 

They’re all on Mei’s list of eligible men to tap, gap, or tie down.

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.

Written as a response to dating, love and sex as a Chinese Kiwi, Chye-Ling Huang's script was nominated for the Adam play award (Playmarket) in 2018 and won the Asian Ink workshop for 2017. 

Huang on the set of the promo trailer for Orientation

Huang on the set of the promo trailer for Orientation

"As a Kiwi-Asian I've experienced a lot of racial bias in the dating world - from the inside and out," says Huang. "I'm excited to be writing flawed characters who are trying to find love in the messy, human way we all do, making mistakes and pushing things way too far. Race cannot be separated from any experience I've had, and dating and love and sex is something that can be heavily influenced by race in ways we don't realize."

Tickets are on sale next month.

Thanks to Creative New ZealandFoundation NorthUnitec and the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust Fund.

 

 

 

PAT partners with NZFC!

Proudly Asian Theatre has partnered with the New Zealand Film Commission for an exciting new initiative as part of their 'Fresh off the Page' monthly playreadings. 

The initiative sees three emerging Asian playwrights chosen for a year of mentoring with NZFC writers on projects for screen. This incredible opportunity is to encourage the growth of Asian playwrights with the freedom to write any story, any style outside any restrictions.

New Asian Writer's Night encouraged new writers to come forward with their development scripts in one epic night of readings.

New Asian Writer's Night encouraged new writers to come forward with their development scripts in one epic night of readings.

"We wanted Asian playwrights to shake the idea of what an 'Asian' story is," says creative director Chye-Ling Huang, "Often our works get chosen and fostered with an added pressure, an unspoken bias, which favours stereotyped stories about what it means to be Asian. It is my hope that Asian writers can just be writers, and also have the chance to hone their craft and make their script as strong as possible for future funding rounds. We need more of our stories out there to come from us, and there are so many perspectives that we rarely see."

The NZFC hosted an Asian film night at The Basement in 2017.

The NZFC hosted an Asian film night at The Basement in 2017.

"The film commission have been wonderfully supportive - we are a theatre based company but we have branched out in 2017 to film projects and scripts. We realize there is a lot of crossover for talent in the theatre and film industries and this is our way of connecting our resources to give those artists an opportunity for growth in an area they may not have considered. We both want more Asian talent to have their voices heard which is an awesome goal."

The first event featuring screen based scripts will be at The Basement, May 30th. More info here!

Adam play awards - 'Orientation' makes the shortlist

Writer of 'Orientation' Chye-Ling Huang 

Writer of 'Orientation' Chye-Ling Huang 

Playmarket presents the Adam play award annually for the best new New Zealand play. Formerly the Playmarket New Play Award, has been offered since 2008 and is the only one of its kind for new writing and encourages writers to banish all self censoring, all worries about what theatres want, what is affordable and what they think audiences want to see.

We are so excited that Orientation, co-founder Chye-Ling Huang's newest play, was shortlisted for the award for 2018.

A bombastic hot mess exploring race and sex and the sexual stereotypes as an Asian person living in New Zealand, Orientation will premiere in September 2018 at Q Loft after winning the Asian Ink workshop in 2017. Keep your eyes peeled for more info on this exciting new show and check out the winners below:

 

2018 - Shane Bosher for Everything After

Best Play by a Māori Playwright: Albert Belz for Cradle Song and Jason Te Mete for Little Black Bitch

Best Play by a Pasifika Playwright: Suli Moa for Tales of A Princess

Best Play by a Woman Playwright: Angie Farrow for Before the Birds

Also on the shortlist were: Claire Ahuriri-DunningDraculaAroha AwarauProvocationSam BrooksTurn Off the Lights and Twenty Eight MillimetresJames CainMoversEmily DuncanIn Our Shoes; Chye-Ling HuangOrientationJustin Lewis and Jacob RajanWelcome to the Murder HouseVela ManusauteTropical LovebirdsArthur MeekLand of the MoaJoe MusaphiaChutzpahDean ParkerTutankhamunBruce Clyde ThomsonStuck Pigs; James van DykThe Lazarus Lottery and Roy WardThe Bright Side of my Condition.

The winners were announced at a function at Circa Theatre on 7 April 2018.

 

 

 

Tearaway Interview: Chye-Ling Huang on finding our roots

"Asian identities in NZ are so diverse, as are our stories and origins. This is just one version, and New Zealanders and their roots are vastly varied too. I hope this works to build a curiosity of other’s stories as opposed to othering, which can often happen when you don’t look ‘kiwi’ (white)." - Chye-Ling Huang

Chye-Ling Huang

Chye-Ling Huang

Nidha Khan from Tearaway Mag interviews Chye-Ling Huang, director of Roots by Oliver Chong, on identity and her quest to bridge the gaps of understanding in our multicultural Aotearoa. Read on here or below!

DIRECTOR CHYE-LING HUANG: ON FINDING OUR ROOTS 根

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

BY NIDHA KHAN

Identity, who we are at our very core, is a feature that is so central to our existence. Yet, we live in a society that doesn’t always accept us, with some identities seemingly more acceptable than others. People are often denied their identities, being told they’re “too this or too that”, or they truly “belong there and not here”.

Trying to figure out our place in the world, where our roots lie and where we are growing, can be a painful, beautiful, and funny experience, sometimes all at the same time. It’s a journey that many people have gone, and are still going through, everywhere including right here in Aotearoa.

This year, director Chye-Ling Huang is bringing the award-winning Singaporean solo play, Roots [根] by Oliver Chong, to the Auckland Lantern Festival and Auckland Fringe Festival.

Photo: Andi Crown Photography

Photo: Andi Crown Photography

Roots [根] traces the journey of “one woman’s quest to find her familial identity in the cultural confusion of Singapore. Digging up forgotten ghosts, Hush Hsien arrives in China to reclaim her past, but ends up stumbling upon more questions than answers”.

This is the first time Chong has allowed another actor to play his role and for the gender of the main character to be changed, with Singaporean-Kiwi actress Amanda Grace-Leo taking the stage. I caught up with Huang to gain some further insight into the production.

 

When did you first come across Roots  [根] and what was that experience like?

In Singapore, I was helping The Finger Players, a theatre company over there, on a collaborative show. I met the playwright through them and ended up reading his play after Singapore – landing in China to find my own ancestral roots. It was a surreal read, as his journey mirrored mine so closely.

The play is centred on a character who is “determined to shake her status as a cultural orphan”. For those who haven’t experienced something along these lines, can you explain what it means in the context of everyday life?

Cultural Orphan is something I heard in Singapore but I think it relates to the feeling of anyone who feels out of place culturally, or doesn’t have a ‘cultural home’. Young countries like Singapore and NZ grapple with this, as our histories are short and loaded with colonisation and immigration. It’s hard to get a grasp on how you identify and where your influences are from. Multiracial people deal with this a lot – being from two cultures but not really fitting in with either, for me it’s often that I’m perceived as too white to be Chinese and too Chinese to be white, where in reality the two exist alongside.

What kind of cultural dialogue are you hoping to create with Roots [根] here in NZ?

A curiosity of one’s own roots, and how they perceive others. Asian identities in NZ are so diverse, as are our stories and origins. This is just one version, and New Zealanders and their roots are vastly varied too. I hope this works to build a curiosity of other’s stories as opposed to othering, which can often happen when you don’t look ‘kiwi’ (white).

 

What in particular do you think makes Roots [根] so successful in emotionally connecting with audiences?

It’s written as if talking to a friend, something Oliver mentioned in an interview. It’s everyday, and so reflective of messy family dynamics, that you find it so relatable to watch. It’s an autobiography and it wears its heart on its sleeve, and doesn’t wrap things up in a nice bow.

How much discussion have you had with Oliver Chong about reproducing his play here in NZ? What was that discussion like?

We’ve been in email contact since Oliver allowed us to stage a reading of it in our playreading series ‘Fresh off the Page” (starting up again in March at The Basement Theatre). I mentioned to him how similar it was to my own experience, and when I asked to stage it for real he was stoked. He’s been really relaxed about the whole thing, which is surprising as it’s never been performed by anyone but himself, and it now being played by a Singaporean-Kiwi woman in New Zealand!

You’ve mentioned that many shows in Singapore are surtitled (translated and displayed above the stage) and have made the decision for Roots to be performed and surtitled in English and Mandarin in order to make the show more inclusive and accessible. Why do you think NZ is not as inclusive and accessible in this regard?

Multiculturalism is fine as long as people think, speak and act like ‘Kiwis’. We are not as accepting of difference as we like to think, and celebrating or even normalising other languages, even our own Te Reo, is a step that accepts difference and welcomes it.

To celebrate language is to celebrate an identity, so although there are TV channels in Mandarin, (away from the general public), bilingual shows are definitely an anomaly. New Zealand’s education system isn’t encouraging of languages from an early age compared to places like Europe for example, so it’s not culturally ingrained that we might need to broaden our thinking to include or even simply tolerate languages that aren’t ours.

It would be exciting to see more surtitled shows being made the norm, for hearing impaired as well as non-English language speakers. It would open up a whole raft of overseas media to the theatre scene, which is an exciting possibility if Roots goes well.