Spotlight

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Passes Away at Age 96

Posted by AC Team - on Sunday, 26 November 2023

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Passes Away at Age 96
When I got married and moved to a Ranch north of Tucson, Arizona, I was still a broadcaster for an ABC TV affiliate Magazine show, but the rest of my life completely changed. I remember when the late First Lady Rosalynn Carter arrived at our Kai Ranch and greeted our family. She was beautiful and very kind. She wrote me a handwritten note wishing me good wishes in happiness and health. I wish I could thank her for her kindness again. Thank you First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

Articles

David Henry Hwang is back on Broadway with Chinglish at the Longacre Theatre, opens October 27

Posted by Lia Chang on Thursday, 13 October 2011

David Henry Hwang Photo by Lia Chang


CHINGLISH, the new comedy by Tony Award-winning and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), begins previews at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street) on Tuesday, October 11th and will officially open on Thursday, October 27th. The show comes to Broadway following its critically acclaimed world premiere production at Goodman Theatre in Chicago this summer, which ran from June 18th through July 31st.

Jennifer Lim, Angela Lin, Christine Lin, Stephen Pucci, Johnny Wu and Larry Lei Zhang who appeared in the production at the Goodman, will be joined by Gary Wilmes, star of the recent acclaimed Gatz. OBIE Award winner Leigh Silverman, who directed Lisa Kron’s Well on Broadway and won a 2011 OBIE for directing both Go Back To Where You Are and In The Wake, will return to direct the Broadway production.

Hwang’s new comedy CHINGLISH is about the challenges of doing business in a culture whose language—and ways of communicating—are worlds apart from our own. An American businessman arrives in a bustling Chinese province looking to score a lucrative contact for his family’s sign-making firm. He soon finds that the complexities of such a venture far outstrip the expected differences in language, customs and manners – and calls into questions even the most basic assumptions of human conduct.

Tickets are available for purchase on

Photos: Backstage at Mu Performing Arts’ Four Destinies by Katie Hae Leo,10/15-10/30

Posted by Lia Chang on Saturday, 15 October 2011

Sara Ochs, La Dawn James, Katie Bradley, Nora Montanez and Neil Schneider Photo by Lia Chang


The 2011 – 2012 Mu Performing Arts 20th Anniversary mainstage season lineup kicks off on October 15 at Mixed Blood Theatre with the world premiere of Four Destinies, directed by Suzy Messerole. The play by local playwright Katie Hae Leo is a satirical exploration of adoption through the eyes of Destiny Jones, a single character represented from four different ethnic backgrounds, as she/he grows up in a Minnesota family. Leo, herself a Korean adoptee, presents herself as a character determined to embody the overarching adoptee experience, both in youth and adulthood. Four Destinies has been in development for the past two years through Mu’s Jerome New Performance Program, a platform for emerging Asian American theater voices to create and present edgy new work.

Nora Montanez, Katie Bradley, Sara Ochs, La Dawn James, Maria Kelly, Shanan Custer Photo by Lia Chang


Mu Performing Arts Artistic director Rick Shiomi invited me to Minneapolis, providing me with an all-access pass to the production during rehearsals.

Don Eitel, Nicholas Freeman and Neil Schneider Photo by Lia Chang

 

Shanan Custer and La Dawn James Photo by Lia Chang

 

Nora Montanez Photo by Lia Chang

 

Sara Ochs Photo by Lia Chang

 

Don Eitel, Sara Ochs, Shanan Custer, Maria Kelly and Katie Bradley Photo by Lia Chang

 

Photos: Opening Night of Mu Performing Arts’ Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies

Posted by Lia Chang on Thursday, 20 October 2011

Playwright Katie Hae Leo on the set of her new play, Four Destinies, at Mixed Blood Theatre on October 15, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang


It is the opening night of performance of Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies, helmed by Suzy Messerole and presented by Mu Performing Arts, the second largest Asian American Theater Company in the U.S, and the lobby of Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis is abuzz with excitement.

Mu Performing Arts Artistic Director Rick Shiomi and Reme Grefalda, curator of the Asian Pacific Islander Collection at the Library of Congress. Photo by Lia Chang

Reme Grefalda, curator of the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection located in the Asian Division of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and I flew in to photograph the cast in rehearsal for my Library of Congress collection, the Lia Chang Theater Photography Portfolio/AAPI Collection in the Asian Division at the Library of Congress, and to celebrate opening night.

Photos: Backstage with the Cast of Chinglish and David Henry Hwang at the Longacre Theatre

Posted by Lia Chang on Tuesday, 25 October 2011

 

Playwright David Henry Hwang in front of the Longacre Theatre in New York, where his new comedy Chinglish is currently in previews. Photo by Lia Chang

Tony Award-winning and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) is clad in a cozy salt and pepper turtleneck and black jeans when I meet up with him backstage at the Longacre Theatre after the Saturday matinee of CHINGLISH, his sexy, stylish and hilarious new play, currently in previews and set to open on October 27th.

Chinglish leading lady Jennifer Lim chats with playwright David Henry Hwang in her dressing room at the Longacre Theatre in New York on October 22, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

The show comes to Broadway following its critically acclaimed world premiere production at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago this summer, which ran from June 18th through July 31st.

Ken Smith, playwright David Henry Hwang, Stephen Pucci and Joanna C. Lee Photo by Lia Chang


My backstage pass included photographing the cast in their dressing rooms, courtesy of cultural advisors Joanna C. Lee and Ken Smith.

David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish Takes Home 2 Jeff Awards

Posted by Lia Chang on Tuesday, 08 November 2011

October 27, 2011. Tony-award winning and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright David Henry Hwang backstage at the Longacre Theatre on the opening night of his new play Chinglish. Photo by Lia Chang

Tony-award winning and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, which has its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre last summer and opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on October 27, 2011, scored two Jeff Awards, for Hwang (New Work-Play) and scenic designer David Korins (Scenic Design-Large), at the 43rd Annual Jeff Awards held at Drury Lane Oakbrook in Chicago on November 7, 2011. Visit the Jeff Awards website for all of the winners.

Hwang’s sexy, stylish and hilarious new play stars Jennifer Lim and Gary Wilmes, and features Angela Lin, Christine Lin, Stephen Pucci, Johnny Wu and Larry Lei Zhang.

The Cast of David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish at their opening night party held at Brasserie 81/2 in New York on October 27, 2011. (L-R) Stephen Pucci, Angela Lin, Larry Lei Zhang, Jennifer Lim, Gary Wilmes, Christine Lin and Johnny Wu. Photo by Lia Chang

Featured Media

In the News

judith leiber