On May 12th and 13th, AEA’s Eastern Region Equal Employment Opportunity Committee in collaboration with Leviathan Lab’s Asian American Women Writers’ Workshop, celebrated Asian Heritage Month with a salon of concert readings of new monologues and 10 minute plays, at the AEA Audition Center in New York. Leanne Cabrera, Nora Chau, Elaina Erika Davis, Siho Ellsmore, Nancy Eng, Christine Toy Johnson, Dorim Lee, Marisa Marquez, May Nazareno, Kristine M. Reyes, Eileen Rivera and Susan Soon He Stanton were among the playwrights featured. The Festival was the brainchild of Christine Toy Johnson (Playwright/Actor and Co-chair of AEA’s EEOC), Ariel Estrada (EEOC member and founder of Leviathan Lab), Nelson T. Eusebio III (Resident Director at Leviathan Lab), and Ji-Hyun Lee (playwright) who joined forces to create a platform for Asian American female playwrights.

By Stephen Rakower

Wu Xia (U.S. title: "Dragon") directed and produced by Peter Ho-sun Chan, and written by Aubrey Lam premiered this past weekend at the Cannes Film Festival to positive reviews. The movie is set in the early 1900's in a village in Yunnan province. Liu Jin-xi, played by Donnie Yen ("Hero"), is a papermaker and his wife, Ayu, played by Tang Wei (Lust, Caution), and two young sons, live a seemingly normal life in the remote village. However, the arrival of a detective, Xu Baijin , played by Takeshi Kaneshiro ("House of Flying Daggers") soon threatens to tear them apart. Critics are raving about the story, the cinematography, and the martial arts scenes.

Here are some of the early reviews coming in for the film:

Time Magazine's Mary Corliss.

First Showing's Alex Billington.

ChannelNewsAsia.com's Han Wei Chou

Hollywood Reporter

James Hong, one of the most celebrated APA actors in Hollywood attended the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences event May 11, "Asian Pacific Americans in TV: Then & Now."

Hong plays "Ping" the goose father of "Po", the panda bear star of Kung Fu Panda, and Kung Fu Panda 2 debuting in theaters nationwide on May 26, 2011.

Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.

AsianConnections is attending the Los Angeles red carpet premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2. Stay tuned for our stories from the red carpet!

Click here for the full story at www.emmys.tv

(press release) Thirty-eight recipients of the 71st Annual Peabody Awards were announced today by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The winners, chosen by the Peabody board as the best in electronic media for the year 2011, were named in a ceremony in the Peabody Gallery on the UGA campus.

“The range of the Peabody Awards’ search for excellence has never been wider or deeper than this year,” said Horace Newcomb, director of the Peabody Awards. “Local news organizations covered stories with international import as well as those significant within their communities. Documentaries and news reports on issues missed or overlooked by big organizations were available on websites. Comedians engaged in political actions. Radio proved again the power of the individual human voice. Drama took on issues of power and control. Images of disaster appeared alongside images of hope and freedom.”

The latest Peabody recipients reflect variety in content, genre and sources of origination.

Congratulations to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria who garnered a Peabody for CNN’s GPS series highlighting Zakaria’s commentary and analysis regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well as a special report, Fixing the American Dream, addressing problems with the U.S. educational system.

The winners included Homeland, Showtime’s psychologically...

Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is proud to announce that Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang will be the Residency One Playwright for the 2012-2013 season at the company’s new home, The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th Avenues). Residency One is Signature’s core one-year playwright-in-residence program that produces a series of plays from the body of work of one accomplished writer. Hwang succeeds Athol Fugard, whose MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! and THE TRAIN DRIVER will be presented in the coming months, as Signature’s Residency One playwright. Titles, dates and directors for the David Henry Hwang series will be announced at a later date.

Signature Theatre’s Founding Artistic Director James Houghton said, “I have been looking forward to a season of David Henry Hwang’s work for a long time, and I am thrilled that he will be Signature’s 2012-2013 Residency One Playwright. For over thirty years, David’s plays have tackled critical issues of identity, legacy, and the global community with incredible insight and great humor. He is also a fierce supporter of emerging playwrights and a vital leader in the New York theatre community. We are honored to have David join the company and to produce three of his extraordinary plays.”

David Henry Hwang said, “It doesn’t feel like so much...