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"Mamma Mia!" at East West Players in 2019. (Photo by Steven Lam)

East West Players Season to Feature Asian American Women

The Los Angeles company will present works by Jiehae Park, Lauren Yee, Sandra Tsing Loh, and May Lee-Yang.

LOS ANGELES: East West Players (EWP) has announced its 2019-20 season, titled “We Are the Ones We Are Waiting For.” The season will contain four plays, all by Asian American female playwrights.

“Our 54th season is one of laughter and change often in the face of loss,” said producing artistic director Snehal Desai in a statement. “A season of works all by Asian American women playwrights. We started with the questions: Where do we the look in these troubling times? To whom? And our response is a season where we discover that we are the ones we are waiting for, and should accept nothing less.”

The season will open with Jiehae Park’s Hannah and the Dread Gazebo (Aug.-Sept. 29), about a young woman and her family’s journey to South Korea to retrieve their grandmother’s body after she commits suicide. Jennifer Chang will direct.

Next up will be Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap (Oct. 8- Dec. 1), a co-production with Pasadena Playhouse. The play is about an American basketball team’s trip to Beijing for an exhibition game. BD Wong will direct.

Following will be Sandra Tsing Loh’s Sugar Plum Fairy (Dec. 5-22), about a 12-year-old girl who dreams of starring in The Nutcracker.

The season will conclude with May Lee-Yang’s The Korean Drama Addict’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity (March 19-April 5, 2020), about a Hmong personality coach addicted to Korean drama anxiously awaiting her 30th birthday.

Founded in 1965, East West Players focuses on programming plays by and about the Asian American experience.

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ADV – Billboard