410[GONE]
March 23-April 29, 2018
By Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Directed by Gregory Keng Strasser
- Atlas Performing Arts Center
The Chinese Goddess of Mercy and the Monkey King think they control the Land of the Dead until their newest arrival, a Chinese-American boy, defies the system. Can an arcade dance game be the only thing that stands between the boy and his transmigration? Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s dark and dazzling play about the afterlife explores identity, love and what it takes to forge a new path.
中国的慈悲女神和猴王认为他们控制着死者的土地，
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig is an internationally produced playwright whose work has been staged at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Great Britain, Manhattan Theater Club, the Goodman Theatre, Trafalgar Studios 2 on the West End and the József Katona Theater in Budapest. In 2018 her most recent work, Snow in Midsummer, a contemporary adaptation of the Yuan play by Guan Hanqing, will receive its North American premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, in a production directed by Justin Audibert.
Frances’ plays have been awarded the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award (selected by David Hare), an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the David A. Callichio Award and the Keene Prize for Literature. She has held year-long playwright residencies at Manhattan Theater Club and Marin Theater Company, and is currently under commission from South Coast Rep, the Goodman Theatre and the National Theatre. In addition to [410] Gone, her plays include Lidless, The World of Extreme Happiness and Snow in Midsummer.
She has benefited from artist residencies at Yaddo, Macdowell, Hedgebrook, Ragdale, the Sundance Playwright Retreats at Ucross and Flying Point, and the Santa Fe Art Institute. Her work has been published by Yale University Press, Glimmer Train, Methuen Drama, Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service.
Frances was born in Philadelphia, and raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and Beijing. She received an MFA in Writing from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin, a BA in Sociology from Brown University, and a certificate in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. She is currently a member of the Theater and Dance faculty at UC Santa Barbara, where she has the pleasure of mentoring undergraduate playwrights and directing the Dramatic Writing Concentration.
Check out this great interview with playwright Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
VISIT FRANCES YA-CHU COWHIG’S WEBSITE
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
[410]GONE will be directed by Gregory Keng Strasser, an exciting new voice in the Washington community. A young Chinese-American director from Michigan, Strasser’s award winning productions of TRIBES and THE WHITE SNAKE won him much acclaim before joining Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Professional Leadership Program in 2016. He was an affiliate artist with the Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick, Ireland and studied Wayang Kulit puppetry, Gambuh dance, and gamelan as a resident artist of Yayasan Bali Purnati in Indonesia. Strasser moved to Washington to work in television at the Shanghai Media Group.
“Worried that tech devices are impinging on family time? Maybe your concerns should extend to the afterlife, too. In Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s audacious, irreverent and ultimately moving play 410[GONE], the Chinese Land of the Dead has gone pixelated…”
FEATURING
Linda Bard
Yasmin Tuazon
Sebastian Amoruso
Andrew Quilpa
Jacob Yeh
Designers
Set Debra Kim Sivigny
Asst. Set Designer Swedian Lee
Costumes Rhe’a Roland
Lighting Katie McCreary
Sound Roc Lee
Video Kylos Brannon
Props Rachel Knoblauch
STAFF
Production Manager Gordon Nimmo-Smith
Stage Manager Linz Moore
Master Electrician Elliot Shugoll
Fight Choreography Casey Kaleba
Dance Choreography Sarah Taurchini
ASM Sophie Barden
PRODUCERS
Randy Baker
Jenny McConnell Frederick
Jonelle Walker
MEDIA
Photos by Ryan Maxwell Photography
PRESS
With these parallels, playwright Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig has made a mash up. A traditional literary fantasy hero’s journey with SEVENTEEN’s attempts to find himself combines with TWENTY-ONE’s common contemporary theatrical narrative most identifiable as a “grieving play,” where the main characters’ objective is to come to terms with a death (think She Kills Monsters or Still Life with Rocket as recently produced examples in the DC area). As a result, 410[GONE] feels both mythic and fresh, penetrating heart and mind with equal ease.
Rorschach Theatre’s take on 410[GONE] engages the senses and creates a specific world unlike any other. Besides being visually and aurally stunning – and amusing, thanks to talented actors – it pays off emotionally. All in all, it’s a win.