Tag Archives: Ping Chong

Apr 08

Our Differences are Our Similarities: NOT BY BREAD ALONE

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Presented by ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage
Created by Adina Tal and Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater
Conceived by AdinaTal
Original music by Amnon Baaham
“Dancing Closely” written and performed by Zvi Tal

April 2 – 6, 2014
The Paramount Center
Theatre District
Boston, MA
ArtsEmerson on Facebook
Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) Not by Bread Alone is the most sincere piece of theatre I have seen all year. Productions like this are why we artists create; it is why theatre exists. The tremendous talent of the Nalag’at Deaf-Blind Theater is awe-inspiring. It’s Boston run is over but it will be in the US for a while longer. I suggest doing everything in your power to attend this brilliant production. Continue reading →

Dec 03

Book Review: “The Director’s Voice, Volume 2”

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The Director’s Voice: Volume 2
edited by Jason Loewith
TCG Books (Theare Communications Group)
Cover design by Mark Melnick
$22.00
www.tcg.org

Forward by Arthur Bartow, “The Director’s Voice”

Introduction by Jason Loewith, dramaturg, producer, playwright, director and Executive Director of the National New Play Network.

Includes interviews with Ping Chong, Anne Bogart, Julie Taymor, Mary Zimmerman, Michael Kahn and James Lapine, and many others.

Review by Kitty Drexel

Jason Loewith is filling some rather large shoes by editing and compiling the follow-up to Arthur Bartow’s “The Director’s Voice.” Loewith assures his audience that this second book is not a sequel but a continuation of the conversation started by the first. In it, he seeks to guide readers to a greater understanding of the director’s role as theater maker, actor ameliorator and money spender. Continue reading →

Nov 12

Book Review: “Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theater”

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“Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theater” by Ping Chong

by Ping Chong
Theatre Communications Group: New York, 2012
$17.95

Review by Kitty Drexel

A compilation of four selected scripts in the Undesirable Elements series by writer, director and producer Ping Chong as well as collaborator interviews and methodology. These poly-language scripts demonstrate the potential to combine the arts of storytelling, theater and poetry into a community building/affirming production. These performances are capable of reaching out to a broader theater audience (an audience perhaps jaded by conventional theater) to experience dramatic communication in ways that some artists only dream of. It is art that uses personal experience to reveal truths of the larger world community rather than using art to glorify aspects of “Other” within a community. Undesirable Elements offers a shocking exploration of the lives of social outsiders and presents them as whole, human people sometimes contrary to the perception of much of society. These works refreshingly present the players’ perspective without unintended bias. Because bias exists whether it is intended or not. Continue reading →