Esther Kyung-ju Chae
Photo by Jared Asato

Join us as we celebrate NYC Immigrants Heritage Week with featured performances and discussion surrounding the work of actress and playwright Esther K. Chae. Chae’s work deals with immigrant characters and “thrives within the
bibimbap culture,” an all-in-one meal concept used by the late multi-media artist Nam June Paik. Various characters, languages, images, and stories mix  together in one dish to be served as a nutritious and thought-provoking experience. Chae will present excerpts from three of her plays: Ae-ri in Otherland, Ddan Da Ddan!!!, and So the Arrow Flies. In collaboration with Kenn Watt. Moderated by Erin B. Mee.

With thanks to Roger Guenveur Smith, Mark Taper Forum Solo Performance
Workshop, Durfee Foundation, Naomi Okuyama, Casey Stangl, Michi Barall, Melinda Hall, Dr. HK Chae & Mrs. Chae, Jean So, NetKAL family and TED friends. Ping Chong & Co. supports Esther K. Chae’s CUNY event.

Esther Kyung-ju Chae is an international award-winning actor, playwright, and
academic based in Los Angeles. Her artistic work has been seen and heard in the US, Korea, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Canada, and Russia. As a performer she has appeared on theatre stages such as Yale Repertory Theater, La MaMa, Mark Taper Forum/Kirk Douglas Theater, P.S. 122, Harvard/A.R.T. and TV shows NCIS, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The West Wing, The Shield, ER and The Young and the Restless. Her most recent solo performance piece So the Arrow Flies, about a North Korean spy and the Korean American FBI Agent that chases her, was featured in 2008 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Ars Nova Theater Festival (NY), World Women’s Forum (Seoul) and at the recent TED Conference of which she is an inaugural fellow.It is also being developed into a film script. Chae is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama (MFA Acting), University of Michigan (MA Theater Studies) and Korea University. More info at www.estherchae.com

Kenn Watt is the former artistic director of the West Coast ensemble The Fifth Floor. He has been a TCG/NEA Directing Fellow and a NEA/Pew National Resident Theatre Artist, and is a student in the Ph.D. Program in Theatre at CUNY.

Erin B. Mee’s book, The Theatre of Roots: Redirecting the Modern Indian Stage, was published by Seagull Books and Palgrave-McMillan (2008). Mee is a director who has worked at New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, and The Magic Theater. She is an assistant professor and acting chair of theatre at Swarthmore College.

6:30 p.m., Monday, April 20th, 2009
Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free!