An award-winning and resonant political thriller
Quantum Theatre announced Lucy Kirkwood‘s Olivier Award-winning play Chimerica will be presented at the newly opened Maverick Hotel, former East Liberty YMCA, from November 27 to December 19.
Directed by Quantum Theatre’s Founding Artistic Director Karla Boos and featuring Art Direction by Susan Tsu, the original 2020 cast and crew finally join for this examination of capitalism and culture, journalism, and censorship, which takes a point of departure from the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, 1989.
Chimerica follows fictional photojournalist Joe Schoenfeld, who photographed the iconic “Tank Man” in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 pro-democracy protests. Twenty-three years later, after learning that the famous dissident may still be alive and living in the United States, Joe resolves to locate him and tell his story, putting careers, relationships and lives on the line in the process.
A first-generation Chinese designer born in the United States, Art Director Susan Tsu, long a collaborator with Boos and Quantum, provides a unifying vision for Chimerica, drawing on her own lived experience and a lifetime working with students from students the United States and China. In 1989, Tsu was invited to participate in a conference in China and set the stage for future exchange while peaceful sit-ins were staged by students protesting in Beijing and Shanghai for greater freedoms, governmental accountability, and “more democracy.” The eyes of the world were upon China that summer as Mikhail Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping met during the long-awaited Sino-Soviet Summit. Journalists of the world, there for the summit, found that headline story superseded by the terrible massacre of students gunned down in Tiananmen Square during the early hours of June 4, 1989.
“Chimerica, while a distinctly western play, never-the-less scratches at both the Chinese and American heart in search of the truth and the soul of our nations, and who we have become since 1989,” said Tsu. “It reveals the uneasy connections between our people within the adversarial posturing of our governments.”
Tsu is an award-winning costume designer, and Bessie F. Anathan, Professor of Design at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. She has curated significant international exhibitions and been awarded the 2016 Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, NY Drama Desk award, Kennedy Center Medal of Achievement, NY Young Film Critics award, and the Carol R. Brown Award in Pittsburgh among other accolades.
She and Boos are joined by a team including Noah Glaister, Scenic Design; Mary Ellen Stebbins, Lighting Design; Margaret McGrann, Costume Design; Steve Shapiro, Sound Design; Carolina Loyola-Garcia, Projection Design; and Randy Kovitz, Fight Direction.
Chimerica’s cast features six Asian and six American actors, Kyle Haden, Hansel Tan, Elena Alexandratos, Mei Lu Barnum, Mimi Jong, Brian Kim, Jason McCune, John Michnya, Ariel Pang-Xiu, John Shepard, Alison Weisgall, and Tobias C. Wong.
Chimerica is the first theatre production in the newly coined Maverick Hotel, which officially opened on October 1. Previously as a YMCA, Quantum Theatre transformed its ballroom for the 2011 production of Maria de Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer.
Special events for the show include a Community Night preview on November 24, Opening Night reception with the cast and crew on November 27, Q&A with the artists following the performance on November 28, pre-show Social Q and Quantum Quaff events on December 1 and 2, and post-show Quantum on the Couch talkback on December 11.
Proof of COVID-19 vaccination will be required for all audience members at the box office, and audiences must be masked. For patrons who cannot get vaccinated, a negative PCR test within 72 hours of the performance or an antigen test within 24 hours will be accepted. Quantum Theatre is committed to the health and safety of audiences, artists, and staff. It will continue to monitor the latest CDC guidance.
Tickets and more information on Chimerica can be found at https://www.quantumtheatre.com/chimerica/.
Categories: Show Previews
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