NEW YORK: Ma-Yi Theater Company has announced its spring 2021 season, which will include collaborations with artists in Japan and the Philippines. The season will run on Ma-Yi Studios, a digital streaming and live capture service.
The season will begin with the live reading of Ohnobu Pelican’s Clippy and Ms. U on Feb. 11. The play marks Ma-Yi’s participation in 10 Years from the Great East Japan Earthquake of 3/11: A Reflection Through Plays, an international event commemorating the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The reading will be directed by James Yaegashi and presented in partnership with the Japan Playwrights Association, Tohoku Branch.
Additional readings include Stefani Kuo’s Final Boarding Call (March 10-14), presented in partnership with WP Theater, and Daniel K. Isaac’s Once Upon A (korean) Time (April 7).
Ma-Yi will also launch the audio project Rest on Feb. 25, created by composer and sound designer Frederick Kennedy. Rest uses data from seismographs taken around the world following coronavirus shutdowns to explore the meaning of silence and space.
Artistic director Ralph B. Peña and puppeteer Tom Lee will present Vancouver (April 19) in partnership with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Vancouver follows a Japanese American family who return to the U.S. to settle in the Pacific Northwest.
Finally, Ron Domingo’s Odets in Staten Island (May 3) focuses on the social protest theatre of playwright Clifford Odets.
Founded in 1989, Ma-Yi has as its primary mission the development and production of new and innovative plays by Asian American writers.
