DECEMBER READINGS 2009

MAYANK KESHAVIAH (Playwright, RANGOON) is a Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter. Prior to moving to L.A. in 2005, he served on the board of South Asian Theatre Arts Guild Experiment (STAGE) in Washington, D.C. As part of STAGE, he directed REARRANGED MARRIAGE and PSYCHO for the annual South Asian Literary and Theatre Arts Festival (SALTAF). He also assistant directed LENNY & LOU, which opened Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's 25th Anniversary season. Since moving to Los Angeles, Mayank has worked as the Literary Intern on the world premiere of LEWIS AND CLARK REACH THE EUPHRATES at the Mark Taper Forum and in the Literary Department of Center Theatre Group. In 2007, his play THOSE WHO CAN'T received a workshop production as part of the USC School of Theatre’s Blueprints festival, and in 2008, his thesis play RANGOON was given a staged reading as part of the Under Construction festival of graduate playwrights.

KAIPO SCHWAB (Director, RANGOON) is an actor/director who has previously worked with Pan Asian Rep directing THE MANGO TREE, which was part of 2 + 3 NIGHTS ONLY, and starring in the title role of SHOGUN MACBETH in 2008. He has also worked with The Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, The New York Theatre Workshop, Hartford Stage Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Mr. Schwab is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and the Artistic Director of the Imua! Theatre & Film Company.

RICHARD CHANG (Playwright, NEWS TO A MUSE) has appeared in the New York Fringe Festival, Midtown Theatre Festival, Chinese Theatre Works, and Goodwin Theater, among others. His one-man show, GOY VEY! ADVENTURES OF A DIM SUN IN SEARCH OF HIS WANTON FATHER, developed within Pan Asian's workshop program and produced in full in 2002, was hailed by the Jewish Telegraph (UK) in a review headlined "The Greatest Show in Festival's History" at the 2007 Leeds Jewish International Performing Arts Festival. Richard can be seen in the film “New York, I Love You,” currently in theatres. He stars in "No Menus Please", an independent short which was shown on PBS-TV nationwide in February. Richard is a 2008 Fellow recipient from the Urban Artist Initiative/New York City.

LINDA BURSON (Director, NEWS TO A MUSE), Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, National Theatre Conference, has directed over 250 productions throughout the world, including Richard Chang's GOY VEY! - the "Best Production in History" of Leeds (England) Jewish International Performing Arts Festival. Among "Best Director" awards: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (NJ), SCAPINO! (KY), THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON (NY). Selected venues: Lincoln Center, International Fringe, CSC, Primary Stages, New Day Rep, East Lynne Theatre, Albuquerque Civic Light Opera, Chatham, Count Basie, Millbrook Playhouse. Honors include: Distinguished Women of American Theatre, Who's Who in Entertainment, Outstanding People of the 20th Century, International Who's Who of Professionals.

LAUREN YEE (Playwright, CHING CHONG CHINAMAN) is the recipient of a 2009 MacDowell Colony residency, a member of the 2009 Public Theater Emerging Writers Group, and a 2008/09 Dramatists Guild fellow. She was also a finalist for the Jerome Fellowship, the PONY Fellowship, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, and the Humana Festival’s Heideman Award. Lauren has received fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, the Edward Albee Foundation, the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, the New York Mills Arts Retreat; commissions from the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the O’Neill Studio at Yale, and PlayGround; and funding from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and Theatre Bay Area. Other awards include Kumu Kahua Theatre’s 2007 Pacific Rim Prize and the 2007 Yale Playwrights Festival. Lauren is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a recent graduate of Yale University. She is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at UCSD.

MAY ADRALES (Director, CHING CHONG CHINAMAN) has directed and developed work at Williamstown Theater Festival; The Public Theater; Second Stage Theatre; New York Theater Workshop; The Hangar Theatre; Long Wharf Theatre; Midtown International Theater Festival (Best Solo Show); Partial Comfort Productions (Time Out NY Critic Pick); New Jersey Repertory; Ensemble Studio Theater; New York University, Bard College, Fordham University and The New York International Fringe Festival. Awards: SSDC Denham Fellowship; Williamstown Theater Festival's Bill Foeller Fellowship; Van Lier Directing Fellowship, New York Theatre Workshop Directing Fellowship, SDCF Observership, and Drama League Directing Fellowship. She is an alumnus of the SoHo Rep Writers/Director's Lab and Women's Project Directors Lab and former Artistic Associate at The Public Theater. Currently, May is in residence at The Lark Play Development Center as the recipient of the TCG New Generations Grant. Faculty, Public Theater Shakespeare Lab. MFA, Yale School of Drama, directing.

December Readings 2007