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2010 Works in Progress |
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In Ten Years |
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The 2010 Works in Progress series continues with this new work by playwright Damon Chua. Q & A will follow.
In Ten Years is a comic yet pointed glimpse of two young couples whose lives become intertwined and whose fortunes reverse, set against a world where China begins to challenge the United States as a world power.
Third-generation Chinese American Millie and Greg are a high-achieving power couple with ties to business and academe in the booming Silicon Valley. The mid-90s find them upwardly mobile. Pui Mun and Ah Keung are struggling to launch a small but potentially rewarding business in the gradually changing economic environment of mainland China.
When the distant cousins, Millie and Pui Mun, reach across the Pacific Ocean in 1996, apparently it is to establish family bonds. It becomes obvious that each has an ulterior motive. The two women hope to leverage their newly discovered relationship into fame and fortune. Neither one is wholly open with the other.
The men in their lives, Greg and Ah Keung, are very suspicious of this new found family connection, and they warn their wives to be on guard. Of course, the women do as they think is best—to embarrassing consequences.
In the following ten years, the booming U.S. economy loses steam, and Greg and Millie become concerned with maintaining their success. To their chagrin, they find themselves looking to their family in China for new opportunities. Now, if only they had been honest with them at the beginning.
Damon Chua received the 2007 Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Play for his noir drama FILM CHINOIS, beating six other nominees including a Tony Award winner. This play has since been published by Samuel French. His ten-minute play STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES was recently chosen as one of the Best Ten Minute Plays of 2009 and will be published by Smith & Kraus later this year. Currently the Literary Manager of Company of Angels, Los Angeles' oldest non-profit theater company, Damon’s pieces have been presented in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Pennsylvania, Alaska, London and Singapore.
Works in Progress is a program of the Cultural Services Division of the Torrance Community Services Department. Presented in association with APC Gallery, Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Chinese American Museum, Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, El Camino College Community Education, Organization of Chinese Americans/Greater Los Angeles, Palos Verdes Arts Center, South Bay Chinese American Chamber of Commerce, Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce, Torrance CitiCABLE, Torrance Historical Society & Museum, Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Torrance Public Library, Torrance Symphony Association, UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, University Art Gallery CSU Dominguez Hills, Visual Artists Guild, Visual Communications |
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