Production History
Mission Statement
Artists at Play produces theatrical programming that explores the Asian American experience. In the presentation of these multifaceted stories, we provide resources and a platform for underrepresented theatre artists while serving audiences within the Los Angeles community.
Vision Statement
Artists at Play's body of work will bring new Asian American and Pacific Islander narratives to the canon of American theatre. Through our work locally and nationally, we will support new, emerging and established artists in their goals to challenge and engage theatrical communities and audiences.
- Provide opportunities for the artistic development of underrepresented theatre artists.
- Respect and observe the cultural nuances and contexts of the stories we tell.
- Take an active stance on anti-racism in the work that we do, both on- and off-stage.
History
Artists at Play unofficially began when Peter J. Kuo first directed Julia Cho in the 2008 production of Letters to a Student Revolutionary. The following year, the production was picked up for an encore run in Downtown Los Angeles by AddWord Productions with Stefanie Wong Lau as the marketing director. Peter, Julia, and Stefanie continued to successfully collaborate on several productions. When it came time to round out this current team of artists/arts administrators, it was easy to include Marie-Reine Velez due to her experience in production, marketing and programming with TeAda Productions as well as USC’s Visions and Voices. Having already collaborated on different projects in various configurations, these four embarked upon continued growth collectively as Artists at Play.
In Fall 2011, the Los Angeles Premiere of Lauren Yee's cheekily subversive comedy Ching Chong Chinaman marked Artists at Play's debut on to the local theatre scene. That successful show was followed by 2012's Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, which earned nominations from the GLAAD Media Awards (for Outstanding Los Angeles Theater) and LA Stage Alliance (for Best Acting Ensemble for a Play, also Ovation Recommended).
For Edith Can Shoot Things..., Artists at Play worked with Nicholas Pilapil as Assistant Production Manager. Nicholas was later welcomed into the group as Associate Producer for the 2013 season, which saw the launch of Artists at Play's spring reading series. That fall brought on another commercial hit with the L.A. premiere of Cowboy Versus Samurai by Michael Golamco. In 2014, Artists at Play presented the L.A. premiere of 99 Histories by Julia Cho (the writer, not to be confused with the actor/AAP co-founder). Written more than ten years ago, the Los Angeles-set play received a much-deserved homecoming production.
Artists at Play continued presenting theatre with the 2015 West Coast Premiere of In Love and Warcraft by Madhuri Shekar, which also marked their first co-production (with The Latino Theater Company at LATC). In August-September 2016, Artists at Play presented their first World Premiere, Carla Ching's The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up. Then, after presenting two workshop readings of Two Mile Hollow, Artists at Play presented the World Premiere of this new work by Leah Nanako Winkler in 2018.
Officially adding Katherine Chou to the team, Artists at Play wrapped up their ninth year of producing theatre with the Los Angeles Premiere of The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh in Fall 2019.
Who We Are
Julia Cho (Producing Artistic Leader, Founding Member) is a Los Angeles native and actor, who made her professional acting debut in the Bay Area premiere of An Alphabet, presented by the John Cage Trust Fund. She then starred in the Word for Word production of Amy Tan’s Immortal Heart at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. After an extended award-winning run, the show toured domestically and in France. Since then, Julia has performed/toured with East West Players, hereandnow theatre company, and Lodestone Theatre Ensemble.
In the summer of 2009, Julia embarked on her first producing venture, leading an ensemble cast-- calling themselves Actors at Play-- to create and perform an original Valentine's Day show. Beware of Cupid had a successful run in February 2010 and was featured on angryasianman.com as well as the Hyphen blog.
Film credits include Wedding Palace and Larry Crowne. TV credits include This Is Us (NBC), Goliath (Amazon), Scandal (ABC), and upcoming episodes of Shut Eye (Hulu). Julia starred in the web series Jeff and Ravi Fail History, which screened at SXSW 2011, and appeared as "Charlotte Lu" in the Emmy Award-winning web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Check out IMDb for a full list of credits and Facebook for news and updates. Twitter: @thatjuliacho
In November 2006, Stefanie joined the Center Theatre Group Development Department as their Special Events Coordinator. She helped plan the organization’s successful annual fundraisers, and other major events include Freakin’ Sweet! with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and Center Theatre Group’s 40th Anniversary Luncheon. When Stefanie left in July 2008, she had organized or assisted with more than 75 donor events ranging from opening night dinners to backstage tours and intimate artist dialogues. She continues to work part-time at CTG on fundraising events including Season Celebration, Angels' Night Lite and Enter Laughing (honoring Carl Reiner).
Stefanie
is the Managing Director of Cold Tofu Improv, the nation's oldest Asian
American comedy improv group. She started with the organization as a
student in 2003, completing its improv training workshops and becoming
an Ensemble member. She joined the Board of Directors in 2006 and was
appointed Managing Director in 2013. As a producer, Stefanie has worked
on the organization's comedy sketch show Tofu Exposed, fundraiser Changing of the Guard, monthly improv performances in the Los Angeles Arts District and TeleMongol: Invading Your Box 24/7 (co-production with Cold Tofu Improv, Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors and OPM).
As
an independent theatre professional, Stefanie has worked with many
organizations on a number of successful productions including: Letters to a Student Revolutionary (AddWord Productions and Metamorphosis Theatre Company); Songs for a New World and Ordinary Days (Yes, and… Productions); Beware of Cupid (Actors at Play); and The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) (Circle
X Theatre Company). She also worked for the Ford Amphitheatre's
Community Bridges Program and served on its advisory committee. Twitter: @MsStefanieL
Marie-Reine Velez (Producing Artistic Leader, Founding Member) is a founding member of Artists at Play and has co-produced the Los Angeles premieres of Ching Chong Chinaman, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them and Cowboy Versus Samurai; and she dramaturged the 2013 AAP staged reading of Iggy Woo by Alice Tuan. She currently works in production and marketing for Visions and Voices, the arts and humanities initiative at the University of Southern California, where she has had the honor of working events with noted speakers and artists such as Ira Glass, Anna Deveare Smith, Pedro Almodovar, David Henry Hwang, Patti Smith, Tony Kushner and Alonzo King Lines Ballet, among others.
Having served on the host committee of the National Asian American Theatre Festival and Conference in Los Angeles (2011), Marie-Reine has been a theatre and music events producer in Los Angeles since 2005. As general manager with TeAda Productions, she produced four years of the TEADAWORKS New Performance Festivals and Labs, along with TeAda’s Ramble-Ations: A One D’Lo Show, El Verde Origins by Anthony Aguilar, Farid Mercury by Robert Karimi, Refugee Nation by Leilani Chan and Ova Saopeng and Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Kristina Wong. She now serves as the board president for TeAda Productions.
Marie-Reine previously worked with Center Theatre Group in the literary department, helping coordinate writers’ workshops and new play development seminars with local playwrights. From 2005 to 2009 she co-founded ran the Eagle Rock Indie Rock Bowling Night at All Star Lanes, providing community and production support for rising local and touring bands in the greater Los Angeles area. Twitter: @mariezpz
Nicholas Pilapil (Producer) is a Filipino American producer and playwright. As a producer, he is passionate about developing new works by AAPI writers, and has been an Artists at Play producing member since 2013. Nicholas has produced developmental readings at the National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2016) and Victory Gardens Theater (2018), After Orlando for East West Players, Real Love (world premiere) at the Fountain Theatre, Exhibit: Frida (world premiere) for Long Beach State University, and the new play festival Other Plays, among others. As an arts administrator, Nicholas specializes in marketing and communications, and has worked at Long Beach Opera, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and South Coast Repertory. In 2018, Nicholas led the panel The Room Where It Happens (How to Survive a PWI as a POC) at the National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival in Chicago.
Nicholas’ plays have been developed/performed with Artists at Play, Becky and Baldwin, East West Players, Fountain Theatre, Fresh Produce’d LA, Playwrights Foundation, and The Vagrancy. His short films have also played at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Los Angeles Philippine International Film Festival and Outfest FUSION, among others. He is a member of the IAMA Theatre Under 30 Playwrights Lab and 2019 artEquity cohort and is a 2019-20 Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights Diversity Fellow. Nicholas is a co-founder of Becky and Baldwin and the co-host of the Dealing podcast. @nicholaspilapil
Peter J. Kuo (Founding Member)