COWBOY VERSUS SAMURAI: Actor's Perspective

Artists at Play's Julia Cho is pulling double duty for the Los Angeles premiere of Cowboy Versus Samurai. Find out what drew her to this play not only as a producer, but as an actor.

Julia Cho and West Liang in rehearsal

Why were you interested in Cowboy Versus Samurai? 

Little known fact: My first attempt at directing was in college as part of this women's theatre fest. I proposed and was allowed to present, as interstitials throughout the program, select scenes between the two female characters from Achievers, a play by... Michael Golamco. A few years prior, I had seen a production and lo and behold, there were young, modern Asian American characters portrayed by Asian American performers onstage. Then I discovered Cowboy Versus Samurai and was struck by the same impression. Fast forward years later and here I am, one of the proud founding members of this theatre collective Artists at Play. CvsS had been on our group's radar since our inception and we are thrilled to be presenting the Los Angeles premiere this fall with yours truly tackling the role of Veronica Lee. 

What do you find interesting / intriguing / challenging about the character that you are playing? 

As candid and uninhibited as she is, Veronica only lets you dig so far beneath the surface. As Del describes his first impression of her, she has this "big city get-the-hell-outta-my-way thing going on." And yet, this is the same woman who will engage total strangers in conversation, immediately draw you into sharing your secrets, and then go home to nurse her adopted tail-less cat. You see this person who seems like she has it all together, and yet certain choices, certain behaviors still hint at perhaps not all is as it seems. 

What do you hope audiences will take away from the play after watching it? 

With any great play or work of art, the hope is that after seeing Cowboy Versus Samurai, thoughts will be sparked, issues will be raised, and conversations will be initiated. Whenever you deal with race, emotions are bound to be stirred. And throw love into the mix, and you're just asking for trouble. But with any new relationship, you need to stumble upon and discover the not so pretty parts and hopefully learn, grow, and move on to something that could potentially be truly life-changing.


Get your tickets to Cowboy Versus Samurai, beginning September 26 and running through October 20. For tickets: http://bit.ly/AAPCVsS

Enter the World of Alice Tuan’s Iggy Woo and the New Wave of Asian American Plays

by Alice Tuan

When I wrote Iggy Woo back in 2002, I was pretty sick of the usual Asian-American themes—alienation, immigration, cultural misunderstanding, historical injustice, cute foods, perpetual becoming—yes of course, that’s part of the experience, but what about the Asiatics who have been in the U.S., shop in malls, smoke cigarettes, are addicted to sugar and fall in love with people who don’t love them back?  It’s better now with the 4th wave of Asian-American playwrights—Lauren Yee, A. Rey Pamatmat, Michael Lew, Mia Chung, Michael Golamco and bunches of others—but back then, in the early naughts, I wanted to write just regular folks who happen to be of Asian descent.

Iggy Woo is described as “a play about unrequited love, quitting smoking and creating amidst consumption.” How did you see these coming together, and what were your inspirations?
 
Yeah, I was trying to quit smoking.  And quit a guy.  And yeah, I grew up in the Valley.  Where the true cathedral is the mall.  And yeah am obsessed with gift wrapping.  And ate pho, like, every day.

Jimmy Choo designs shoes.  Iggy Pop is punky cool.   What if there were two mall workers who snuck cigarettes and created new designs on their break?

I gave myself the challenge of writing 8 pages a day for 9 days.  Would not get out of bed until I knew what the first 2 pages were.  Day 7 was killer—just so tired and bleary but wanted to get through. That’s when I went and sat in Macy’s gift wrap to inspire the last 3 scenes, and what a shot of metaphor for American consumption it was, down to beautiful, empty boxes and 15 second samples of Christmas favorites, the tease of sentimentality.

When my agent first sent the play around, someone said it wasn’t ‘Asian’ enough.  Ugh.  Are Asiatics forever gonna be unfun melodrama?  I say let’s have some mad joy and tear up all the pretty boxes to find that one cig during a furious nic fit.


Iggy Woo by Alice Tuan will be presented as part of Artists at Play's reading series day on Sunday, March 24th.  Get your meal tickets now!

EDITH's Filipino Connection

"I'm from a Filipino family... I tend to think that Filipino women are very outspoken.  But maybe it's just my mother and her family." (playwright A. Rey Pamatmat, NPR)

Our director Jennifer Chang was asked to write a "First Person" article for the LA Stage Times.  Here is an excerpt: 

"Over the past month, I have had the tremendous honor of helming the LA premiere of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat, produced by Artists at Play.  I was approached at the beginning of the summer about my interest and availability to direct Edith... What an amazing opportunity for someone of Filipino heritage to direct a play by a Filipino-American about Filipino-Americans!

My parents were born and raised in the Philippines.  My father is ethnically Chinese with a splash of Malay-Arabian blood, and my mother is a typical Filipina of Spanish, Malay, and Chinese stock.  I grew up speaking Tagalog in a multi-generational household.  A life pursuing theater and art was definitely not what my family had imagined for me when they emigrated from the Philippines. Nonetheless, here I am, an Asian-American artist in Los Angeles –  ultimately very much like them, I might add, in pursuit of a dream."

Read "Chang’s Filipina American Connection to Edith" in its entirety here. 

Purchase tickets to the show (which runs until November 10) here.

Rodney To, Amielynn Abellera, Brian Hostenske. (photo credit: Michael C. Palma)