NAATCO AND THE PUBLIC THEATER ANNOUNCE CASTING
FOR WORLD PREMIERE OF OUT OF TIME
Complete Cast Includes Mia Katigbak, Glenn Kubota,Page Leong, Natsuko Ohama, and Rita Wolf
NAATCO (The National Asian American Theatre Company) and The Public Theater have cast the upcoming world premiere of OUT OF TIME, a collection of five brand-new monologues by five Asian American playwrights. Each of these monologues has been written for and will be performed by an Asian American actor over the age of 60. Conceived and directed by Obie Award-winning director Les Waters, OUT OF TIME is a theatrical tapestry exploring age, memory, parenthood, and identity in moving new works by writers Jaclyn Backhaus (Black Market Caviar), Sam Chanse (Disturbance Specialist), Mia Chung (Ball in the Air), Naomi Iizuka (Japanese Folk Song), and Anna Ouyang Moench (My Documentary). OUT OF TIME will begin performances in Martinson Hall with a Joe Papp Free Performance on Tuesday, February 15, running through Sunday, March 13, with an official press opening on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
The seasoned cast of OUT OF TIME includes Mia Katigbak (Ena; NAATCO Co-Founder and Actor-Manager), Glenn Kubota (Taki), Page Leong (Woman), Natsuko Ohama (Leonie), and Rita Wolf (Carla).
OUT OF TIME will feature scenic design by dots, costume design by Mariko Ohigashi, lighting design by Reza Behjat, sound design by Fabian Obispo, and dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie. Kasson Marroquin will serve as production stage manager and Narissa Agustin as stage manager.
The piece was conceived after Waters attended a dance performance choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker that featured an ensemble of aging dancers. In sharing his experience with NAATCO’s Mia Katigbak, the idea for OUT OF TIME was born, and five playwrights were commissioned to each write a monologue during the pandemic. NAATCO and The Public Theater have a long-standing and collaborative partnership dating back to the 2015 production of Awake and Sing!, which NAATCO performed at The Public. Coming together to create a piece that amplifies Asian American voices, particularly those over the age of 60, feels pertinent in light of the pandemic’s impact on this community.
“The pandemic’s imposition of isolation, an affliction generally thought to more devastatingly affect the elderly, was suddenly familiar to the population at large,” said NAATCO Co-Founder and Actor-Manager Mia Katigbak. “The eruption of civil unrest brought about protests against racism, police brutality, and white supremacy. The accrual of these turbulent discontents has altered the state of our world.”
The Library at The Public will reopen on January 22, serving food and drink Tuesday through Sunday beginning at 5:00 p.m. and closing at midnight. The Library will be closed on Mondays. For more information, visit publictheater.org.
CAST:
GLENN KUBOTA (Taki, Japanese Folk Song) was last seen onstage in the World Premiere of Hometown Boy by Keiko Green at the Actor’s Express Theatre Company (Atlanta). He was last seen on film in Standing Up, Falling Down and on television in “New Amsterdam.” He is a cohort member of the Performing Arts Legacy Project at the Actors Fund.
MIA KATIGBAK (Co-Founder and Actor-Manager; NAATCO; Ena, Ball in the Air). Select NYC credits include The Headlands (LCT3), Henry VI (NAATCO, St. Clair Bayfield Award), Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group), Scenes From a Marriage (NYTW), Dear Elizabeth (WP), Awake and Sing! (NAATCO, Obie Award). Katigbak has also performed at The Public, PlayCo, Ma-Yi, New Group, Foundry, New Georges, Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, and Target Margin. Regional credits include Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Two River Theater, Berkeley Rep, and the Guthrie. Katigbak is a 2021 USA Fellow, the recipient of a 2019 Special Drama Desk Award, a 2017 Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement, and an Otto René Castillo Award recipient for Political Theater. She is the Co-Founder/Actor-Manager of NAATCO. BA, Barnard College; MA, Columbia University.
PAGE LEONG (Woman, My Documentary) last performed at The Public in Too Noble Brothers (produced in collaboration with Cornerstone) and previously directed Assimilation at The Public as a part of George C. Wolfe’s Festival of New Voices. Leong’s regional credits include An Antigone Story, The Tempest, The Cardinal, Crossings, Farewell to Manzanar, Red, Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, California Seagull, Twelfth Night, and Coyote Cycle. Her film credits include Dealing with Dad, Argo, The Bourne Legacy, Ghostbusters II, and Another 48 Hrs. Leong has guest starred on “MacGyver,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Criminal Minds,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Reverie,” “Pure Genius,” “The Fosters,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “ER,” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” She has received Dramalogue, Garland, Ovation, and SAG Awards. Leong has been an ensemble member of Cornerstone since 1994, creating new plays in collaboration with vibrant communities across Los Angeles and the nation, as a performer, writer, director, and choreographer in over 75 productions.
NATSUKO OHAMA (Leonie, Disturbance Specialist) is a voice teacher/coach. Ohama is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company. Favorite roles include Hamlet and Winnie in Happy Days. Ohama performs Out of Time in remembrance of Kristin Linklater, Fran Bennett, Charlotte Cornwell, Linda Griffiths, Lilah Kan, Lynn Manning, Vanessa Marquez, Corky Lee, Kenji the Sunflower-man, Be LaRoe, Michael Keenan, Toby Murakami, Dennis Krausnick, Peter Kass, Jack Rowe, Sonny Ohama, John Cazale, David Fox, Christopher Plummer, Lewis Warsh, Norris Shimabuku, Elizabeth Sung, David Zurak, Joseph Papp, Dalton Leong, Richard Voigts, and Tona and Grace Ohama. Thanks to the students of the MFA Acting Program at USC and the School of Dramatic Arts.
RITA WOLF (Carla, Black Market Caviar) previously performed at The Public in The Michaels, written and directed by Richard Nelson, and Stuff Happens by David Hare. Recent Off-Broadway credits include The Michaels Abroad, written and directed by Richard Nelson at Hunter College, and An Ordinary Muslim by Hammaad Chaudry (NYTW). Other NYC theater credits include Homebody/Kabul by Tony Kushner (World Premiere; NYTW, Mark Taper Forum, BAM), The American Pilot by David Greig (MTC; Drama Desk nomination), WPT Pipeline Festival, and multiple Lincoln Center Directors’ Labs. Film credits include My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears/Hanif Kureishi).
PLAYWRIGHTS:
JACLYN BACKHAUS (Playwright, Black Market Caviar). Off-Broadway credits include Wives (Playwrights Horizons), India Pale Ale (MTC), Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb). Backhaus’s additional NYC credits are Thank You Letter (Theatre for One); You on the Moors Now (Theater Reconstruction Ensemble); Set in the Living Room… (TRE); The Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA! (TRE). Regional credits include You Across From Me (Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival). Backhaus’s film credits are Preeti Popped It (with Purva Bedi & Mahira Kakkar; semifinalist, 1497’s Features Lab). She is the co-founder of Fresh Ground Pepper and a resident at New Dramatists and Lincoln Center. Awards include the 2018 Horton Foote Prize and the 2016 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Clubbed Thumb. Backhaus holds a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch, where she now teaches playwriting.
SAM CHANSE (Playwright, Disturbance Specialist). Chanse’s plays include Monument, Or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) (Magic Theatre, Spring 2022); What You Are Now (Ensemble Studio Theatre & The Civilians, Winter 2022); P.S. (Ars Nova); Trigger (Lark Venturous Fellowship); and Fruiting Bodies (Ma-Yi). A past fellow at MacDowell and Sundance Theatre Institute, her work has also been developed with NAATCO, New York Stage and Film, En Garde Arts, Playwrights’ Realm, and Boston Court, and is published by Kaya Press (Lydia’s Funeral Video) and TCG (The Kilroys List). She’s a member of Ma-Yi Writers Lab, Dramatists Guild, WGAE, and a resident playwright at New Dramatists.
MIA CHUNG (Playwright, Ball in the Air). Chung’s Catch as Catch Can will premiere in Steppenwolf’s 2022-23 season; Page 73 produced the world premiere (NYC). Her play You for Me for You premiered at The Royal Court (London), the National Theatre Company of Korea (Seoul), and Woolly Mammoth (Washington D.C.). Awards, commissions, fellowships, and residencies include: Clubbed Thumb, Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, Huntington Theatre, Loewe Award in Music-Theatre, MTC/Sloan, NEA, NYTW, Playwrights’ Center, Playwrights Horizons/Steinberg, Playwrights Realm, South Coast Rep, SPACE at Ryder Farm, Stavis Award, and TCG. She is an alum of Ma-Yi Writers Lab and New Dramatists.
NAOMI IIZUKA (Playwright, Japanese Folk Song). Iizuka’s plays include 36 Views; Polaroid Stories; Anon(ymous); Language of Angels; Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls; Skin; At the Vanishing Point; Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West; and Sleep (in collaboration with RipeTime). Her plays have been produced at BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Berkeley Rep, the Goodman, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Guthrie, Cornerstone, and The Public. lizuka is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Award, an Alpert Award, and a Whiting Award. In television, she has written for “The Terror” (AMC), “Tokyo Vice” (HBO Max), “Bosch: Legacy” (IMDb TV), and “The Sympathizer” (HBO). Iizuka heads the MFA Playwriting program at the University of California, San Diego.
ANNA OUYANG MOENCH (Playwright, My Documentary) is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her plays have been produced at the Geffen Playhouse, the Playwrights Realm, East West Players, Theater Mu, InterAct Theater, and many others. She has received fellowships from the New York Foundation of the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and the Van Lier Foundation, and is an alum of UCSD’s Playwriting MFA, The Public’s Emerging Writers Group, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood, and Wesleyan University. Moench currently writes for “Severance,” coming to Apple TV+ in February 2022. Moench lives in Los Angeles with her family.
LES WATERS (Conceiver; Director). Waters’s Public Theater credits include Fen and Ice Cream with Hot Fudge, both by Caryl Churchill. On Broadway, he has directed In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl and Dana H by Lucas Hnath. NAATCO credits include What If If Only by Caryl Churchill. Waters has also directed at Clubbed Thumb, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Connelly Theater, Soho Rep, Signature Theatre, and MTC. He was the Associate Artistic Director of Berkeley Rep from 2003-11 and the Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 2012-18. Waters has received Obie Awards for his production of Big Love and Sustained Excellence in Direction. He is the subject of and one of the co-authors of The Theatre of Les Waters: More like the Weather, which will be published by Routledge in March of 2022.
ABOUT NAATCO:
NAATCO was founded in 1989 by Mia Katigbak and Richard Eng to assert the presence and significance of Asian American theatre in the United States, demonstrating its vital contributions to the fabric of American culture. NAATCO puts into service its total commitment to Asian American theatre practitioners to more accurately represent onstage the multi- and inter-cultural dynamics of our society. By doing so, they demonstrate a rich tapestry of cultural difference bound by the American experience. The enrichment accrues to each different culture as well as to America as a whole. NAATCO was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play, as well as Outstanding Costume Design for a Play for their acclaimed production of Henry VI: Shakespeare’s Trilogy in Two Parts in 2018. Their 2015 production of Awake and Sing! at The Public was nominated for a Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play. NAATCO was the recipient of the Obie’s Ross Wetzsteon Award and the Rosetta LeNoire Award from Actors’ Equity Association in recognition of its contribution toward increasing diversity in American theatre.
ABOUT THE PUBLIC THEATER:
THE PUBLIC continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation’s first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public’s wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City’s five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Lab, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe’s Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Girl From the North Country. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 184 Obie Awards, 55 Drama Desk Awards, 58 Lortel Awards, 34 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, 58 AUDELCO Awards, 6 Antonyo Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes. publictheater.org
The Public Theater stands in honor of the first inhabitants and our ancestors. We acknowledge the land on which The Public and its theaters stand’”the original homeland of the Lenape people. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this territory. We honor the generations of stewards and we pay our respects to the many diverse indigenous peoples still connected to this land.
The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust provides leadership support for The Public Theater’s year-round activities.
TICKET INFORMATION
OUT OF TIME begins performances in The Public’s Martinson Hall on Tuesday, February 15 and will run through Sunday, March 13, with an official press opening on Tuesday, March 1.
Public Theater Partner, Supporter, and full-price single tickets can be accessed by visiting publictheater.org, calling 212.967.7555, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street.
The Public’s Joseph Papp Free Performance initiative will offer free tickets to the performance on Tuesday, February 15 through a digital lottery.
The performance schedule is Tuesday through Saturday at 7:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. (There is no 1:00 p.m. performance on Saturday, February 19).
The Open Captioned performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 5. The American Sign Language Interpreted performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 6. The Audio Described performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 12.
The full performance calendar and complete ticket distribution details can be found at publictheater.org.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter | @PublicTheaterNY
Instagram | @PublicTheaterNY
