API Heritage Story Times and Interviews

Adventure Theatre MTC presents a celebration of API Heritage with a full lineup of API Heritage Month storytimes, interviews, and digital presentations. These online events honor the creativity, tradition, and innovation of the Asian Pacific Islander population and focus upon the impact they continue to make daily through their art. All presentations are free and available streaming live on Facebook.

May 17, 2020
12pm: Storytime excerpt with Helena Ku Rhee from her book THE PAPER KINGDOM, interview to follow
1pm: Storytime excerpt with Diana Lee Inosanto from her book THE CURIOUS MIND OF SEBASTIAN, interview to follow
2pm: Interview with Tony Award & OBIE Award recipient David Henry Hwang

12PM
In celebration of API Heritage Month, Artistic Director Chil Kong will interview the writer of one of his favorite books of 2020, PAPER KINGDOM, written by Helen Ku Rhee.

Helena Ku Rhee is a writer based in Los Angeles. Her latest children’s book, The Paper Kingdom (Penguin Random House), received starred reviews from Kirkus, Shelf Awareness and Booklist, who called the book “Enchanting and powerful.” The book is on the Spring 2020 Inspired Recommendations list by the American Booksellers Association and listed on the Most Anticipated Children’s Books of 2020 by BookPage. Helena has also written articles for publications such as the Los Angeles Times and Salon.com.

Helena grew up in L.A., but has also lived in various parts of the U.S., Asia and Europe. She loves to travel far and wide across this beautiful planet, counting among her favorite journeys a camping trip in the Sahara, a swim with elephants in Thailand and a horseback-riding tour of Easter Island. She draws story ideas from her travels as well as her childhood.

ABOUT PAPER KINGDOM:
An office at night is reimagined as a fantastical kingdom of paper complete with friendly dragons in this own voices picture book. When the babysitter is unable to come, Daniel is woken out of bed and joins his parents as they head downtown for their jobs as nighttime office cleaners. But the story is about more than brooms, mops, and vacuums. Mama and Papa turn the deserted office building into a magnificent kingdom filled with paper. Then they weave a fantasy of dragons and kings to further engage their reluctant companion–and even encourage him to one day be the king of a paper kingdom. Learn more about Paper Kingdom: http://bit.ly/2IRw8Ti

1PM
Artistic Director Chil Kong interviews long time friend and teacher Diana Inosanto and her journey to understand her son's Autism.

Diana Lee Inosanto is the daughter of martial artist Dan Inosanto and the god-daughter of the late Bruce Lee. As an American actress, producer, director, writer and former stuntwoman, she has paved a way in the Hollywood system that is unique to other performers in the entertainment industry and most recently a writer for TYA audiences with her newly released book THE CURIOUS MING OF SEBASTIAN.

ABOUT THE CURIOUS MIND OF SEBASTIAN
THE CURIOUS MIND OF SEBASTIAN is a fun and whimsical true story of a mother curiously trying to understand the mysteries of Autism through her four-year-old son's quirky behavior. Sebastian’s inability to verbally express his love led his mother on an incredible journey to find out that Love will always find a way to speak. Learn more here: https://amzn.to/2LseFlE

2PM
In celebration of API Heritage Month, celebrated Tony Award & OBIE award winning playwright will discuss how his began his playwriting career, his writing process, his inspirations with local API playwrights and moderated by Adventure Theatre Artistic Director Chil Kong.

David Henry Hwang’s stage works includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song(2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a two-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the most-produced living American opera librettist, whose works have been honored with two Grammy Awards, co-wrote the Gold Record Solo with the late pop icon Prince, and has worked since 2015 as a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair. He is currently writing the live-action musical feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios. Hwang serves on the Board of the Lark Play Development Center, as Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts, and as Chair of the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards. M. Butterfly recently returned to Broadway in a revival directed by Julie Taymor, which marked Mr. Hwang’s eighth Broadway production. His newest work, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home), premiered in May 2018 at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre (six Ovation Awards, including Best Production) and San Francisco’s Curran Theatre; it will open in New York in fall 2019.

In 2016, The David Henry Hwang Society was founded by William C. Boles (Rollins College), Martha Johnson (University of Minnesota), and Esther Kim Lee (University of Maryland). The DHH Society is devoted to the scholarly examination of plays by David Henry Hwang.

Adventure Theatre MTC will present a digital reading of Hwang's THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD on May 31st at 2pm EST