Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announces the publication of Version 3.0, a major new collection of contemporary Asian American plays edited by Chay Yew. This vital anthology includes a foreword by David Henry Hwang, introduction by Chay Yew and eight full-length plays, each paired with a statement by the author.
The first major anthology of contemporary Asian American drama in almost two decades, Version 3.0 collects Julia Cho's Durango, Sunil Kuruvilla's Rice Boy, Han Ong's Swoony Planet, Sung Rno's wAve, Diana Son's Satellites, AlIce Tuan's Last of the Suns and Chay Yew's Question 27, Question 28. Also included is The Square, a choral piece meditating on 120 years of relationships between non-Asian Americans and the Asian American community, written by sixteen of today's leading playwrights: Bridget Carpenter, Ping Chong, Constance Congdon, Kia Corthron, Maria Irene Fornes, Philip Kan Gotanda, Jessica Hagedorn, David Henry Hwang, Robert O'Hara, Craig Lucas, Han Ong, José Rivera, Diana Son, AlIce Tuan, Mac Wellman and Chay Yew.
"I am inspired by the writers in this volume, who have questioned assumptions and expanded the palate of our nation's dramatic literature... Version 3.0 playwrights have kept Asian American theatre vital. On a personal level, seeing and reading their plays has kept me young."
- from the foreword by David Henry Hwang
Editor Chay Yew points out that these third-wave writers "have expanded the world of Asian American theatre... [by] regarding ethnicity in a much more complicated mosaic of identity." These playwrights explore the myriad ways in which Asians live in America: freely combining the Medea myth with wave-particle physics; nimbly moving between a field in Kitchener, Canada, and a treetop in Kerala, India; fully examining complexities of gender, sexuality, and family and all the while demonstrating the cultural and aesthetic diversity of their generation.
Chay Yew is a noted playwright and director whose work has been produced Off-Broadway and across the U.S. He is the Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, has served as head of the Asian Theatre Workshop at the Mark Taper Forum and is a former Resident Director at East West Players.
For 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 13,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the US Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 11 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. www.tcg.org
