Frank Chin
A pioneer of Asian American literature and theater, Frank Chin is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and cultural critic. The first Asian American playwright to be produced at a major New York theater (The American Place Theatre), his plays The Chickencoop Chinaman (1972) and The Year of the Dragon (1974) remain seminal works in the history of U.S. theater. Chin’s books include the novels, Donald Duk and Gunga Din Highway, and an essay collection, Bulletproof Buddhists. His early, “lost” novel, The Confessions of a Number One Son, was published in 2015. He is also the co-editor of two landmark anthologies of Asian American literature: Aiiieeeee! and its sequel, The Big Aiiieeeee! He lives in Los Angeles.
Credit for Frank Chin photograph: Keoke Silvano |
Migdalia Cruz
Migdalia Cruz is a Bronx-born, award-winning playwright, lyricist, translator, and librettist of more than 60 works for stage, radio, film, TV, and podcast, performed in 150 venues in 40 cities in 12 countries. An alumna of New Dramatists, her awards include: NEA, McKnight, NYSCA, TCG/Pew, and she was named the 2013 Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright. María Irene Fornés nurtured her at INTAR and Latino Chicago gave her a home as playwright-in residence. She is a master teacher of playwriting with the Fornés Institute, various universities, and professional theater schools. She was co-chair of the DGF Playwriting Fellows in 2020-21; mentors the NYC Latinx Playwrights Circle; and commissioned by Clubbed Thumb, INTAR, and Kitchen Dog (Dallas). 2021-23 productions: Macbeth translation, Shakespeare In Detroit, August 2023; Macbeth translation & Fishtank, in a workshop-collaboration with Blueprint/PlayOnShakespeare/ Magic Theatre (San Francisco) in April, 2023; Dinner With Dee, Kitchen Dog (Dallas), June 2022; a PlayOnShakespeare translation of Macbeth (Sunderland, England), Theatre Space North East, Aug 2021, and in 2022, USD/Old Globe (San Diego), and is now a podcast (Next Chapter Podcasts); Richard III produced by Theatre Space North East (Sunderland); Yorick's Last Laugh, Shakespeare Dallas, 2021. Her translations of Macbeth & Richard III were published by ACMRS Press. Migdalia was featured in “SHAKESPEARE AND LATINIDAD,” Edinburgh University Press, 2021, also in “Fifty Key Figures in LatinX and Latin American Theatre,” published by Routledge, February 2022, and in “Diasporic Journeys: Interviews with Puerto Rican Writers in the United States,” ed. by Carmen Haydée Rivera, Centro Press, 2023. She was recently honored by The Kilroys. www.migdaliacruz.com
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