Note to editors and reporters: To schedule interviews with the playwrights, please contact the Cal State L.A. Public Affairs office in advance at (323) 343-3050.
‘The House Guest from Xinjiang’
visits Cal State L.A.
A free staged reading of a new play
by C.Y. Lee and ChorSwang Ngin
A staged reading of “The House Guest from Xinjiang”—a new play written by C.Y. Lee and ChorSwang Ngin—will be presented Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 18-20, at the Arena Theatre on the Cal State L.A. campus.
C.Y. Lee is a best-selling novelist and author of “The Flower Drum Song.” ChorSwang Ngin is professor and chair of anthropology and director of Asian and American Studies at Cal State L.A.
The play explores the transformation of a Xinjiang Chinese Hui Muslim female student attending a multicultural university in Los Angeles. Depicting her relationship with a liberal host family and their son, it examines mutual cultural misunderstanding, ethnic awakening, bigotry and accommodation.
Directed by G. Shizuko Herrera and choreographed by Lisa Lau, the staged readings are scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 19, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Saturday, Oct. 20, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. The reading is presented by Cal State L.A.’s Theatre Arts and Dance Department and College of Arts and Letters.
Admission is free, but seating is limited. For reservations, call (323) 343-4118.
Xinjiang is in the northeastern border area of China, and the Hui people are a Chinese ethnic group, typically distinguished by their practice of Islam.
According to the playwrights, “The House Guest from Xinjiang” attempts to answer the following questions: Are misunderstandings always cultural and religious, or are they brought about by postcolonial class and gendered upbringing? How does the “house guest” provoke critical reflection on what it takes to live in a multicultural society? In the intimate daily details of eating, living, and falling in love, what are the cherished habits we are reluctant to give up even in a liberal multicultural society?
A full production of “The House Guest from Xinjiang” is slated for Fall 2008 at Cal State L.A.
CALENDAR LISTING
WHAT:
A staged reading of a new play, “The House Guest from Xinjiang,” presented by the College of Arts and Letters and the Theatre Arts and Dance Department at Cal State L.A.
WHEN:
October 18 - 20, 2007.
Thursday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 19, 4 p.m. & 8 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 20, 4 p.m. & 8 p.m.
WHERE:
Arena Theatre (Music 101), on the Cal State L.A. campus. The University is located at the Eastern Avenue exit, San Bernardino (I-10) Freeway, at the interchange of the 10 and 710 Freeways. Public (permit dispenser) parking available in Lot 5 or upper level of Parking Structure C.
INFO:
Free to the public. Seating is limited. For reservations, call the Cal State L.A. Box Office at (323) 343-4118.
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 200,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
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