Ma-Yi’s Commitment to the Fight For Racial Equity in American Theatre

Ma-Yi’s Response to the COVID-19 Crisis

Artists, craftspeople, and theater workers are one of the hardest hit sectors of the COVID-19 pandemic. We at Ma-Yi Theater Company understand the financial and emotional tolls this shutdown inflicts on our communities. We are focused on finding ways to keep people employed. Below, you will find additional resources that might help get you through the next few weeks. We have also provided links you can use to write to local and national representatives. They need to hear our stories, and be reminded of the vital role art and artists play in keeping our communities alive.

Furthermore, we are partnering with Trickle Up NYC to provide relief for artists and theater makers during this time.

Artist Resources  Trickle Up NYC

SoHo Rep. will present Hansol Jung’s WOLF PLAY in association with Ma-Yi Theater Company in March 2020

Soho Rep. will launch its 2019–2020 season this fall with the American premiere of for all the women who thought they were Mad, a new play by writer-actor Zawe Ashton, who is currently starring on Broadway in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal. The season will continue in the spring with the New York premiere of Wolf Play by Wild Goose Dreams playwright Hansol Jung.

First up, in October, will be Ashton’s for all the women who thought they were Mad, directed by Whitney White (What to Send Up When It Goes Down). Described as a “feverish inquiry and exposé,” the new play explores the impact of work, expectations around childlessness and motherhood, and the chasm between the healthcare system and the mental wellness of women of color. Featuring an intergenerational cast of women from ages 8–65, as well as interludes of Lugandan song, for all the women… sees African diasporic voices gather around a woman named Joy.

Performances of for all the women… will begin October 14 for a run scheduled through November 17.

The cast of the Soho Rep. production includes Stephanie Berry (Gloria: A LifeSugar in Our Wounds) as Ruth, Gibson Frazier (10 out of 12Mr. Burns) as Boss/Doctor/Tom, Sharon Hope (Two Sentence Horror StoriesDaredevil) as Margaret, Nicole Lewis (Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de LuneHair) as Angela, Blasina Olowe (Outgrown) as Nambi, Cherene Snow (Cat on a Hot Tin RoofThe Rolling Stone) as Rose, Bisserat Tseggai (The Jungle, Succession) as Joy, Shay Vawn (The Gods of Comedysoot and spit) as Kim, and Kat Williams (Off-Broadway debut) as Nambi.

Ashton is the author of the critically acclaimed book Character Breakdown. In addition to Betrayal, recent acting credits include the BBC/Netflix TV series Wanderlust and the Netflix feature film Velvet Buzzsaw.

“I first read Zawe’s play in transit from London and was floored by the intense brilliance of her writing, which instantly felt in vivid conversation with Sarah Kane, debbie tucker green, Alice Birch, Aleshea Harris, and Caryl Churchill,” says Soho Rep.’s artistic director Sarah Benson. “Whitney is an extraordinary director; with a practice encompassing composition, performance and design, she embodies a holistic vision in everything she makes. I cannot wait to share this play, which includes an acting company of children and elders side by side, with New York audiences.”

Continuing the season in the spring will be Wolf Play, presented in association with Ma-Yi Theater Company, and directed by Dustin Wills (who will direct A Boy’s Company Presents: Tell Me If I’m Hurting You by Jeremy O. Harris at Playwrights Horizons).

In Jung’s story of alienation told through the lens of queer parenting and adoption, Wolf Play is about a young South Korean boy—represented onstage as a puppet operated by a “wolf”—who is “re-homed” via a website chat room.

Wolf Play will begin performances March 17, 2020, for a run scheduled through April 19.

Wolf Play uses puppetry to explore the experience of abject alienation through a brilliant intersection of object theater and wild visual imagination. I am very excited to share both these plays this season and also to be partnering on Hansol’s play with the incredible company Ma-Yi, of whom I have long been an adoring fan,” says Benson.

For more information visit Sohorep.org.

FELIX STARRO begins previews Off-Broadway

Tonight, Jessica Hagedorn and Fabian Obispo’s musical adaptation of Lysley Tenorio’s Felix Starro begins previews at Theatre Row. The show will marks the first Off-Broadway musical created by Filipino Americans and the first production of Ma-Yi Theater Company’s 30th Anniversary Season.

Felix Starro is directed by Ma-Yi Producing Artistic Director Ralph B. Peña, with choreography by Brandon Bieber of “Fosse/Verdon.” The cast features Alan Ariano, Caitlin Cisco, Francisca Muñoz, Ryan James Ortega, Diane Phelan, Nacho Tambunting and Ching Valdes-Aran.

The production is currently scheduled to run through September 15, with a September 1 opening night performance.

Tickets are available via Telecharge.com.

Ma-Yi Theater Company Announces Cast And Creative For FELIX STARRO

Since its founding in 1989, Ma-Yi Theater Company has distinguished itself as one of the country’s leading incubators of new work shaping the national discourse about what it means to be Asian American today. Building on the recent success of the Lortel Award-winner KPOP and Mike Lew‘s Teenage Dick, Ma-Yi is pleased to open its 30th anniversary season with the world premiere of Felix Starro, a new musical by Jessica Hagedorn and Fabian Obispo. Based on a powerful short story by acclaimed Filipino American writer Lysley Tenorio, Felix Starro marks the first-time-ever a musical created by Filipino Americans will be presented Off-Broadway.

Directed by Ma-Yi’s Producing Artistic Director Ralph B. Peña (The Chinese Lady, Among The Dead) and choreographed by Brandon Bieber (FX’s Fosse/Verdon), Felix Starro also marks the long overdue return to New York stages of novelist and playwright Hagedorn whose critically-acclaimed Dogeaters (The Public Theater, 2001) was called “imaginative and fluidly impressionistic” (New York Times). Felix Starro runs August 23 – September 15 at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, Manhattan) with an opening night of September 3.

In Felix Starro, protagonist Felix is a famous faith healer in the Philippines, whose clients once included celebrities and big politicians. After falling on hard times, Felix decides to go to San Francisco for one last healing mission with ailing Filipinos in the Bay Area. Junior, Felix Starro’s nineteen-year-old, orphan grandson, goes along as his assistant. Unbeknownst to Felix, Junior has plans of his own.

Felix Starro explores issues of faith, family, love, loss, betrayal, and what it means to be an undocumented immigrant in America.

cast for Felix Starro includes Alan Ariano ( King and I, Miss Saigon) at Felix Starro, Caitlin Cisco ( Hundred We Are) as Crystal, Francisca Muñoz as Mrs. Delgado, Ryan James Ortega as Bobby/Ramon, Diane Phelan (School of Rock) as Charma, Nacho Tambunting(NBC’s Rise) as Junior, and Obie and Lortel award-winner Ching Valdes-Aran as Flora.

The creative team also includes Obie award-winner Marsha Ginsberg (scenic design), Becky Bodurtha (costume design), Oliver Wason (lighting design), Julian Evans (sound design), Paulo K Tiról (orchestrations), Ian Miller (musical director), Cristina Sison (production stage manager), and Jorge Z. Ortoll (executive producer).

Performances of Felix Starro will take place August 23-September 15 at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street in Manhattan). Critics are welcome as of August 28 for an opening on Tuesday, September 3. Tickets, priced at $52-$102, can be purchased by visiting ma-yitheatre.org or by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200.

About the Cast

Alan Ariano (Felix Starro) Ma-Yi debut. Broadway: The King and I (Lincoln Center Revival), Miss Saigon (Original Company), Jerome Robbins‘ Broadway, Shogun, M. Butterfly and Flower Drum Song (National Tour). Off Broadway: Shanghai Moon, Prospect Theater’s Honor. Directly from East West Players playing Sam Carmichael in Mama Mia! his favorite roles include the King in The King and I at Dallas Summer Musicals & Arizona Broadway Theatre. He has played regional theaters all over the country. TV: Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU (recurring), The Path, Treme, and Leverage.

Caitlin Cisco (Crystal) Select NY credits — Songs About Trains (New Ohio Theatre/La Guardia Performing Arts Center) Loving and Loving (Adler Studio Theater) Words on the Street (Baruch PAC) The Hundred We Are (Origin Theatre Co.) Melt! (Highline) Regional — Folger TheatreNell Gwynn (Rose Gwynn); Baltimore Center Stage: The White Snake (Canopus/Madame Lin); UV Theater: Three Sisters (Irina), The Seagull (Masha); Capital Rep: 4000 Miles (Amanda). TV: “Orange is the New Black” (Season 7), caitlincisco.com

Francisca Muñoz (Mrs. Delgado) is an Actress/Singer/Songwriter with a Bachelor of Music (Honors) in Performance, Theatre, and Composition from the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Some of her theatre credits include: Maria in The Last Jew Of Boyle Heights – Off Broadway (The Actors Temple), Regional credits include: Arella/Natalie in Informed Consent (The Gable Stage), Katherine Wright in Kitty Hawk (The Adrienne Arsht Center), Frida Kahlo, Rufina Amaya, Alfonsina Storni in Tres Vidas (The Core Ensemble), Terry in Extremities; (Abyss Theatre), Merry Murderess in Chicago (Boca Raton Theatre Guild), and Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing, (Outre Theatre). New Media credits include: supporting roles in Follow The Leaders and Earth 2050 (Zen Film). Her original EP, Colors of Me is available on iTunes and all media outlets.

Ryan James Ortega (Bobby/Ramon) is a first generation Filipino American from Southern California. He received a BFA in Media and Performing Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design under the wing of Sharon Ott. Off-Broadway: Between Gods and Kings (BEDLAM). Regional: HAIR, Miss Saigon (Serenbe Playhouse), Newsies (The Engeman Theater).

Diane Phelan (Charma) is a New York based actor and director, passionate about making theater that redefines what it is to be an American, now. Broadway: School of Rock (Patty u/s ), King and I (Tuptim u/s LCT). Off Broadway: Here Lies Love (Imelda Standby, The Public Theater), Bernarda Alba (Adela Standby, LCT). Other favorite roles: West Side Story (Maria- 50 th Anniversary Int’l Tour), Oklahoma (Laurey, BTG), Carousel (Julie Jordan, NAAP). Founder, Broadway Diversity Project. SDCF Observership class 2017-2018. www.dianephelan.com.

Born and raised in Manila, Nacho Tambunting (Junior) began his career with Repertory Philippines in 2006 – appearing in productions like: The Sound of Music, Seussical, Peter Pan, Camp Rock, The Producers and Jack and the Beanstalk to name a few. Nacho moved to NY in 2014 to attend NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and later graduated with a BFA in Drama. He was most recently seen as Francis on NBC’s RISE – other TV credits include Dickinson and The First Wives Club. @nachotambunting

Ching Valdes-Aran (Flora) is thrilled to be back working with Ma-Yi. Most recent and ongoing projects include: Geoff Sobelle‘s Home HOME (Bessie Award, Outstanding Production); Rachel Chavkin‘s/Heather Christian‘s musical adaptation of Mac Wellman‘s novel Annie Salem ANNIE SALEM (NY Stage & Film’s Powerhouse Theater). Broadway: The Wild Party (Victoria Theatre); NYSF Shakespeare On Broadway (Belasco Theatre). Off & Off-Off Broadway: CSC, Public Theater, La Mama E.T.C., NYTW, Mabou Mines, The Foundry, NAATCO, Pan Asian Repertory, Women’s Project, Working Theater, New Georges, New Ohio. others. Regional: A.C.T., Arena Stage, Center Stage, Cincinnati PlayhouseLa Jolla PlayhouseWilma Theater, Yale Repertory. She has also worked in numerous films and television and has performed in many international festivals. Ching received an OBIE Award (1996 Ma-Yi production of Ralph’s Peña’s Flipzoids directed by Loy Arcenas) and a Lucille Lortel nomination (2001 Public Theater’s production of Jessica Hagedorn‘s Dogeaters directed by Michael Grief). Other awards: Fox Foundation Actor Fellowship, Rockefeller MAP, New Dramatist’s Charles Bowden Award, ACC Fellowship, PACCAL, Ma-Yi Award for Artistic Excellence, & a U.S Congressional Award in Arts and Culture.

About the Creative Team

Jessica Hagedorn (book & lyrics) was born and raised in the Philippines and came to the United States in her early teens. Her novels include Toxicology, Dream Jungle, The Gangster Of Love, and Dogeaters, winner of the American Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Award. Hagedorn is also the author of Danger And Beauty, a collection of poetry and prose, and the editor of three anthologies: Manila Noir, Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction and Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home In The World. Work in theatre includes the musical Most Wanted, a collaboration with composer Mark Bennett and director Michael Greif at La Jolla Playhouse; Fe In The Desert and Stairway To Heaven for Campo Santo in San Francisco, and the stage adaptation of Dogeaters, which was presented at La Jolla Playhouse and at the NYSF/Public Theater (dir. by Michael Greif), at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City (dir. by Jon Lawrence Rivera) and in Manila (dir. by Bobby Garcia). Hagedorn wrote the screenplay for Fresh Kill, a feature film directed by Shu Lea Cheang. She wrote the scripts for the experimental animated series “The Pink Palace,” which was created for the first season of the Oxygen Network. From 1975-85, Hagedorn was the leader of a band called The Gangster Choir. One of her signature songs, “Tenement Lover”, is included in John Giorno’s ’80s downtown music anthology, A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse. Honors and prizes include a Gerbode, Hewlett Foundations’ Playwriting Award, a Lucille Lortel Playwrights’ Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fiction Fellowship, a Kesselring Prize Honorable Mention for Dogeaters, an NEA-TCG Playwriting Residency Fellowship, as well as fellowships from the Sundance Playwrights’ Lab and the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab. Hagedorn has taught in the MFA Playwriting Program at Yale and in the MFA Creative Writing Program at LIU Brooklyn, NYU, and Columbia University.

Apart from being internationally renowned for his iconic choral arrangements of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Fabian Obispo (composer) has been a longtime composer and sound designer of Ma-Yi Theater Company, having previously worked on The Chinese Lady, Teenage Dick, House/Rules, and The Romance of Magno Rubio, just to name a few. His recent Off-Broadway credits include Sea Wall/A Life, Oedipus El Rey(Public Theater), Grace, A Very Common Procedure, Last Easter, Intrigue With Faye, Bright Ideas, What of the Night, Oroonoko, Durango, The Right Kind of People, No Foreigners Beyond this Point, Rubio, Two Sisters and a Piano, and The Square. Regionally, he has designed and composed for Arena Stage, Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, Folger Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory TheaterSeattle Repertory TheatreCincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf TheatreSyracuse Stage, New York Stage & Film, Westport Country Playhouse, Asolo Repertory Playhouse, and Perseverance Theatre, among others. His work has been recognized with the American Theatre Wing‘s Hewes Design Award, as well as Helen Hayes, Barrymore, NAACP, Jackie, and Bay Area Critics Circle award nominations.

Ralph B. Peña (director) has been Ma-Yi Theater’s Artistic Director since 1996, and has been instrumental in establishing Ma-Yi Theater Company as the country’s leading incubator of new works by Asian American Playwrights, reaping numerous Obie and Drama Desk Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical (KPOP), and most recently, the 2018 Ross Wetzsteon Obie Award. Recent directing credits include The Chinese Lady, Among The Dead, and House/Rules. Apart at Ma-Yi Theater, his work has been seen on the stages of Ensemble Studio Theater, The Public TheaterLong Wharf Theater, Victory Gardens, Laguna Playhouse, Children’s Theater Company, and La Mama ETC, to name a few.

Ma-Yi Season Includes First Filipino American Musical To Be Seen Off-Broadway And Return Of SUICIDE FOREST

Ma-Yi Theater Company will launch its 2019-2020, the company’s 30th, with the world premiere of Felix Starro, marking the first time ever a musical created by Filipino Americans will be presented Off-Broadway. Following will be a return engagement of Kristine Haruna Lee’s critically acclaimed Suicide Forest, seen at the Bushwick Starr earlier this year.

In August, Ma-Yi will present Felix Starro, the story of a young, undocumented immigrant in San Francisco and his famous faith healer grandfather. The new musical, based on a short story by Filipino-American writer Lysley Tenorio, features a book and lyrics by novelist and playwright Jessica Hagedorn (Dogeaters) and music by Fabian Obispo.

Directed by Ma-Yi’s producing artistic director Ralph B. Peña, Felix Starro will run August 23–September 15 at Theatre Row with an opening night set for September 3. Orchestrations will be by Paulo K Tiról, and choreography by Brandon Bieber.

In February 2020, Ma-Yi teams up once more with the Bushwick Starr for an encore run of Lee’s bilingual nightmare play, Suicide Forest. In the new play (in which Lee also stars)the journeys of a teenage girl and a salary-man collide in 1990s Japan. She is grappling with her sexuality in a nightmarish, male-defined society; he is desperate to escape his masochistic psyche. Together, they expose their darkest desires fueled by shame and confront life and death with the notorious Suicide Forest looming over their imagination.

Directed by Aya Ogawa, performances will run February 25–March 22, 2020, at A.R.T./New York’s Mezzanine Theater. Opening night will be March 1.

A soon-to-be-announced co-production with a New York theatre will run April–May, 2020, closing out Ma-Yi’s 30th anniversary season.

“Thirty years is a long time, but in some ways, a blip on the on-going histories of Asian American theater making,” says Peña. “Ma-Yi’s focus remains on creating opportunities for Asian American theatre artists to work both in New York and across the country. Ma-Yi believes that it’s not enough to keep plays in endless development cycles to satisfy diversity goals. They must be produced. This 30-year milestone is preceded by decades of struggles and activism, an ‘unbroken thread,’ as Roberta Uno puts it. When I look at the younger generations of Asian American artists today, I am excited about all the possibilities they hold.”

Photo for Suicide Forest: Maria Baranova

Ma-Yi Theater’s FRUITING BODIES Begins Off-Broadway

Performances begin April 23 at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row for the world premiere of Fruiting Bodies by Sam Chanse. The newest production from Ma-Yi Theater Company was partly developed in the company’s Writers’ Lab, of which Chanse is a member.

In Fruiting Bodies, directed by Shelley Butler, two sisters go looking for their mushroom-hunting father in a Northern California forest. After encountering a mysterious young boy who bears a striking resemblance to their absent brother, the family searches for the road back, tackling limited visibility and the interfamilial politics of race and gender, pushed to extremes.

The cast is made up of Kimiye Corwin (Noises Off, Henry VI), Emma Kikue (God Said This, Up the Hill), Jeffrey Omura (House Rules, Hamlet), and Thom Sesma (Superhero, Pacific Overtures).

Fruiting Bodies will officially open April 28.

The world premiere features scenic design by Reid Thompson, costume design by Sara Ryung Clement, lighting design by Jeanette Oi-Suk-Yew, and sound design and original music by Kate Marvin. Jenny Ainsworth is production stage manager, and Pleiades Theatre Collective is production manager.

Chanse’s plays include Trigger, The Opportunities of Extinction, The Other Instinct, and What Are You NowFruiting Bodies was further developed at The Lark as well as by [the claque] as part of the Quick and Dirties.

Photo by Carol Rosegg.

TEENAGE DICK will open in London and D.C.

Following its sold-out run at The Public Theater, Ma-Yi Writers Lab member Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick will open in London and in the U.S. capitol.

The critically acclaimed play will have its international premiere at London’s Donmar Warehouse, beginning December 6, 2019 and running through February 1, 2020. Michael Longhurst (ConstellationsBelleville) will direct the all-new production, with Daniel Monks, the star/producer/editor of Pulse, starring as Richard. Additional casting and creative team members are expected to be announced soon.

Buy Tickets for Teenage Dick at Donmar Warehouse

 

In summer 2020, Teenage Dick will open at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Moritz von Stuelpnagel, who directed the original production at The Public Theater, will return to direct the D.C. premiere of the show. Performances will run June 1-28, 2020.

Buy Tickets for Teenage Dick at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Photos by Carol Rosegg.

THE CHINESE LADY Will Open At Long Wharf Theatre

Long Wharf Theatre has announced its 2019-20 season, the first under new artistic director Jacob G. Padrón.

It will open with the world premiere of Ricardo Pérez González’s On the Grounds of Belonging (Oct. 9-Nov. 3). It is a story of forbidden love set in 1950s Jim Crow Texas. David Mendizábal will direct.

Next is I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright (Feb. 5-March 1, 2020), the Pulitzer-winning play about a trans woman living in Nazi Germany.

Next will be The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh (March 18-April 12, 2020), about America’s first female Chinese immigrant and her travels around America as a living exhibit. Ralph B. Peña will direct.

The season will close with The Great Leap by Lauren Yee (May 6-31, 2020), about an American basketball team who travels to China in the 1980s on the eve of the Tiananmen Square protests. Madeline Sayet will direct.

Long Wharf was founded in 1965 and is a Tony-winning theatre company that has transferred more than 30 productions to Broadway.

Photos by Carol Rosegg.

Review: A Family Divide Haunts Heart-rending SUICIDE FOREST

If there is a way to write about Kristine Haruna Lee’s vivid, haunted Suicide Forest without mentioning the ending, I don’t know what it is. Because when the fourth wall breaks, this nightmare-vision play about Japanese-American identity cracks wide open, and what’s underneath is so heart-stingingly tender and explicitly personal that the whole work shifts.

Here, then, is an emphatic piece of advice: Go see it at the Bushwick Starr, where Aya Ogawa has directed a wild ride of a production. And here is a warning: spoilers dead ahead.

The first figure we see in Suicide Forest, moving slowly around the edge of the proscenium, is a god in scarlet silk. White-faced and raven-haired, with soft red pigment at the corners of her eyes, this is Mad Mad. Her presence stalks this play.

Ms. Lee is also an actor in it, portraying a teenage Japanese schoolgirl named Azusa. But deep in the performance, after the vibrant pink-and-white interior of Jian Jung’s set has given way to the eerie abstractness of the woods, Ms. Lee drops the mask of her role. She becomes, disarmingly, her Seattle-raised self, speaking directly to the audience, taking ownership of the issues of heritage that fuel her play.

“I want to confess,” she says, “I grew up with a mother who I can never fully communicate with. Language barrier.” Her mother, she explains, is “100 percent Japanese.”

“So I guess that technically makes me 50 percent Japanese,” Ms. Lee adds. “But that percentage is a lie. Sometimes I feel like I’m only 33 percent? Other times, as high as 70 percent. I am also, usually, a high percentage of American too.”

Presented with Ma-Yi Theater Company, Suicide Forest is a tussle between those parts of her. You can feel Ms. Lee resisting any sort of conformity.

Performed mostly in English with some supertitled Japanese, the play is made up of short, sharp vignettes set in 1990s Tokyo and in a forest like the infamous Aokigahara, where many people have gone to kill themselves.

Ms. Lee leans hard and deliberately into stereotypes, her central figures versions of stock characters: a salaryman (Eddy Toru Ohno) in his 60s tempted by suicide, and the plaid-skirted Azusa (costumes are by Alice Tavener), who is preyed on by the salaryman. His own teenage daughters (Akiko Aizawa and Dawn Akemi Saito), with pigtailed hair in cotton-candy colors, are alarming manifestations of femininity, at once hypersexualized and infantilized.

Spectators without any Japanese heritage might not know quite what to make of it, at least not until Ms. Lee breaks that fourth wall.

Then, very close to the end, another actor joins her onstage: Aoi Lee, who plays Mad Mad.

“This is my mom,” the playwright tells us, protectively. “She dances Butoh.”

As she asks her mother questions in English, and translates the answers that the elder Ms. Lee speaks in Japanese, the gorgeously conflicted complexity of “Suicide Forest” is movingly on display.

For a haunted daughter, this play is an exorcism. But it is also an embrace.

Photo by Maria Baranova.

Review: A CHINESE LADY On Heart-Rending Display

The teenage Afong Moy made headlines when she arrived in New York by ship in 1834. It’s impossible to prove that she was the first Chinese woman in the United States, but it’s certain that she was a rarity, brought here to be displayed before paying crowds of gawkers.

“It is human nature to be curious,” she tells us in Lloyd Suh’s piercing and intimate new play, “The Chinese Lady,” a time-skipping, gently comical drama inspired by the story of the real Afong Moy.

Chattel in a two-year deal struck between her family and some American importers, Afong (Shannon Tyo) is just 14 when the play begins. Aided, and sometimes foiled, by her put-upon translator, Atung (Daniel K. Isaac), she spends her days performing a distorted version of Chinese identity.

Inside a little room decorated in chinoiserie, she is a living, breathing museum exhibit: price of admission 25 cents, 10 cents for children. Dressed in a silken costume (ooh!), she eats with chopsticks (ahh!) and — here comes the highlight — even walks around the room on her tiny bound feet.

“I have noticed that my feet are a source of constant fascination,” she muses as she takes her little stroll. But Afong likes her feet, and she can’t help noticing, too, that some practices in the West are at least as barbaric as foot-binding is purported to be.

“Such as corsets,” she says lightly. “Or the trans-Atlantic slave trade.”

Dexterously directed by Ralph B. Peña for Ma-Yi Theater Company, this quiet play steadily deepens in complexity as we trail the idealistic Afong and the more knowing Atung through the decades, bickering with each other all the way. Ms. Tyo and Mr. Isaac have gorgeous chemistry, and with their rapport they cast a spell that Fabian Obispo’s music and Oliver Wason’s lighting unobtrusively fortify.

The clever set (by Junghyun Georgia Lee, who also designed the costumes) begins as a shipping container, which opens to become the room in the museum. These are the walls that box in Afong and Atung’s cultural identity, as seen through white American eyes.

It’s that gaze that infuses this beautifully acted play with pain and shame and sorrow — so it is both practical and kind that Mr. Suh has softened his script with humor. Because of course it is also human nature to look on difference with suspicion or hostility. That has been a wounding part of the experience of Chinese people in this country, which barred them from citizenship — and severely restricted legal immigration — for many years.

Though Afong didn’t come to the United States voluntarily, and didn’t mean to stay, “The Chinese Lady” is an immigrant’s tale. We watch her slowly acclimate to her new country, and grow more distant from the nation of her childhood.

Throughout, she retains the palpable loneliness of an only — someone who, by virtue of being so outnumbered, is judged as a stand-in for an entire population. But by the end of Mr. Suh’s extraordinary play, we look at Afong and see whole centuries of American history. She’s no longer the Chinese lady. She is us.

Photo by Carol Rosegg.

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