Celebrating Stories and Community at the AAPI Playwright Festival 2025

A recap of this year’s inspiring showcase of Asian American and Pacific Islander voices in theater.

This year’s AAPI Playwright Festival brought together an incredible community of artists, audience members, and advocates for Asian American and Pacific Islander storytelling. Hosted by Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS), the 2025 festival featured staged readings of five original plays by emerging and established AAPI playwrights, celebrating a wide range of stories, voices, and perspectives.

Held at the San Jose Stage, the two-day event highlighted original works by Jeffrey Lo, Marissa May Macaraeg Martinez, Conrad Panganiban, Lisa Marie Rollins, Jenny Nguyen Nelson, and Kenna Tanaka. Each reading was followed by a lively Q&A and community discussion, offering audiences a chance to connect with the artists, share reflections, and learn about the creative process behind the work.

The festival not only provided a platform for new AAPI voices, but also created space for important conversations around identity, heritage, and representation in American theater. From themes of diaspora and family to memory and reimagined mythology, the showcased works reminded us of the depth and diversity of the AAPI experience.

Photographs courtesy of Anthony Le.

A huge thank you to the artists, production teams, and community members who made this event possible—and to everyone who came out to support these powerful new works. Stay tuned for more CATS programming throughout the year, and we hope to see you at next year’s festival!

For more, check out the event program below!

Thank you to all who attended and supported this event.

Join us in our upcoming summer events! More information here.