STAGED READINGS
About our Program
AAPI staged readings are intimate and powerful experiences that bring the written word to life through compelling performances. These readings often feature scripts by AAPI playwrights, making exploration available for perspectives and themes that commonly resonate with AAPI communities and beyond.
Our staged readings offer a platform for emerging and established AAPI playwrights to showcase their work, sparking meaningful conversations and reflections on identity, culture, history, and societal issues.
The absence of elaborate sets and costumes shifts the focus to raw emotion and the immediacy of storytelling, allowing audiences to connect deeply with the characters and narratives. The format’s simplicity underscores the strength of the writing and highlights the talent of the performers, creating lasting moments of intimacy that are felt deeply and remembered.
Casting Call
Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS) is seeking High School/College Students/Recent Graduates for a unique Staged Reading of TEENAGE DICK.
This Staged Reading will be presented with two public performances at a site-specific venue. Rehearsals including tech and dress will be held the week of June 17th and several TBD in April and May. There is a stipend + food provided before the opening performance.
Performance dates: June 21st and 22nd
TEENAGE DICK by Mike Lew
In this brilliant retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III, one of the most famous disabled characters in history is reimagined as a 16-year-old outsider taking on the political turmoil of high school. Bullied for his cerebral palsy (and his sometimes disturbing tendency to speak with a Shakespearean affect), Richard plots his revenge…as well as his glorious path to the senior class presidency. But as he falls deeper into a pattern of manipulation and greed, Richard is faced with an unexpected choice: Is it better to be feared or loved? TEENAGE DICK is a hilarious and sharp-witted adaptation about perception, disability, and the treacherous road to ascendancy.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER, m, 17, junior class secretary, slyly ambitious, has CP
BARBARA “BUCK” BUCKINGHAM, f, 17, his best friend, earnest, wheelchair user
ELIZABETH YORK, f, 30s-40s, wry, well-meaning English teacher, kind of naïve
EDDIE IVY, m, 17, junior class president, football guy, kind of a dick
CLARISSA DUKE, f, 17, junior class vice president, Jesus-loving, overachiever
ANNE MARGARET, f, 17, big-hearted yet dark, dancer, formerly the most popular girl in the school
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Submit resume, headshot, and a viewable link to a one-minute contemporary monologue to: info@catsasiantheaterscene.org with subject: CATS Staged Reading AUDITION.
Deadline for video submissions: Monday, April 15, 2024
CALLBACK INFORMATION
Callbacks, by invitation, will be held via ZOOM on Wednesday, April 17, and Thursday, April 18. You will be notified by email with sides to prepare – Break a leg!
PAST EVENTS
The Headlands
THE HEADLANDS delves deep into our recurring memories and what it reveals and conceals. The play’s setting is in the headspace of a mind that must deal with unseen mourning, jealousy and unexpected understanding.
The Great Leap
The Great Leap tells the story of Manford Lum, a local star of the sidewalk basketball courts of San Francisco’s Chinatown who strong-arms his way onto an American college team travelling to Beijing for a “friendship” game. Set amidst the friction of post cultural revolution China, this story explores the cultural collide of identity and politics through the game of basketball.
GOD SAID THIS
"God Said This" is a compelling comedy-drama centered around a Japanese American family reunited as their matriarch undergoes cancer treatment.