STAGED READINGS LIBRARY
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.
PAST EVENTS
New Commissioned Play By Min Kahng: A Staged Reading
CATS is excited to announce that award-winning playwright, composer, and lyricist Min Kahng has been selected as the recipient of CATS' 2026 Playwright Commission. Min's plays include Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical and The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga.
AFTERMATH LITURGY: A Staged Reading of a New Play by Min Kahng
Aftermath Liturgy is an original play presented by CATS as part of our New Works Play Commission Program that supports the development and production of new AAPI-centered stories.
Inspired by Min Kahng’s personal experience, Aftermath Liturgy explores identity, belief and what happens when the two no longer align.
(THE) Foundation | An Intimate High Stakes Emotional Drama
Before a sold-out audience at Open San Jose, CATS presented the premiere staged reading of (The) Foundation, a new original play by award-winning playwright and director Jeffrey Lo, recipient of CATS’ Inaugural Playwright Commission.
American Hwangap by Lloyd Suh
A heartfelt story about family, aging, and reconciliation as a Korean American father reunites with his children on his 60th birthday.
Teenage Dick
In this sharp-witted reimagining of Shakespeare’s Richard III, TEENAGE DICK follows a 16-year-old outsider with a disability as he navigates the ruthless world of high school politics. Both darkly funny and thought-provoking, the play explores themes of power, perception, and ambition through a modern lens.
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.