Lia Chang Photos: Rick Shiomi Checks out Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection of Library of Congress; Attends “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” Book Signing in NY on 7/29

Rick Shiomi in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. on July 27, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

Rick Shiomi in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. on July 27, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

Tonight, I am meeting up with groundbreaking Asian-North American playwright, teacher, and taiko troupe leader, Rick Shiomi, who is making a rare NYC appearance to discuss and present readings from the new anthology “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” (Temple University Press, June 2011), which he co-edited with Josephine Lee and Don Eitel. Hosted by Julie Azuma and Tamio Spiegel, the event begins at 6:30pm at 12 West 18th Street, #3E in New York.

“Asian American Plays for a New Generation” features seven plays. Six of those were developed and produced by Mu Performing Arts, the Midwest’s foremost pan-Asian performing arts organization, founded in Minneapolis in 1992.

“Bahala Na” by Clarence Coo is about the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson who is gay. “Happy Valley,” by Aurorae Khoo, focuses on the plight of the Chinese in Hong Kong when the former British colony comes under Communist Chinese rule. “Asiamnesia,” by Sun Mee Chomet examines the issues facing Asian American women in theater and society. “Sia(b),” by May Lee Yang, is about a young Hmong woman understanding her own identity. “Walleye Kid, The Musical,” by Sundraya Kase, R.A. Shiomi and Kurt Miyashiro is based on the Japanese folktale, “The Peach Boy.” “Ching Chong Chinaman,” by Lauren Yee, is a comedy that explores the stereotype of Asians as “the model minority.” “Indian Cowboy,” by Zaraawar Mistry, focuses on pre- and post-9/11 life in America’s South Asian communities.

Lia Chang is Queen for the day, doing a monologue in the character of Queen Elizabeth II from "Happy Valley," by Aurorae Khoo, with Rick Shiomi on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 in the Mary Pickford Theater in the James Madison Building in Washington D.C. Photo by Reme Grefalda

Lia Chang is Queen for the day, doing a monologue in the character of Queen Elizabeth II from "Happy Valley," by Aurorae Khoo, with Rick Shiomi on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 in the Mary Pickford Theater in the James Madison Building in Washington D.C. Photo by Reme Grefalda


I shared the stage with Shiomi on Wednesday, July 27, at the Mary Pickford Theater in the James Madison Building in Washington D.C., during an event sponsored by the Library of Congress’Asian Division celebrating the release of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, where I got to be Queen for the day, when he handed me a monologue in the character of Queen Elizabeth II from “Happy Valley,” by Aurorae Khoo. Fun, fun fun!
Rick Shiomi views my display of photos “In Rehearsal”, drawn from the Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection.  Photo by Lia Chang

Rick Shiomi views my display of photos “In Rehearsal”, drawn from the Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection. Photo by Lia Chang


We headed back to the Asian Reading Room in the Jefferson Building where a display of my photographs titled “In Rehearsal” is on view through Aug. 2.
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio features Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s “The Lion King Las Vegas”; rehearsals of a staged concert of Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s musical “Heading East” starring BD Wong at the Asia Society in New York.  Photo by Lia Chang

Lia Chang Theater Portfolio features Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s “The Lion King Las Vegas”; rehearsals of a staged concert of Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s musical “Heading East” starring BD Wong at the Asia Society in New York. Photo by Lia Chang


Drawn from the Lia Chang Theater Portfolio, the 36 photographs on display feature Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s “The Lion King Las Vegas”; rehearsals of a staged concert of Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s musical “Heading East” starring BD Wong at the Asia Society in New York; of David Henry Hwang’s play, “ChingLish,” which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago this summer and is bound for Broadway this fall; and of “Bakwas Bumbug!,” a pop opera by Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri, which recently made its off-Broadway debut.
Works by Christine Toy Johnson are on display in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. through August 2, 2011.  Photo by Lia Chang

Works by Christine Toy Johnson are on display in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. through August 2, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang


The photos are part of a display drawn from the Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection, celebrating works by Asian American playwrights, which includes original scripts by Velina Hasu Houston, Christine Toy Johnson, Lani Montreal, Edgar Mendoza, Jeanne Sakata, as well as published scripts by Frank Chin, Philip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Genny Lim, Chay Yew and others.
Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection Photo by Lia Chang

Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection Photo by Lia Chang


The Asian Division Reading Room is located in Room 150 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. The hours are 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m.
Rick Shiomi checks out the Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection Photo by Lia Chang

Rick Shiomi checks out the Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection Photo by Lia Chang


The Library of Congress is a central repository for all types of Asian publications that are not broadly available at other locations in the United States. Initiated in 1869 with a gift of 10 works in 934 volumes offered to the United States by the Emperor of China, the Library’s Asian collection of more than 2 million items is the largest and most comprehensive outside of Asia. For more information about the division and its holdings, go to www.loc.gov/rr/asian/.
Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection, celebrating works by Asian American playwrights, features original scripts by Velina Hasu Houston, Christine Toy Johnson, Lani Montreal, Edgar Mendoza, and Jeanne Sakata.  Photo by Lia Chang

Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection, celebrating works by Asian American playwrights, features original scripts by Velina Hasu Houston, Christine Toy Johnson, Lani Montreal, Edgar Mendoza, and Jeanne Sakata. Photo by Lia Chang


Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.

Check back for my complete coverage of the collection.


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All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2011 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.

Other Articles on “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” & “In Rehearsal”
Temple Press: Rick Shiomi recounts his tour for “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”
Mu Blog: Rick Shiomi’s Book Tour Logbook
knightarts.org: Reading on the road inside the book tour
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2
“Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, A New Anthology of Asian American Plays Is Subject of Book Talk
broadwayworld.com: Chinglish in Rehearsal
asiancemagazine.com: New Anthology of Asian American Plays Book Talk
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography


Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia collaborates with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive and social media presence. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. Lia currently plays Nurse Lia on “One Life to Live”. She has appeared in Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and “New York Undercover”.

Selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are now in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, thelmagazine.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog.

Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2

Photo #49 BD Wong in rehearsal for a staged concert of Heading East, a Richard Rodgers Development Award-winning musical by Robert Lee and Leon Ko on May 22, 2010, at the Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium at Asia Society in New York. Helmed by Darren Lee, Heading East features a cast lead by Wong, Cindy Cheung, Fay Ann Lee, Manu Narayan, Lydia Gaston, MaryAnn Hu, Ming Chan Lee, Angela Lin, Kelvin Moon Loh, Hazel Anne Raymundo, Jon Norman Schneider and Rodney To. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

Photo #49 BD Wong in rehearsal for a staged concert of Heading East, a Richard Rodgers Development Award-winning musical by Robert Lee and Leon Ko on May 22, 2010, at the Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium at Asia Society in New York. Helmed by Darren Lee, Heading East features a cast lead by Wong, Cindy Cheung, Fay Ann Lee, Manu Narayan, Lydia Gaston, MaryAnn Hu, Ming Chan Lee, Angela Lin, Kelvin Moon Loh, Hazel Anne Raymundo, Jon Norman Schneider and Rodney To. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


From July 20 through August 2, “In Rehearsal”, a display of photographs drawn from the Lia Chang Theater Portfolio in the Library of Congress’ Asian American Pacific Islander Collection, is on view in the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room, located in Room 150 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. The hours of the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room are 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Photo #83 (1st Row)Rodney To, MaryAnn Hu, Cindy Cheung, Fay Ann Lee, Angela Lin, Hazel Anne Raymundo,(2nd Row) Jon Norman Schneider, Ming Chan, Manu Narayan and Kelvin Moon Loh in rehearsal for a staged concert of Heading East, a Richard Rodgers Development Award-winning musical by Robert Lee and Leon Ko on May 22, 2010, at the Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium at Asia Society in New York. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

Photo #83 (1st Row)Rodney To, MaryAnn Hu, Cindy Cheung, Fay Ann Lee, Angela Lin, Hazel Anne Raymundo,(2nd Row) Jon Norman Schneider, Ming Chan, Manu Narayan and Kelvin Moon Loh in rehearsal for a staged concert of Heading East, a Richard Rodgers Development Award-winning musical by Robert Lee and Leon Ko on May 22, 2010, at the Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium at Asia Society in New York. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


The 36 photographs on display feature Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s “The Lion King Las Vegas”; rehearsals of a staged concert of Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s musical “Heading East” starring BD Wong at the Asia Society in New York; of David Henry Hwang’s play, “ChingLish,” which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago this summer and is bound for Broadway this fall; and of “Bakwas Bumbug!,” a pop opera by Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri, which recently made its off-Broadway debut.
Photo #166 Thom Sesma in makeup on August 23, 2010, at the Mandalay Bay Theatre, where he is currently starring as Scar in Disney's The Lion King Las Vegas. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

Photo #166 Thom Sesma in makeup on August 23, 2010, at the Mandalay Bay Theatre, where he is currently starring as Scar in Disney's The Lion King Las Vegas. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


Select materials from the Playwrights’ Archives (AAPI Collection) are also on view, including original scripts by Velina Hasu Houston, Christine Toy Johnson, Jeanne Sakata and Lani Montreal.
Photo #281 Thom Sesma with his dresser Craig West in his dressing room at the Mandalay Bay Theatre, where he is currently starring as Scar in Disney's The Lion King Las Vegas. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

Photo #281 Thom Sesma with his dresser Craig West in his dressing room at the Mandalay Bay Theatre, where he is currently starring as Scar in Disney's The Lion King Las Vegas. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


Sponsored by the Library of Congress’ Asian Division, the display of Lia Chang Theater Portfolio photographs and select scripts from the Playwrights’ Archives (AAPI Collection) is being held in conjunction with the “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” book event on July 27 at noon in the Mary Pickford Theater, located on the third floor of the Library of Congress James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.
David Henry Hwang at the Virginia Theatre in New York during the run of his revisal of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song in March, 2003. Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

David Henry Hwang at the Virginia Theatre in New York during the run of his revisal of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song in March, 2003. Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


Editor Rick Shiomi, on behalf of co-editors Josephine Lee and Don Eitel, will discuss their new anthology “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” (Temple University Press, June 2011). A panel discussion will follow with Rick Shiomi and Lia Chang, moderated by Terry Hong.
Playwright David Henry Hwang and director Leigh Silverman discussing script changes during a rehearsal for Chinglish in the Healy Room of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on June 5, 2011. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

Playwright David Henry Hwang and director Leigh Silverman discussing script changes during a rehearsal for Chinglish in the Healy Room of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on June 5, 2011. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

“Asian American Plays for a New Generation” features seven plays. Six of those were developed and produced by Mu Performing Arts, the Midwest’s foremost pan-Asian performing arts organization, founded in Minneapolis in 1992.
(L-R) Stephen Pucci (Peter), Jennifer Lim (Xu Yan), and James Waterston (Daniel) rehearsing a scene for Chinglish in the Healy Room of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on June 5, 2011. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

(L-R) Stephen Pucci (Peter), Jennifer Lim (Xu Yan), and James Waterston (Daniel) rehearsing a scene for Chinglish in the Healy Room of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on June 5, 2011. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


“Bahala Na” by Clarence Coo is about the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson who is gay. “Happy Valley,” by Aurorae Khoo, focuses on the plight of the Chinese in Hong Kong when the former British colony comes under Communist Chinese rule. “Asiamnesia,” by Sun Mee Chomet examines the issues facing Asian American women in theater and society. “Sia(b),” by May Lee Yang, is about a young Hmong woman understanding her own identity. “Walleye Kid, The Musical,” by Sundraya Kase, R.A. Shiomi and Kurt Miyashiro is based on the Japanese folktale, “The Peach Boy.” “Ching Chong Chinaman,” by Lauren Yee, is a comedy that explores the stereotype of Asians as “the model minority.” “Indian Cowboy,” by Zaraawar Mistry, focuses on pre- and post-9/11 life in America’s South Asian communities.
Sanjiv Jhaveri and Samrat Chakrabarti, co-creators and co-directors of Bakwas Bumbug at The Wild Project in the East Village after the opening night performance on June 22, 2011. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

Sanjiv Jhaveri and Samrat Chakrabarti, co-creators and co-directors of Bakwas Bumbug at The Wild Project in the East Village after the opening night performance on June 22, 2011. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


The Library of Congress is a central repository for all types of Asian publications that are not broadly available at other locations in the United States. Initiated in 1869 with a gift of 10 works in 934 volumes offered to the United States by the Emperor of China, the Library’s Asian collection of more than 2 million items is the largest and most comprehensive outside of Asia. For more information about the division and its holdings, go to www.loc.gov/rr/asian/.
Bakwas Bumbug cast with co-creator and co-director Sanjiv Jhaveri in rehearsal at DANY Studios in New York on 6/16/11. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

Bakwas Bumbug cast with co-creator and co-director Sanjiv Jhaveri in rehearsal at DANY Studios in New York on 6/16/11. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.
The cast of Bakwas Bumbug with co-creator, co-director and composer Samrat Chakrabarti in rehearsal at DANY Studios in New York on 6/16/11. Credit:  Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection

The cast of Bakwas Bumbug with co-creator, co-director and composer Samrat Chakrabarti in rehearsal at DANY Studios in New York on 6/16/11. Credit: Photo from The Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at the Library of Congress/AAPI Collection


July 20-August 2, 2011
“In Rehearsal”
Library of Congress
Asian Division Reading Room
Thomas Jefferson Building
10 First Street S.E., Room 150
Washington, D.C.
8:30am-4:30pm
On Wednesday, July 27, 2011, Lia Chang will be at the Asian Division Reading Room at 11am and at 1:30pm.


Wednesday, July 27, 2011
“Asian American Plays for a New Generation” Book Talk
Mary Pickford Theater
Library of Congress
James Madison Building
101 Independence Ave. S.E., Third Floor
Washington, D.C.
Noon-1:30pm

Click below for link to photos
http://www.box.net//static/flash/box_explorer.swf?widget_hash=4qjvgz38hs559tv0oi0l&v=0&cl=0&s=0

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All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2011 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.

Other Articles on “In Rehearsal”
broadwayworld.com: Chinglish in Rehearsal
Photos: Playwright David Henry Hwang in rehearsal at the Goodman Theatre for World Premiere of Chinglish
David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish is Broadway Bound this Fall; Goodman Theatre Photo Feature
Photos: Christmas in June w/ Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s “Bakwas Bumbug” at The Wild Project in NY
My portrait of “Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation into Scar in The Lion King” on view in HHC’s New York City: IN FOCUS, Vol. 2
Multimedia: Exclusive photos and video of Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas -In the Makeup Chair with Thom Sesma
Photo Call: BD Wong and the Cast of Heading East at the Asia Society

Other Articles by Lia Chang:
Celebrating my mom – AN ACTIVE VISION: BEVERLY UMEHARA…LABOR ACTIVIST…1945-1999
Port of Entry: The Angel Island Immigration Station
Photos of AEA’s Asian Heritage Celebration, featuring the Leviathan Lab Asian American Women Writers Workshop
Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, Alexander Calder, Lia Chang in Art & Healing Exhibit at Snug Harbor on SI
My Empire State Building at Dusk on view in HHC’s “Art and Healing-Healthy for the Holidays” Art Exhibit
Lia Chang’s Botanical Beauties Portrait Commission at School of Nursing at Kings County Hospital Center
RED opening reception at Gouverneur Healthcare Services
2011 Asian American International Film Festival Kicks Off w/ John Sayles’ AMIGO on 8/10; AAIFF’11 Lineup, 8/10-14
Photos: André De Shields leads the cast of Charles Smith’s Knock Me A Kiss at The National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, 8/2-8/4
Photos: “How To Succeed” stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rose Hemingway & John Larroquette at Lord & Taylor Fifth Ave
Photos: Phylicia Rashad, Michael McElroy, Marva Hicks in Broadway Inspirational Voices “Wondrous Grace” Concert in NY
Photos: Willie Reale, Frances McDormand, Lewis Black, Bela Fleck, Renee Goldsberry, Duncan Sheik, Lisa Benavides, Abigail Washburn, Tim Blake Nelson at The 52nd Street Project Benefit
Photos: David Duchovny, John Earl Jelks, Amanda Peet, Tracee Chimo at Opening Night Party of Neil LaBute’s Break of Noon
Multimedia: Promises, Promises’ Stars Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes at Lord & Taylor Fifth Ave
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist. As a photographer and videographer, Chang has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. Chang was featured as Joy in the Signature Theater Company’s revival of Sam Shepard’s 1965 Obie award winning play, Chicago directed by Joseph Chaikin at the Public Theater. Off Broadway credits include: Jeff Weiss’ Obie Award winning Hot Keys (Naked Angels), Raunchy Asian Women (Ohio Theatre), The Confirmation (The Vineyard), Behind Closed Doors (MCC), Power Play (Billie Holiday Theatre), Two Gentlemen of Verona, Underground Soap, and Famine Plays (Cucaracha Theatre). She has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. Chang currently plays Nurse Lia on “One Life to Live”.

Chang’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post.

Selections of Chang’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are now in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection. Photographs by Lia Chang are in the permanent collections of the Angel Island Immigration Station, Asian American Federation of New York (AAFNY), the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) in San Francisco, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation Art Collection and the New York Historical Society.

A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Chang is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog. She is a National Tropical Botanical Garden Environmental Journalism Fellow, a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, a Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media and a Western Knight Fellow at USC’s Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age. She is the recipient of the Asian American Journalists Association 2001 National Award for New Media and the Organization of Chinese Americans 2000 Chinese American Journalist Award. Avenue Magazine named her one of the “One Hundred Most Influential Asian Americans” in 1997. She is featured in Joann Faung Jean Lee’s book “Asian American actors: oral histories from stage, screen, and television”.

11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), May 4-8, 2011


From May 4-8, 2011, the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) presents the 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), the oldest and most prestigious Indian film festival in the country, with 25 feature films, documentaries, and shorts from and about the Indian subcontinent screening over five days. NYIFF features a mix of film screenings, discussions, industry panels, nightly parties, an awards ceremony, and gala red carpet events.

The U.S. premiere of Disney’s Do Dooni Chaar directed by Habib Faisal and starring Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, kicks off the New York Indian Film Festival with a star-studded Opening Night red carpet at the Paris Theatre in Manhattan, followed by a gala benefit dinner at the Jumeirah Essex House. H.E. Meera Shankar, India’s Ambassador to the United States, will deliver the welcome address. Film festival screenings will take place from May 5 through May 8 at Tribeca Cinemas, including the Centerpiece selection – the New York Premiere of Aparna Sen’s Iti Mrinalini , followed by an afterparty at Tribeca Bar. The Festival’s Closing night selection, the U.S. Premiere of Rituparno Ghosh’s Nauka Dubi, will screen at Asia Society followed by the annual awards ceremony and afterparty. In addition, the festival is hosting an exclusive celebrity-filled celebration honoring the 150th anniversary of the birth of India’s legendary Nobel Prize-winning artist and poet Rabinranath Tagore at Asia Society on May 8.

Making its U.S. Premiere will be Sudhir Mishra’s acclaimed romantic crime drama Yeh Saali Zindagi starring Irrfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire, The Namesake). Legendary actress Shabana Azmi stars in the cross-cultural love story A Decent Arrangement which makes its World Premiere. And movie fans will get to go back in time with Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan with the New York Premiere of Raakh Redux, the digitally remastered version of the actor’s early hit which won three National Film Awards.

NYIFF will also showcase an amazing line-up of powerful documentaries from and about India. The Bengali Detective, which chronicles the life of Kolkata’s dance-obsessed private eye Rajesh Ji, makes its New York Premiere following its extraordinary reception at Sundance. Vikas Khanna’s Holy Kitchens – Karma to Nirvana, ties together the meaning of food in religion with the real world experience of sharing food in a spiritual context. Also screening will be Made in India which examines both sides of the surrogacy issue with an infertile American couple and a young mother in India contracted to carry their baby, and Bhopali which looks at the suffering that still exists today after the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak which was one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

Tickets for the New York Indian Film Festival are now on sale and available online at http://www.iaac.us/nyiff2011/

11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival line-up:
The Bengali Detective (Documentary), directed by Phil Cox. NY Premiere. Cast – Rajesh Ji, Minnie, Gaurav, Dibindu, Ramesh, Deepti. Co-produced with award-winning filmmaker Annie Sundberg from Break Thru Films, this originally styled documentary provides an entertaining yet poignant look at modern India. What happens when people lose trust in the authorities? In India – a new wave of private detective agencies are answering the call. Poisonings, adultery, fraud, bridal purity, and the occasional murder – such are the day-to-day investigations of Kolkata’s Bengali Detective – Rajesh Ji. The Bengali Detective follows the intrepid, dance-obsessed gumshoe and his motley band of helpers on unpredictable raids and corkscrew investigations, exposing the secrets, fears, and covert lives of today’s middle-class Indian society with a cheeky mix of fly-on-the-wall surveillance and Bangla-pop wiggle.

Bhopali (Documentary), directed by Max Carlson. NY Premiere. Cast – Noam Chomsky, Satinath Sarangi, Sanjay Verma, Rajan Sharma, Hazra Bee. In 1984 a Union Carbide factory gas leak contaminated and killed thousands in Bhopal, India. Their suffering continues today: a father battles to save his dying daughter; a school rehabilitates children with birth abnormalities; a 25-year-old whose 9 family members perished, copes with pain and death. Fueled by their suffering, the community fights against the American corporation responsible for the continued tragedy. BHOPALI is a feature documentary about the survivors of the world’s worst industrial disaster. Today, the suffering continues, prompting victims to fight for justice against Union Carbide, the American corporation responsible.

Daayen Ya Baayen, directed by Bela Negi. US Premiere. Cast – Deepak Dobriyal, Aditi Beri, Bharti Bhatt, Jeetendra Bisht. After an unsuccessful stint as an actor in Mumbai, Ramesh Majila returns to his small Himalayan village fresh with hope and the desire to make a new start. Seeing himself as the artistic voice of the village, he boasts of a proposal to start an Arts’ Academy in the village. However to his dismay his ostentatious city manner and quirky traits compounded with a penchant for catalyzing disaster reduce him to a joke amongst the villagers. Adding to his discomposure is a wife pestering him to go back to the city, a young son who is looking desperately for a role model in him and a nagging financial situation. In a dramatic turn of events, Ramesh shoots to heroic status overnight when a chance entry into a television contest wins him a luxury car. Now desired by women, envied and grudgingly admired by men, Ramesh becomes the focal point of the village, giving career advice, gracing functions, playing host to new found friends and relatives. But soon Ramesh finds that this new spot in the sun is treacherously tenuous. The car is completely incongruous in its surroundings and for Ramesh, who is trying to match his aspirations to it, the slide downhill begins again. When the car is stolen, he sets out on a bizarre journey to recover more than his prized possession, his lost dignity.

A Decent Arrangement, directed by Sarovar Banka. World Premiere. Cast – Shabana Azmi, Adam Laupus, Lethia Nall, Diksha Basu. A Decent Arrangement is the story of Ashok Khosla, an Indian-American copywriter, who journeys to India seeking an arranged marriage. After he encounters an American woman traveling through India and is set up with an Indian woman who unexpectedly captivates him, Ashok must navigate the complexity of cultural traditions and the leanings of his own heart. With subtle comedy and true-to-life drama, A Decent Arrangement shows us a side of India not commonly seen by western audiences and delivers an affecting story that resonates with those of us in search of our place in a changing world.

Do Dooni Chaar, directed by Habib Faisal. US Premiere. Cast – Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Archit Krishna, Aditi Vasudev. Life is tough for Mr. Duggal who works at school as a Math teacher, lives in a government allocated two room apartment in Delhi and is coping with double digit inflation rates and single digit increments in his salary. Add to that, a teenage daughter with high living ambitions, a fast-track son and a wife who loves the good life. The life in the Duggals household passes by in care of the basics and surviving from month to month. Until one day, they decide to dream to own a car and move up in life from a two–wheeler to a four-wheeler. A dream that’s not easy by any stretch of imagination for the single income family. Mr. Duggal however, has made up his mind – and his male ego will not let him change his promise to his family. What follows is a comic journey of chaos, realizations, calculations, confrontations and bonding.

Geeta in Paradise, directed by Benny Mathews. NY Premiere. Cast – Parul Bhatia, Purab Kohli, Ishaan Akhtar and Zeenat Aman. A wild melange of plots and styles, Geeta In Paradise simply cannot help but be a brazen new take on some very familiar themes. A mix of Misery and King Of Comedy with a degree of Muriel’s Wedding thrown in, writer-director Benny Mathews takes what are, ultimately, some very dark and disturbing subjects, splashes color, graphics and musical/music video stylizations all over the place to somehow lighten the mood, make it goofy and serious at the same time — not that you would know how serious until digesting the film later. Geeta, well played by Parul Bhatia in an oddly nuanced performance that effectively captures the characters inner turmoil as well her mania, is a bored, stagnant housewife whose fantasy life begins to encroach on her real life when she seizes upon an opportunity to kidnap a renegade popular filmmaker who has just fled the set of his current film. Geeta sees her unnatural association with him as the way to make her dreams come true but the actions only serve to make her nightmares come closer to reality. Beneath its glossy, goofy surface imagery Geeta In Paradise’ is a complicated, film that is satisfyingly deceptively rich in subtext.

Harud (Autum), directed by Aamir Bashir. NY Premiere. Cast – Reza Naji , Shanawaz Bhat, Shamim Basharat, Salma Ashai. Rafiq and his family are struggling to come to terms with the loss of his older brother Tauqir, a tourist photographer, who is one of the thousands of young men who have disappeared, since the onset of the militant insurgency in Kashmir. After an unsuccessful attempt to cross the border into Pakistan, to become a militant, Rafiq returns home to an aimless existence. Until one day when he accidentally finds his brother’s old camera.

Holy Kitchens – Karma to Nirvana (Documentary), directed by Vikas Khanna. NY Premiere. The Holy Kitchens film series is an attempt to tie together the meaning of food in religion with the real world experience of sharing food in a spiritual context. At any given time somewhere on Earth, people are gathering to share food in the name of God. This is spiritual sustenance, meant to bring us closer together and closer to the Creator. It brings the community together into a sense of shared identity and purpose.

Iti Mrinalini, directed by Aparna Sen. NY Premiere. Cast – Konkona Sen Sharma, Aparna Sen, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Rajat Kapoor, Koushik Sen. Mrinalini, an ageing actress, writes a suicide note. As a performer, the first lesson she had learnt was timing – the perfect moment for making an entrance or an exit from stage. On the stage of life, her entrance had been outside her control; but at least she wants to choose the moment of her exit. However, before taking the pills, she decides to destroy all her memorabilia – letters, photographs, newspaper cuttings, knick-knacks pertaining to the past – lest they fall into the hands of the press. She has been a victim of media attention all her life and wishes to be spared that at her death. As she looks through the old box that contains relics from her past, memories flood the night. Incidents that she had forgotten or had relinquished to the furthest corners of her mind now return to haunt her and, through these memories, an entire life is revealed – a life of loves lost and gained, friendships and betrayals, successes and failures, accidents and awards, agonies and ecstasies.

The Legend of Rama, directed by Chetan Desai. US Premiere. Cast – Voices of Manoj Bajpai and Juhi Chawla. Rama, the handsome prince of Ayodhya, is in exile with the beautiful Sita and his valiant brother Laxman. One day Sita is kidnapped by the mighty Ravana, the demon king. Rama and Laxman begin their search for Sita with the help of the monkey-god Hanuman. The Ramayana, the most beloved of all Indian stories, gets its first 3D computer animation retelling in this production from producer Ketan Mehta.

Made In India (Documentary), directed by Rebecca Haimowitz & Vaishali Sinha. NY Premiere. Made in India shows the physical, moral, and emotional risks that middle-class Westerners and poor Indian women take when they sign a surrogacy contract. Lisa and Brian Switzer of San Antonio are an infertile American couple who have exhausted all other expensive and painful options of getting pregnant. Still, Lisa is determined not to give up on her dream of having children. After considerable soul-searching, the Switzers contact a California-based reproductive outsourcing business. Meanwhile in Mumbai we meet Aalia, the cheerful young mother of three who is contracted to carry the Switzers’ baby for a price. The film’s two directors, American Rebecca Haimowitz and Indian Vaishali Sinha, go beyond sensationalist headlines to explore global issues of reproductive rights and social justice. Weaving together the Switzers’ and Aalia’s stories with interviews involving fertility experts and hospital administrators, they depict decisions made by families in crisis who look toward reproductive technology as a panacea. As might be expected when such divergent cultures converge, there are unforeseen complications.

Meherjaan, directed by Robaiyat Hossain. US Premiere. Cast – Jaya Bhaduri, Victor Banerjee, Omar Rahim, Humayun Faridi. During the war in 1971, Meher falls in love with a soldier from the enemy side. When her love is discovered, she is shamed and silenced by her family and society. Today 38 years after the war, Meher has a visitor she cannot turn down. Sarah—a ‘war-child,’ Meher’s cousin Neela’s daughter, who was given away for adoption has come back to piece together her past. Together, these two women must re-tell history through their stories in order to cut through the stigmas and walk into light. Meherjaan is a film about loving the Other. Meherjaan gives away with the unitary masculine narrative in order to usher in emotional multiplicity of feminine emotion and sensibility. This film critiques certain pitfalls of nationalism that create conditions to justify war, killing and violence. Finally, Meherjaan attempts to offer an aesthetic solution to war and violence by taking refuge in love and spiritual submission.

Metropolis@Kolkata, directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay. US Premiere. Cast – Arun Mukhopadhyay, Anjan Dutt, Biplab Chatterjee, Rituparna Sengupta, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Sreelekha Mitra, Kabir Suma. Megacity Kolkata hides many worlds inside it. This film explores several facets of life in the city, through three intertwining stories, documenting the loves, fears, joys, sorrows, insecurities, and confidences of people who, despite vast differences, seem to merge in one great long flow of humanity. Manmatha belongs to the upper echelons of the new, burgeoning middle class. He is spending an entire night at the emergency ward of a state hospital. It is in the hospital that Manmatha meets Jagadish, a lower middle class man, whose son, a soccer goalkeeper, is fighting a deadly stomach injury. Manmatha is completely baffled by Jagadish’s unruffled, serene attitude. A violent street gang conflict near the hospital prompts Manmatha and Jagadish to retreat to Manmatha’s car, where they see the outside world. Biren is jobless and lives in the borders of the city. Bombs are exploded and bullets fired near a construction site in the neighborhood when there is gang dispute over extortions. Biren begins to ask all and sundry: “I have nothing to fear. Do I?” He gets the same answer: “What do you have to fear?” And yet Biren cannot get over his fear. An unknown terror grips him. But, unfortunately, Biren’s worst fears come true. In the tumult of the city, it is impossible to discern when and from what source a bullet might arrive and pick a head from the crowd. Rohit and Rongili are currently separated. Rohit is a US-returned MBA who works for a multinational and makes loads of money. It was a dazzlingly packaged life that was empty at the core. But something strange happened to Rohit on the day of the lunar eclipse.

Nauka Dubi, directed by Rituparno Ghosh. US Premiere. Cast – Raima Sen, Riya Sen, Jishu Sengupta, Priyanshu Chatterjee. Nauka Dubi is based on the novel The Wreck written by Rabindranath Tagore. Ramesh is in love with Hemnalini, but he agrees to marry another woman on the suggestion of his parents. But he have never met or seen his bride to be. During the marriage ceremony, the village gets flooded with water from the nearby river and it is believed that the bride and Ramesh’s father are drowned. Later Ramesh meets a girl Kamala, a widow who lost her husband immediately after her marriage. Ramesh eventually marries Hemnalini, but then realizes that Kamala’s husband is not dead.

Raakh Redux, directed by Aditya Bhattacharya. NY Premiere. Cast – Aamir Khan, Supriya Pathak, Pankaj Kapur, Jagdeep, Master Ahmed Khan, Naina Balsaver. One night in an unnamed Indian city, young Aamir Hussein is forced to watch in impotent frustration as his girlfriend Neeta is brutally gang-raped in an assault led by the scion of the Karmali mafia family. Aamir’s inability to do anything about the crime sees him leave home and sink into the city’s underbelly where he encounters the flotsam and jetsam of the decaying metropolis, chief amongst who is taciturn ex-cop P.K., who, having his own axe to grind against the Karmali clan, helps the boy Aamir become a man and exact revenge. Writer/Director Aditya Bhattacharya’s dystopian vision of modern India made Raakh an instant cult classic when released in 1989 and immediately became a benchmark film for gangster noir from which celebrated directors like Sudhir Mishra, Ram Gopal Varma and Vinod Chopra drew inspiration. The film was one of Bollywood multi-hyphenate Aamir Khan’s first starring roles and won for him a Filmfare award Best Actor nomination and a jury mention at the Indian National Awards. Pankaj Kapur won the National Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film also marked the debut of Sreekar Prasad, who won the National Award for Best Editing and ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan. The New York Indian Film Festival will be the first to see Raakh in a digital copy, specially re-mastered at Reliance Media Works and struck to coincide with this 22th anniversary.

Semshook, directed By Siddhartha Anand Kumar. NY Premiere. Cast – Tenzin Youden, Tenzin Choeden. One man’s search for truth on a journey across the Himalayas. Tenzin is a Tibetan born and raised in India. Yearning to explore his true homeland, he impulsively hops on his motorcycle and embarks on a personal quest: to find his identity and discover the indescribable beauty and wonders of his magnificent homeland. But Tibet is a nation under siege from a repressive regime. While Tenzin encounters friendship, camaraderie and even love along the way, he cannot escape the horrors of a political world he wants no part of. Looking only for the way to peace, both within himself and for the land he loves, Tenzin must find the courage to pursue the truth even if it means facing terrible dangers, to find his Semshook.

Shorts From Whistling Woods International Film School, directed by Rahul Prakash, Sonika Mody, Rohit Tiwari, Monalisa Banerji, Preeti Aneja, and Arati Kadav. US Premiere. A program of six award-winning shorts by the students of India’s premium film school – Whistling Woods International Film School – started by one of Bollywood’s leading directors and producers Subhash Ghai. The short films from India’s next generation of filmmakers includes Incerto, Flip, Punha, Daily Soap, Kalapaani, and Uss Paar.

Sound Of Heaven: The Story of Bal Gandharva, directed by Ravi Jadhav. World Premiere. Cast – Subodh Bhave, Vibhavari Deshpande, Kishor Kadam, Avinash Narkar, Abhijit Kelkar. Sound of Heaven: The Story of Bal Gandharva is a richly mounted, Indian musical, period film on the incredible actor-singer-female impersonator Bal Gandharva (1888-1967), set in the early years of Indian theatre. The film has historic resonances and gives remarkable insights into how today’s Indian cinema and Bollywood musicals derived their song routines, lavish spectacles and melodrama from Indian musical theatre and epics—entirely independent of Hollywood. It is an inspiring portrait of Bal Gandharva, a cross-dressing, singing icon of the sangeet natak (musical theatre) tradition. Women were not allowed to perform onstage then, and Bal Gandharva’s singing and female impersonations in beautiful saris, jewellery and mannerisms were all the rage, and his songs are sung in India even today. Born Narayan Shripad Rajhans, he was given the title ‘Bal Gandharva’ (‘Little Singer from Heaven’). Bal Gandharva led a tumultuous life that saw India’s struggle for independence from the British, his affair with a Muslim singer (he was Hindu) and fluctuating patronage from the maharajahs. Inevitably, as cinema became popular, women who played women’s roles edged him out of the business: onstage, he was little use as a man! He grew increasingly spiritual and believed, like Shakespeare, that all the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players—that life itself was one more role to play with verve.

Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony), directed by Arjun Gourisaria & Monaik Biswas. US Premiere. Cast – Anirban Dutta, Suman Mukhopadhyay. Situated on the southern fringes of Calcutta, the bustling, sunny Deshbandhu colony, a settlement of refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), has a lot going on. In the evening market, two thieves swoop on Ananya’s long plait and chop it away. Atin, the dreamy poet and Ananya’s secret admirer, is worried as he does not find her the next day. He seems oblivious of the fact that his home is facing demolition. The two poachers of Ananya’s plait want to sell it to raise money for a computer course. They are desperate to pursue higher education – by any means. Five boys on a roadside perch make desultory observations on the goings on. Two old men, original immigrants, sit at the local grocery philosophizing on commodities, life and desire. As Atin, along with his only friend Dipankar, sets out in search of Ananya, the story travels from the colony of the day to the neon districts of the night, and then to the ghostly New Town under construction, tracing out the map of a city through realism and delirium. Somewhere along the path, Dipankar tells Atin about Ananya’s family buying an apartment in the new building that is about to raze their colony tenements to the ground.

T. D. Dasan Std. VI B, directed by Mohan Raghavan. US Premiere. Cast – Biju Menon, Jagadish, Swetha Menon, Jagathy Sreekumar, Suresh Krishna. T D Dasan (Master Alexander) is a young boy who lives with his mother. His father had left them a few years back. Dasan gets his dad’s address from his mother’s old trunk box and writes him a letter. Dasan’s father had moved out of that address and the letter reaches the current resident Nandakumar Poduval (Biju Menon), an ad film maker who lives with his thirteen year old daughter Ammu (Tina Rose) in Bangalore. Nandan requests Ammu’s caretaker Madhavan (Jagadish) to find out the whereabouts of the person and deliver the letter to him. But Madhavan is not that enthusiastic and the letter ends up in the waste bin. Ammu sees this and feels bad about it. She starts writing replies to Dasan, as if they were written to him by his dad. The young boy is excited at the thought of having found his dad, and shares all his feelings and needs with his dad. Ammu promptly replies with pens and other gifts Dasan asked his father.

10ml love, directed by Sharat Katariya. World Premiere. Cast – Rajat Kapoor, Tisca Chopra, Purab Kohli, Tara Sharma, Koel Purie, Neel Bhoopalam, Manu Rishi. One wedding, three couples, a whole lot of love, lust and desire make for a heady mix, but add to that a dash of magic potion and an enthralling rendition of the Ramlila and you have a revelation on your hands! Mini loves Neel who loves Shweta who loves Peter. Enter the quintessential druid-Ghalib with a concoction that promises to solve all their problems. But what happens when Ghalib’s secret potion falls in to the wrong hands… Set against the backdrop of your everyday world, 10ml love - a contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is a light hearted romantic comedy concerning the tribulations of a love quadrangle during a night of madness. Their various emotional, intellectual and sexual entanglements are brought to the surface by Ghalib’s misguided meddling!

The Way Home (Veettilekulla Vazhi), directed by Dr Biju Kumar. US Premiere. Cast – Prithviraj, Indrajith, Govardhan. The plot for The Way Home revolves around a doctor with a haunting past. He witnessed his wife and five year old son die in an explosion at a market in Delhi. Now working at a Prison Hospital, the Doctor is assigned the case of a woman in critical condition, a surviving member from a suicide squad of the Indian Jihadi the notorious terrorist group. Despite the doctor’s best efforts, the woman dies. But before dying she entrusts him to find her five-year-old son and unite him with his father. The father is revealed to be Abdul Zuban Tariq, head of the terrorist group. Finding the boy in Kerala, the Doctor and child set out on a journey to find his father. The journey is happening through the contemporary and mysterious path of the terrorist network in the vast country through various Indian states and with many unexpected incidents. The Way Home is a film about survival, innocence and humanity, exploring a bloodstained facet of contemporary terrorism in India. The film is a travelogue through the most beautiful landscapes of India.

Yeh Saali Zindagi, directed by Sudhir Mishra. US Premiere. Cast – Irrfan Khan, Arunoday Singh, Chitrangda Singh, Aditi Rao, Saurabh Shukla, Sushant Singh, Yashpal Sharma, Prashant Narayanan. Arun (Irrfan Khan) has to save Priti (Chitrangda Singh) the woman he loves, but for that he first has to save the man Priti loves- Shyam, the future son in law of a powerful Minister. Meanwhile, time is running out for Kuldeep (Arunoday Singh), the young gangster who is on his last job as his wife is threatening to walk out on him completely, and he begins to suspect she is leaving him to go into the arms of another man. The job has gone haywire for it is still unknown to Kuldeep that the Ministers daughter’s engagement with Shyam is off and now she doesn’t care whether Shyam lives or dies and more importantly neither does the Minister who Kuldeep hoped would pay the ransom! Priti finds herself inextricably caught in this mess and Arun has to save her life. But for that he has to risk everything, and put his own life at stake, he wonders why he should do it at all, if she still loves another man. He’s torn, but love knows no reason. Meanwhile Shyam is trying to make deals in captivity, and his goodness only seems superficial and as Kuldeep tries desperately to save his situation, there are dons coming from Bangkok, who have their own plans.

You Don’t Belong (Documentary), directed by Spandan Banerjee. US Premiere. Cast – Arun Chakraborty. Paban Das is a baul singer living in France singing songs of wandering minstrels. Arun Chakraborty is a poet living a quietly content life in a hamlet of West Bengal. Bhoomi is a band from Kolkata, popular for their renditions of folk tunes. Prabuddha Banerjee is a musician with a history of protest music. Paraspathor is an erstwhile band left with memories of their popular songs and lost fame. Disparate characters who are bound together by a filmmaker’s search for the elusive author of a song, popular in collective memory as a traditional folk song. What follows is a long self-reflexive journey into the world of folk, a journey, which nudges established ideas of home, nostalgia, belonging, and authorship as the film explores deeper into the song that serves for a metaphor of the contemporary fragmented times. Travelling across remembered lands and forgotten histories following the unseen path of migration that music takes, You Don’t Belong asks some important questions about the encounter between art and mass production, creation and ownership in a country rich with myriad folk and oral traditions.

About the Indo-American Arts Council: The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. Their focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from India to exhibit, perform and produce their works here.

Other Articles by Lia Chang:
Samrat Chakrabarti stars in Soham Mehta’s Fatakra, Shiva Shankar Bajpai’s Raju, and Rehana Mirza’s Zameer & Preeti at NYIFF
Victory Gardens appoints renowned director and playwright Chay Yew as its new Artistic Director
AEA’s celebrates Asian Heritage Month w/ Leviathan Lab’s Asian American Female Playwright’s Short Play Festival in NY, 5/12, 13
Vikas Khanna’s Holy Kitchens Karma to Nirvana premieres at New York Indian Film Festival on 5/7 at Tribeca Cinemas
Video: Aroon Shivdasani interviews The Waiting City’s Samrat Chakrabarti at the 10th Annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival
MIAAC Screens Ashes & The Waiting City, two films featuring Samrat Chakrabarti at SVA Theater on 11/12/10
Read More…

Lia Chang Photos and Video: Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas- In the Makeup Chair with Thom Sesma

Thom Sesma, Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma, Photo by Lia Chang

“I have the best job in the world!” says Thom Sesma, who is currently starring as the deliciously evil Scar in Disney’s The LION KING Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Theatre.
Thom Sesma as Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma as Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

I caught Thom’s thrilling turn as Scar last year and he is perfectly suited to the villainous role, having starred on Broadway as the seductive and cruel whip wielding Captain Ahrab in Twyla Tharp/Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’. I was struck by Thom’s resemblance to a samurai, no doubt inspired by THE LION KING director Julie Taymor’s vast body of work with Asian theatrical art forms. It takes a village to transform the Broadway vet, who has also appeared on the Great White Way in The Man of La Mancha, Titanic and La Cage Aux Folles.

Disney’s THE LION KING celebrated its first anniversary on the Las Vegas Strip at Mandalay Bay on Saturday, May 15, 2010, and this production is Thom’s LION KING debut. The Las Vegas Company features an international cast with performers who have been in THE LION KING productions all over the world, including Holland, Paris, Shanghai, Toronto, Australia, Los Angeles, London, South Africa, Taipei, and New York. There are nine natives of South Africa in the cast and three of the ensemble members are from Los Vegas. More than 500,000 people have seen the world-renowned show in its debut year.

Within nine weeks of its Las Vegas opening, Disney’s THE LION KING broke the Mandalay Bay box office record previously held by MAMMA MIA! and then went on to break its own record four more times throughout the year. Las Vegas Magazine said THE LION KING “… transcends cultural boundaries and the limits of the imagination,” while CityLife called it “…flat-out brilliant.” THE LION KING also was recently named the city’s “Best Show” by the staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in its annual “Best of Las Vegas” awards.

Makeup artist Laura Sill transforms Thom Sesma into Scar, in his dressing room of the Mandalay Bay Theatre, where The Lion King Las Vegas currently has an open run. Photo by Lia Chang

Makeup artist Laura Sill transforms Thom Sesma into Scar, in his dressing room at the Mandalay Bay Theatre, where The Lion King Las Vegas currently has an open run. Photo by Lia Chang


I had a backstage pass to document Thom’s remarkable transformation into a Kabuki styled lion in leather for my newly created Lia Chang Asian Pacific American Theater Photography Portfolio for the Library of Congress.
Thom Sesma puts on his Scar boots, next to Zazu's boots. Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma puts on his Scar boots, next to Zazu's boots. Photo by Lia Chang


Thom Sesma, who plays Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma, who plays Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang


5:45pm We arrive at the Mandalay Bay theatre.
6:15pm Thom normally meetS up with his makeup artist Laura Sill in his dressing room that he shares with Patrick Kerr, who portrays “Zazu.”
Thom Sesma with makeup artist Laura Sill in the dressing room on August 23, 2010, at the Mandalay Bay Theatre, where he is currently starring as Scar in Disney's The Lion King Las Vegas.  Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma with makeup artist Laura Sill in the dressing room on August 23, 2010, at the Mandalay Bay Theatre, where he is currently starring as Scar in Disney's The Lion King Las Vegas. Photo by Lia Chang


6:30pm As Laura works her magic transforming the Japanese American actor into a lion of the Savannah, she explains that The Lion King director Julie Taymor and makeup artist Michael Curry are the creative forces for each of the distinctive looks of the characters.
Makeup artist Laura Sill prepares Thom's Scar wig. Photo by Lia Chang

Makeup artist Laura Sill prepares Thom's Scar wig. Photo by Lia Chang


7pm His dresser Craig West rigs him into his leather costume, which weighs in at over 50 lbs. Laura puts on the wig and touches up his makeup. His mask, a mechanical lion-face headpiece that can be raised and lowered via a hidden remote control, creating the illusion of a cat “lunging” during his confrontations with his brother Mufasa and the Hyenas, is the final costume piece to be attached.

As the half hour to showtime was announced, I was whisked away by Meghan Baker, the PR person for the show. I heard a goodbye across the dark stage. It was Thom bidding us farewell as he went to warm up in the theater before the audience filtered in.

Thom Sesma Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma Photo by Lia Chang

Equally at home in the musical theater as well as on the legit stage, Thom has been on and off Broadway and on tour in Miss Saigon, Search and Destroy, Cymbeline, Rashomon, Baba Goya, In a Pig’s Valise, As Thousands Cheer, Othello, Ivanov, Howard Barker’s A Hard Heart, playing opposite Kathleen Chalfant and starring opposite Charles Busch in Shanghai Moon. Last year, he received The Enquirer Acclaim Award, which celebrates the best of Cincinnati theatre, for his turn as a frustrated Korean immigrant widower in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s production of Julia Cho’s Durango which opened the 2008 fall season.

Thom Sesma, who plays Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma, who plays Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma, who plays Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma, who plays Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang


Click below to watch the video of Thom’s remarkable transformation.

Thom recently wrote about “Life as Uncle Scar” as a guest columnist for Robin Leach’s column in The Las Vegas Sun, which you can read here.

Disney’s THE LION KING is performed Monday-Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday performances at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Thom Sesma, who plays Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

Thom Sesma, who plays Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, in his dressing room on August 23, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

Tickets for Disney’s THE LION KING at Mandalay Bay are available for $64, $86 and $113.50. VIP packages, which include premium seating, a complimentary souvenir program and a complimentary VIP show merchandise item, are available for $168.50. Taxes are included in all prices. Tickets can be purchased at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations; through the box office at (702) 632-7580 or Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000; and online via www.lionkinglasvegas.com or www.ticketmaster.com. Reservations for groups of 15 or more can be purchased through (877) 632-7505 or LionKingSales@mandalaybay.com.

For more information, please visit www.lionkinglasvegas.com.


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All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2010 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.

Other Articles by Lia Chang:
Lia Chang Portfolio Features Portraits of New York Chinatown After 9/11 in “Post 9/11”: Commemorative Display at Library of Congress Asian Reading Room, 8/30-9/15
Goodman Theatre World Premiere of David Henry Hwang’s Broadway Bound “Chinglish” Scores 5 Jeff Award Nods
Photos: Rick Shiomi Checks out Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection of Library of Congress; Attends “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” Book Signing in NY
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug!
Crafting a Career
Backstage at The Lion King Las Vegas with Thom Sesma
Thom Sesma as Scar in The Lion King at Mandalay bay
Thom Sesma, Peter Kim and Andrew Cristi star in Durango
Spotlight on Shanghai Moon’s Thom Sesma
Thom Sesma Stars in Jeanne Sakata’s Dawn’s Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi
Thom Sesma in The Epic Theatre Ensemble’s A HARD HEART
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Master Chef Martin Yan at the 5th Annual Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA Awards Ceremony in Las Vegas
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive.

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia collaborates with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive and social media presence. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. Lia currently plays Nurse Lia on “One Life to Live”. She has appeared in Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and “New York Undercover”.

Selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, thelmagazine.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog.

Lia Chang: Backstage at The Lion King with Thom Sesma

Thom Sesma and Asia Flores backstage at The Lion King Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. © Lia Chang

Thom Sesma and Asia Flores backstage at The Lion King Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. © Lia Chang

In December, I caught up with my friend Thom Sesma in Las Vegas, where he is playing “Scar” in Disney’s THE LION KING at the Mandalay Bay Theatre.

Disney’s THE LION KING musical is based on the 1994 animated film of the same name which follows the adventures of the royal lion cub Simba on his quest to grow up and learn what it means to be a king.

The Lion King director Julie Taymor © Lia Chang

The Lion King director Julie Taymor © Lia Chang


Thom explained that director Julie Taymor’s vision for the show was influenced from her work in Indonesia with Asian theatrical forms. Taymor, along with Michael Curry, created hundreds of masks and puppets for THE LION KING. THe choreography is by Garth Fagan, scenic design is by Richard Hudson, costume design is by Julie Taymor and lighting design is by Donald Holder.

The book was adapted by Roger Allers, who co-directed the animated film, and Irene Mecchi, who co-wrote the screenplay for THE LION KING. The Las Vegas score features Elton John and Tim Rice’s music from the animated film along with two new songs by John and Rice, and additional musical material by South African Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor and Hans Zimmer. The resulting sound of THE LION KING score is a fusion of Western popular music and the distinctive sounds and rhythms of Africa.

Marija Juliette Abney, Jeremiah Tatum, and Derrick Spear in the opening number The Circle of Life from THE LION KING Las Vegas. (c)2009, Disney. Photo Credit: Joan Marcus.

Marija Juliette Abney, Jeremiah Tatum, and Derrick Spear in the opening number The Circle of Life from THE LION KING Las Vegas. (c)2009, Disney. Photo Credit: Joan Marcus.

The international and multi-ethnic cast also features Alton F. White as the Lion King “Mufasa”, Clifton Oliver as “Simba”, Buyi Zama as the wise baboon “Rafiki”, Kissy Simmons as the lioness “Nala”, Joshua Landay as “Zazu”, Damian Baldet as “Timon” the meerkat, Adam Kozlowski as “Pumbaa” the warthog and Marvette Williams as Sarabi. D. Asante Ervin and Jade Nelson are charming and full of spunk as Young Simba and Young Nala. The motley crew of hyenas are portrayed by Matthew S. Morgan (Banzai), Jacquie Hodges (Shenzi) and Robbie Swift (Ed).

The opening number The Circle of Life from THE LION KING Las Vegas. (c)2009, Disney. Photo Credit: Joan Marcus.

The opening number The Circle of Life from THE LION KING Las Vegas. (c)2009, Disney. Photo Credit: Joan Marcus.

My niece Asia and I had great seats, in section B on the aisle for the opening number of the show, which features actors working seamlessly with the puppets to portray the stunning procession of animals that fill the aisles during ‘Circle of Life’. THE LION KING Las Vegas is a spectacular theatrical experience. There are 55 cast members in all, and they are superb. It’s a visual feast that is as timeless as when I first saw the original production in 1997, the year it opened at the New Amsterdam.

 Thom Sesma as Scar faces off against Mufasa, The Lion King, played by Alton F. White. Photo by Joan Marcus

Thom Sesma as Scar faces off against Mufasa, The Lion King, played by Alton F. White. Photo by Joan Marcus

Perfectly suited to the villainous role of Scar, Thom’s costume consists of 45 pounds of leather and a mechanical lion-face headpiece that can be raised and lowered via a hidden remote control, creating the illusion of a cat “lunging” during his confrontations with his brother Mufasa and the Hyenas.

I last saw Thom on Broadway as the seductive powerhouse Captain Ahrab wielding a whip in The Times They are A-Changin’. Equally at home in the musical theater as well as on the legit stage, he has been on and off Broadway and on tour in Miss Saigon, Titanic, Search and Destroy, Man of La Mancha, Cymbeline, Rashomon, Baba Goya, In a Pig’s Valise, As Thousands Cheer, Othello, Ivanov, Howard Barker’s A Hard Heart, playing opposite Kathleen Chalfant and starring opposite Charles Busch in Shanghai Moon. Last year, he received The Enquirer Acclaim Award, which celebrates the best of Cincinnati theatre, for his turn as a frustrated Korean immigrant widower in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s production of Julia Cho’s Durango which opened the 2008 fall season.

After the show, Thom treated us to a backstage tour, much to my niece Asia’s delight. He showed her the puppets in the rafters, encouraged her to touch the masks and the costumes, and explained how the different actors work with and navigate in their intricate costumes onstage.

As we said goodbye, Thom shared, “I’ll be here until 2011. Although I miss my home in New York, I have the best job in the world.”

THE LION KING is playing at Mandalay Bay, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Tickets for Disney’s THE LION KING at Mandalay Bay are available for $64, $86 and $113.50. VIP packages, which include premium seating, a complimentary souvenir program and a complimentary VIP show merchandise item, are available for $168.50. The show is performed Monday through Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday shows at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations; through the box office at (702) 632-7580 or Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000; and online via www.lionkinglasvegas.com or www.ticketmaster.com. The closest entrance to the theater is through the garage of THE Hotel. Arrive at least one half hour prior to the show to pick up your tickets.

Bookmark and Share

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2011 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.

Lia Chang  Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia collaborates with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive and social media presence. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden.

Selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, thelmagazine.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog.

Other Articles by Lia Chang:
Celebrating my mom – AN ACTIVE VISION: BEVERLY UMEHARA…LABOR ACTIVIST…1945-1999
Crafting a Career
My Empire State Building at Dusk on view in HHC’s “Art and Healing-Healthy for the Holidays” Art Exhibit
Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, Alexander Calder, Lia Chang in Art & Healing Exhibit at Snug Harbor on SI
Restaurants Respond for Relief, Chef Arnold Wong Hosts Benefit for Japan Night at E&O Trading Co. in SF on 4/10
Japan Society’s Japan Earthquake Relief FundNational Cherry Blossom Festival Invites Public to Stand with Japan on 3/24
Peter Jay Fernandez in Theatre for a New Audience’s Macbeth at The Duke through April 22
Up Close and Personal with Darren Pettie, Star of The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore
A night out with Gordana Rashovich, Flora Goforth in The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore
André De Shields Set for World Premiere of Charles Smith’s The Gospel According to James at Indiana Rep, 3/22-4/10
Photos: David Duchovny, John Earl Jelks, Amanda Peet,Tracee Chimo opening night of Neil LaBute’s The Break of Noon
Multimedia: Exclusive photos and video of Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas -In the Makeup Chair with Thom Sesma
Photo Call: BD Wong and the Cast of Heading East at the Asia Society
Lia Chang’s Botanical Beauties Portrait Commission at School of Nursing at Kings County Hospital Center
Thom Sesma, Peter Kim and Andrew Cristi star in Durango
Spotlight on Shanghai Moon’s Thom Sesma
Thom Sesma Stars in Jeanne Sakata’s Dawn’s Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi
Thom Sesma in The Epic Theatre Ensemble’s A HARD HEART
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive.

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