The Kitchen Theater 2021 Season

China Dreams or The Conservation of Parity

March 19th, 2021

The Kitchen Theatre Company will collaborate with Ma-Yi Theater, the nation's premiere incubator of Asian-American new plays, on the first of two new play development workshops in its 2020-2021 season. Stefani Kuo's China Dreams or The Conservation of Parity will be led by Chicago and New York director Jess McLeod; cast by KTC veteran Judy Bowman; and will star Ruibo Qian (Black Mirror, Mozart in the Jungle) along with Michael Liu, Fang Du, Jason Butler Harner, Will Dao, Kristen Hung, and Wai Ching Ho.

The play tells the story of Wu Chien-Shiung, a Nobel Prize laureate who was the only woman and the only foreign-born scientist on the Manhattan Project. It chronicles her first decades in America on her journey to becoming a physicist, battling personal challenges being separated from her home in China. While Wu's two worlds are physically far apart, emotionally, they reach out to each other to connect. Interlaced with English, Madarin and Cantonese dialogue, we not only see the human behind the groundbreaking science, but the strenuous choices that underscore her success.

The play will be workshopped in association with Manhattan's Ma-Yi Theatre, the professional, award-winning not-for-profit organization whose primary mission is to develop and produce new and innovative plays by Asian American writers. Ralph B. Peña, Producing Artistic Director at Ma- Yi Theatre says "When David first approached me with the idea of working on Stefani Kuo's "China Dreams," it took but half a second to say yes. We're thrilled to be part of developing an exciting new play by a young writer, who tells stories with a daring and singular voice. We're equally happy to be working with the Kitchen Theatre to help bring these kinds of plays to audiences in Ithaca."