"Where Are You From?" by Brandan Ngo (free reading)

In “Where Are You From?” – presented as part of the Edward Lewis Theatre Festival at the Salt Lake City Public Library (Main Branch, Tessman Auditorium), an Asian-American teen tries to figure out what it means for him to be Asian and American. High school is tough… navigating race-relations is allegedly tougher. Hopefully, there’s nothing some honesty, a bit of theatrics, and a passing knowledge of Cantonese can’t accomplish.

Playwright Brandan Ngo, a member of Plan-B’s Theatre Artists of Color Writing Workshop, is an actor and writer who fortunately enjoys both acting and writing. After graduating from the University of Utah with a BA in Film & Media Arts, Brandan has been seen making a fool of himself on-stage and on-camera in Utah for the better part of five years. Past roles include Man 6 and Student. He loves stories, he loves music, and he loves the stage.

Brandan’s thought on “Where Are You From?”: The thing about being an immigrant, or a child of an immigrant, or any shade of that spectrum in the United States, is that your story is never the singular defining story of your culture, your creed, or your ethnicity. What this play is, then, is one or two of those hundreds of millions of stories. It is my story, and it is my friends’ stories, stirring in my second-generation brain for 26 years and finally manifesting itself onstage. Hopefully, it is your story, too. Or even better, hopefully it is not. Hopefully, you learn today that your story has yet to be told, and that the stage is hungry for it.

Cast: Cal Crnich, Kallie Filanda, Tyler Fox, Samantha Matsukawa, Katie Jones Nall, Joshua Shimizu, Benjamin Young
Director: Jerry Rapier
Stage Manager: Sam Allen

The Script-In-Hand Series is sponsored by Lee & Audrey Hollaar.

“Where Are You From?” kicks off the Edward Lewis Theatre Festival followed by work from People Productions, Pinnacle Acting Company and Wasatch Theatre Company.