Paper Angels

PAPER ANGELS by Genny Lim, directed by David Hsieh

PAPER ANGELS offers an intimate portrait of the immigrant experience, revealing the universal desires and haunting realities of those coming to America. All performances will be followed by brief post-play discussions to connect the events explored in the play from 1915 with those happening today in 2015.

At Center House Theatre as part of the 2016 Seattle Fringe Festival
305 Harrison St, Ground Level of the Seattle Center Armory at Seattle Center, Seattle WA
Saturdays, February 27 & March 5, 2016 both at 5pm
Click here for more information on Fringe Festival showings!

At Dukesbay Theater in The Merlino Art Center
508 S Sixth Ave #10 in Tacoma, WA
August 7 – 16, 2015

At The LAB at INScape Arts Center
815 Seattle Blvd S, 1st Floor in Seattle, WA 98134
August 20 – 23, 2015 SOLD OUT!

Performances now inside at The LAB at INScape Arts Center
815 Seattle Blvd S, 1st Floor in Seattle, WA 98134
August 28 – 31, 2015
Friday at 7:30pm SOLD OUT!
Saturday at 3pm  JUST ADDED!
Saturday at 7:30pm SOLD OUT!
Sunday at 7:30pm SOLD OUT!
Monday at 7:30pm SOLD OUT!

Tickets are available at Brownpapertickets.

We won’t be able to extend this current run of Paper Angels. If you were not able to get tickets due to our sold-out run, feel free to email us at tickets@sis-productions.org and let us know if you’d like to be contacted if we are able to add a future showing of Paper Angels. Thanks!

Directions & Parking for INScape.

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In 1915, eager and hopeful Chinese immigrants await permission to enter the United States at the West Coast immigration center located at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. In sharing the stories of sojourners aspiring to find a home in the America of their dreams, PAPER ANGELS creates a moving depiction of issues still relevant today.

The play’s characters are a cross-representation of the approximately 175,000 Chinese immigrants who entered the U.S. between 1910 and 1940 through Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. From 1882 to 1943, the Chinese were prohibited from immigrating to America due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, giving the Chinese the dubious distinction of being the only ethnic group to have specifically been banned from coming to America.

The LAB at INScape Arts is located in Seattle’s former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) building, thus echoing the play’s setting – the barracks of Angel Island where detainees carved stories into the walls as they waited years for their American freedom. Audiences attending Paper Angels in Seattle can view Wing Luke Museum’s free Voices of the Immigration exhibit throughout the hallways of INScape Arts. More about the history of the old INS building can be found here.

In order to provide more opportunities to Asian American actors, the show’s roles will be shared by two casts, featuring the talents of: Cristopher Berns or Robert Pillitteri, Eloisa Cardona or Kathy Hsieh, Henry Drew or Allen Go, Long Dinh or Andy Tran, Phoenix Ever or Grace Ai Nguyen, Joanna Goff or Kelly Johnson, Denny Le or Kevin Lin, Ian McIntire or James Thomas Patrick, Serin Ngai, Maydene Pang or Aimee Decker, Austin Harry or Ryan St. Martin, Stephen Sumida or Chris Wong, and Tina Yu! Click here to see who’s performing on which days.

Produced by: Rachel Rene Araucto, Kathy Hsieh, Lisa Marie Nakamura, Miko Premo, Roger Tang, Celeste Mari Williams, and Claire Zhuang.

Special thanks to 4Culture and ArtsWA for their support.

PRESS COVERAGE:
“SIS Productions ‘Paper Angels’ an important work” – AXS review
Listen to this Theatrical Mustang Podcast interview for more background information on the show and SIS.
Here’s The Seattle Times preview plus an AXS preview of the show.
The International Examiner interviews Genny Lim, playwright, and director David Hsieh about the Paper Angels.

Want discounts to more multicultural shows around town? Check out the SpiceBox Passport!

Genny Lim is a San Francisco native of Chinese immigrant parents. Lim forged her own path as a poet, singer, actress, journalist, and cultural activist for Asian Americans. Lim co-authored Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrantson Angel Island 1910-1940. Her work on this oral history project became the inspiration for her play Paper Angels. The poetry carved onto the walls of the Angel Island Detention Center by the Chinese detainees moved Lim to learn more about her family history and connection to these immigrants. Her own father had been detained at Angel Island. Paper Angels became a personal and cultural journey for Lim, as she was able to reconcile her complex Chinese American heritage.