San Francisco Playwright Eugenie Chan Brings Premiere of
Daphne Does Dim Sum to The Centenary Stage

The spirit of the tango catches Alan (Alan Ariano),   Daphne ( Shigeko Sara Suga), and Bessie (Kitty   Mei-Mei Chen) as The Waiter (Michael Rosete) tries   earnestly to get paid in Eugenie Chan's new play,   Daphne Does Dim Sum at the Centenary Stage Company   (click image for closer view)

The Play
"Hauh fook! We are having the best kind of 'lucky mouth'!" Daphne Ong exclaims to her friend Bessie during their weekly meal together in a cavernous Dim Sum Restaurant. What happens when these two Chinese mavens slug it out over who has the best shrimp puffs, the best date for the dance, the best "Hong Kong" ring, and who will pay the check? "Mai Dan!" (Check Please!) of course. A delightful new play by San Francisco playwright Eugenie Chan, "Daphne Does Dim Sum… or Mai Dan!", will enjoys its World Premiere at the Professional Centenary Stage Company Feb 22 – March 9 in Hackettstown. A cute waiter and a colorful brother add some extra spice to this comic class of cultures with a happy ending for two good friends.

Daphne Does Dim Sum was developed in the Centenary Stage Company Women Playwrights Series, now in it's 15th year as a developmental program dedicated to providing a working forum for the unique and underserved voice of women writing for the theatre today. Further development this winter included a collaborative presentation between the Centenary Stage Company and The New York New Dramatist’s organization in January.

(click image for closer view)

Win a Dim Sum        Luncheon for two! Theatre goers can enter to win a delicious Dim Sum Luncheon at the exquisite Pandan Room in Hackettstown! Weekly drawing held each Sunday during the intermission of Daphne Does Dim Sum   Offer ends Mar. 9th Special thanks to Allen & Jay at the Pandan Room!

Playright Eugenie Chan

Artist In Residence / Playwright:   Eugenie Chan
Playwright Eugenie Chan will be the "Artist in Residence" in Hackettstown throughout February, during the rehearsal and opening of her new play. A graduate of Yale University and NYU, Chan was recently inducted into the ranks of the prestigious "New Dramatists" organization in New York this past fall. As part of the CSC outreach initiative, Chan will be leading writing workshops and speaking with students at area schools during her visit.

Playwright Eugenie Chan (seated right) and Director    Kate Lyn Reiter (top right) works with the cast    on Eugenie's script.

Interview with the Playwright

Catherine Rust: Eugenie, this is a delightful play you have written, and we are having so much fun working on. Can you tell us something about the inspiration?
 
Eugenie Chan: Basically, Daphne Does Dim Sum is a valentine to my mother's generation of women- women who have worked hard through the years to raise families, work, be friends, mothers, daughters, wives, single women -- the whole gamut, at a time when it was much more difficult to be opinionated and forthright as Chinese women. These are the women who love each other and their children, nieces, nephew, grandkids et al to death without ever saying the words, "I love you, What a good friend you are." Playwright Darrah Cloud challenged a bunch of writers in a workshop in California to have a character from a play we were imagining sit in the audience as we wrote & conceived the play. So I imagined what it would be like for the characters of Bessie and Daphne to alternatively watch themselves from the audience.

Read the full Eugenie Chan Interview.

Director:      Kate Lyn Reiter
A one-time stand-up comedian in New York's late night comedy scene, Reiter is veteran performer, playwright and director. She began her directing career while at Yale, and continues to pursue it throughout the region today. ...More

The Cast
The Daphne Does Dim Sum cast brings a wealth of television, Broadway and stage credits to the performance. As "Daphne", Shigeko Sara’s credits include Andrei Serban's Trojan Women at LaMama (NYC), Shogun Macbeth (Shubert Theatre, NY), The New York Shakespeare Festival, Pan Asian Rep (NYC), and The Kennedy Center (D.C.), as well as multiple television appearances on Law & Order and four episodes of The Cosby Show . Kitty Mei-Mei Chen, playing "Bessie", has appeared on television’s Law & Order, All My Children, As the World Turns, and Sesame Street (as Big Bird's first teacher!). Her stage appearances include LaMama, ETC, Pan Asian Rep (NYC), The O'Neill Playwrights Conference (Ct), and the Open Space Theatre. As brother "Alan", Alan Ariano brings many Broadway credits to his Hackettstown performance, having performed in the Broadway productions of M.Butterfly, Miss Saigon, Jerome Robbins' Broadway , Shogun: The Musical and Flower Drum Song. His television appearances include Law & Order, Once Life to Life, As the World Turns. Newcomer Michael Rosete will play the "Waiter"

Schedule
Performances for Daphne Does Dim Sum are Friday and Saturday nights at 8 PM, Sundays at 2:30 PM, Wed. 27th at 2:30 PM, Wed Mar 5 @ 11 am (student matinee) and Thursdays at 7:30 PM (Family Night).

Feb. - Mar. 2008 - Daphne Does Dim Sum
Wed. Mat. 11 am	Wed. Mat. 2:30pm	Thurs. Eve. 7:30pm	Fri. Mat. 2:30pm	Fri. Eve. 8pm	Sat. Eve. 8pm	Sun. Mat. 2:30pm
			22	22	23	24 "First Sundays"
x	27	28 Family Night	x	29	1	2
5	x	6 Family Night	x	7	8	9

Tickets
Tickets are available at 908-979-0900 or our Secure Online Ticketing. Locally, tickets will also be available at The Pandan Room (serving Dim Sum every Saturday & Sunday) at 100 East Moore Street in Hackettstown.

Individual Tickets are:

www.centenarystageco.org           boxoffice@centenarystageco.org
400 Jefferson Street, Hackettstown, NJ 07840       908-979-0900
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Revised: December 23, 2008
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