Mother of Exiles at Local Lab

It’s one short month until Boulder CO’s premier festival of new American plays: Local Theater’s Local Lab. On March 15, they will stage a reading of Mother of Exiles to close out their festival. The play follows the Loi family’s journey through America across 200 years—as they are ushered along by the spirits of their ancestors. In 1898 California, a pregnant Eddie Loi faces deportation. In 1998 Miami, her grandson Braulio accidentally summons her spirit while patrolling the border. In 2098 somewhere on the ocean, their descendants try to survive.

More info here.

Jessica Huang
4 Seasons Residency 2020

It’s autumn and I’m in New York. But I’m looking forward to winter in Creede, Colorado; spring in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; summer in McCall, Idaho; and next autumn in Ely, Minnesota. It’s an honor to spend the next four seasons with the support and collaboration of National New Play Network (NNPN), HBMG, Ignition Arts, Seven Devils, and Tofte Lake Center, as the inaugural 4 Seasons resident. Over the years, I have been lucky to receive several opportunities to work on my plays with the support of retreat centers; these periods of stillness and deep creative focus have been instrumental in focusing, reenergizing, and inspiring complexity and deep honesty in my work. I am overwhelmed by the abundance of the 4 Seasons Residency—four distinct and beautiful suspended moments to think, explore, and encourage new work to arise from the quiet. The experience will culminate at NNPN’s Showcase of New Plays.
More info here.

Jessica Huang
Mother of Exiles at New York Stage & Film's Fall Reading Series

It’s September in New York, and I’m getting ready to work with the New York Stage & Film Company again, this time as a part of their Fall Reading Series at Barnard College. On November 4th we will present a free public reading of my play Mother of Exiles. The play follows the Loi family’s journey through America across 200 years, as they are ushered along by the spirits of their ancestors. In 1898 California, a pregnant Eddie Loi faces deportation. In 1998 Miami, her grandson Braulio decides who stays and who goes. In 2098 somewhere on the ocean, their descendants sail toward a new country, fleeing climate crisis.
More info here.


Jessica Huang
Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying at Juilliard

It’s September 2019 and I’m back in New York. These days I’m at Juilliard, where we’re rehearsing a workshop production of my play Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying. My husband, Ricardo Vazquez, is directing. In the rehearsal room, we’re in the year 2043 and Earth’s human and non-human inhabitants are grappling with grief and global warming. Katrina and her unborn baby head north in search of snow; Hugo seeks purpose in a world without resources; and recently widowed Carla is swept into a cosmic relationship with an ageless Being. Together with a young lynx and a swarm of locusts, their journeys become transmissions of hope and loss against the backdrop of planetary collapse.
Performances are on the third floor at The Juilliard School (155 West 65th Street), and take place Thursday through Saturday, September 5th - 7th.

Reserve tickets here.

Jessica Huang
Mother of Exiles at Chance Theater

In July, I'll be workshopping my new play, Mother of Exiles, at Chance Theater. Mother of Exiles follows the Loi family’s journey through America across 200 years—as they are ushered along by the spirits of their ancestors. In 1898, a pregnant Eddie Loi faces deportation. In 1998, her grandson Braulio decides who stays and who goes. In 2098, their descendants sail toward a new country, fleeing climate crisis.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
Berkeley Repertory 2019 Summer Residency Lab

I was selected to participate in The Ground Floor: Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work for its 2019 Summer Residency Lab. The artists, selected from a pool of more than 620 submissions, developed new works at the company’s Harrison Street campus throughout the month of June. In collaboration with Ashley Hanson, I wrote a new musical, The Kim Loo Sisters Musical, about sisters who shared top billing with Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, and Ann Miller.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival 2019

In May, I participated in the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival. For over twenty years, the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival has proudly supported the creation and development of hundreds of new theatrical works by some of the most exciting playwrights of our time—who have gone on to become Pulitzer Prize, Tony, Obie, Emmy and Golden Globe award winners, as well as McArthur Genius Fellows. During the festival, I worked on my new play Mother of Exiles.

Learn more here

Jessica Huang
New York Stage and Film’s 35th Annual Powerhouse Season

I’ll be participating in New York Stage and Film’s 35th Annual Powerhouse Season, presented annually at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The 35th annual season, running June 20 through July 28, will include fully staged productions, workshop presentations, readings and other works in progress for theater, film and television. This summer’s readings will include a free public presentation of my work in progress, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
Ars Nova Play Group

I was recently selected to be part of the Ars Nova Play Group, based in New York City. Play Group is a two-year residency in which members become a part of the Ars Nova Resident Artist community. In addition to biweekly meetings where members share new work and receive feedback from their Play Group peers, members also receive dramaturgical support and artistic match-making advice from the Ars Nova artistic staff; invitations to Ars Nova shows, Resident Artists mixers, and to see the work of Play Group alums around the city; two Play Group writing retreats; and the opportunity to further develop and showcase one of their plays in a week-long workshop that can culminate in a public reading.

Read more here.

Sara Bischoff
2019 Resident Playwright at Chance Theater

I was recently selected as the 2019 Resident Playwright at Chance Theater in Anaheim, California. For the 9th year in a row, Chance Theater’s resident playwright will be featured throughout the year in the On The Radar Series.

In 2019, I will have two shows featured in the OTR Series — a LAB Workshop of a brand new play that I’m still writing, and a staged reading of Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying, which merges mixed-race identity politics, science, and economics to tell a story that spans 300 million years.

Read more here.

Sara Bischoff
2018 Barry and Bernice Stavis Award

I was honored to receive the Barry and Bernice Stavis Award at the 2018 National Theater Conference on December 7-9 in New York City. A lively excerpt from my play The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin was followed by a discussion, led and moderated by Liz Engelman. During the discussion, I spoke about the real life inspiration for the play, including the Chinese Exclusion Act which led many Chinese nationals seeking to enter the US to buy forged identities, creating a web of secrets, regrets, lies and complications for generations to come. 

Conference photos and information here.

Jessica Huang
2019 Interstate 73 Writers Group

I was recently announced as one of eight members for this year’s Interstate 73 Writers Group. Interstate 73 members meet at the Page 73 offices twice a month to share their newest pages and discuss their work with their peers and Page 73’s Producing Artistic Director and Artistic Associate. At a playwright’s request, the writer receives a public or closed reading of a play.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
Reading of TRANSMISSIONS IN ADVANCE OF THE SECOND GREAT DYING at New York Theatre Workshop

A reading of TRANSMISSIONS IN ADVANCE OF THE SECOND GREAT DYING will take place at the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) on Monday, November 19. The reading will be directed by Jenny Koons.

From September to May each season, NYTW hosts a work-in-progress reading every Monday. Each reading is part of a positive forum that nurtures work at its earliest stages, garners attention from NYTW artistic staff and receives a constructive feedback session with staff, actors and other artists through the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process.

Read more here.

Jessica Huang
2018-19 Civilians' R&D Group

I’m thrilled to be a part of the 2018-19 Civilians’ R&D Group, with composer Ashley Hanson. The Civilians’ R&D Group meets biweekly for nine months, during which time each artist or team of artists develops a new piece of theater through a creative investigation of a topic chosen by each artist. The creative process may include interviewing, community engagement, research, or other experimental methods of inquiry. Led by R&D Coordinator Megan McClain, the artists share and discuss their methodologies and the resulting work. The process will culminate in a FINDINGS series in May 2019, when the groups present their works-in-progress to the public.

Jessica Huang