On May 16, Prospect Theater Company (Cara Reichel, Producing Artistic Director/Melissa Huber, Managing Director) presented a developmental reading of PETER AND THE WAVE, a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Timothy Huang, at Ripley-Grier Studios in New York.
May Adrales and Timothy Huang. Photo by Lia Chang
May Adrales was at the helm of a cast that featured Janine Morita Colletti (Inaba, Ayame & Others), Andrew Cristi (Kanno Nakamura), Marc delaCruz (Kotoku Wamura/Jim Nakauchi), Steven Eng (Wamura’s Father, Rosko & Others), Shino Frances (Wamura’s Mother, Dr. Miyamoto & Others), Katie Mariko Murray (Tomoko Hosaka), Toren Nakamura (Frankie, Amano & Others), and Nic Rouleau (Peter Saer).
Steven Eng, Marc delaCruz, Shino Frances, Nic Rouleau, Andrew Cristi, Katie Mariko Murray, Janine Morita Colletti, Toren Nakamura. Photo by Lia Chang
Sariva Goetz served as Music Director, Ali Walensky as the Stage Manager and Shino Frances as the Language Consultant.
1st row: Music Director Sariva Goetz, Stage Manager Ali Walensky, Steven Eng, Katie Mariko Murray, Janine Morita Colletti. 2nd Row: Producing Artistic Director Cara Loelle Reichel, Marc delaCruz, Shino Frances, Timothy Huang, Director May Ádrales, Nic Rouleau, Andrew Cristi, Toren Nakamura. Photo by Lia Chang
Synopsis: In 1933, a brutal storm pounds the village of Fudai, Japan, setting Kotoku Wamura on a unprecedented crusade to protect his family home. Generations later, American Peter Saer embarks on a journey to Japan to identify and claim the body of his dead husband. As Peter navigates this new world with his guide, Tomoko Hosaka, cultures clash and echoes of love and loss resonate through time… bringing new perspective to choices made in the face of tragedy.
Katie Mariko Murray and Nic Rouleau. Photo by Lia Chang
Steven Eng, Janine Morita Colletti, Katie Mariko Murray, Nic Rouleau, Marc delaCruz, Andrew Cristi, Shino Frances, Toren Nakamura. Photo by Lia Chang
Timothy Huang with music director Sariva Goetz at piano. Photo by Lia Chang
Timothy Huang and Sariva Goetz. Photo by Lia Chang
Timothy Huang and Sariva Goetz. Photo by Lia Chang
Katie Mariko Murray, Nic Rouleau, May Adrales, Timothy Huang and Janine Morita Colletti. Photo by Lia Chang
Nic Rouleau and Marc delaCruz. Photo by Lia Chang
Sariva Goetz, Timothy Huang and Steven Eng, figuring it out. Photo by Lia Chang
Marc delaCruz and Ali Walensky, stage manager. Photo by Lia Chang
Sariva Goetz and Steven Eng. Photo by Lia Chang
Nic Rouleau and Marc delaCruz. Photo by Lia Chang
Steven Eng, Janine Morita Colletti, Katie Mariko Murray, Nic Rouleau, Marc delaCruz, Andrew Cristi, Shino Frances, Toren Nakamura. Photo by Lia Chang
Steven Eng, Janine Morita Colletti, Katie Mariko Murray, Nic Rouleau, Marc delaCruz, Andrew Cristi, Shino Frances, Toren Nakamura. Photo by Lia Chang
Steven Eng, Janine Morita Colletti, Katie Mariko Murray, Nic Rouleau. Photo by Lia Chang
Marc delaCruz and Andrew Cristi. Photo by Lia Chang
Toren Nakamura and May Adrales. Photo by Lia Chang
Steven Eng, Janine Morita Colletti, Katie Mariko Murray, Nic Rouleau, Marc delaCruz, Andrew Cristi, Shino Frances, Toren Nakamura. Photo by Lia Chang
Marc delaCruz and May Adrales. Photo by Lia Chang
May Adrales (director) with Andrew Cristi and Shino Frances. Photo by Lia Chang
Katie Mariko Murray, May Adrales, Nic Rouleau, Marc delaCruz. Photo by Lia Chang
May Adrales and Timothy Huang. Photo by Lia Chang
The reading was presented with support from the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals, a program of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT).
This program was supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Lia Chang
Lia Chang is a Chinese-American actor, a multi-media content producer, an award-winning filmmaker, and a photo activist and documentarian, who lifts up and amplifies BIPOC communities and artists and the institutions that support them. She recently received the 2022 Prospect Muse Award.
Lia moved to New York from her home in San Francisco when she was 17 years of age and made her stage debut as Liat in a national tour of South Pacific with Barbara Eden and Robert Goulet. She spent many years working extensively Off-Broadway, including Signature Theatre’s revival of Sam Shepard’s Chicago. Her film work includes Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and The Last Dragon. The decades of being viewed by others through the narrow lens of “Asian actor” in the industry brought Lia to a turning point, and she picked up her camera, determined to create awareness by documenting the work and the lives of her BIPOC colleagues, resulting in the creation of thousands of photographs and pieces of video. Her photo archives are housed in the AAPI collection in the Library of Congress’ Asian Reading Room under “Lia Chang Theater Portfolio collection,1989-2011” and in the “Lia Chang Photography Collection” in The Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library.
Lia’s awards include the 2000 OCA Chinese American Journalist Award and the 2001 AAJA National Award for New Media. She is also an AAJA Executive Leadership Graduate, a Western Knight Fellow at USC’s Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age, a National Press Photographers Association Visual Edge/Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media, and a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
More recently, Lia co-founded Bev’s Girl Films, which makes films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. She executive produced and starred in the indie films Hide and Seek (AA Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Best Actress Nomination), Rom-Com Gone Wrong, and When the World Was Young (2021 DisOrient Film Audience Choice Award for Best Short Narrative).
A retrospective of Lia’s photographs will be on view at the Museum of the City of New York later this year, documenting her BIPOC colleagues and contemporaries in the performing arts, which will include photos of Prospect Theater Company artists at work. www.liachang.com, www.liachangphotography.com
Lia Chang Photography 