Los Angeles' East West Players have announced that in partnership with API RISE, From Number to Name: Back to Life returns to stream live August 5-7.
Directing the work is Pulitzer Prize finalist, Drama Desk Award and Lucille Lortel Award winner Kristina Wong (Sweatshop Overlord), who devised the piece which reimagines the criminal justice system using stories from formerly incarcerated Asian Americans and members of the Asian Pacific Islander community affected by mass incarceration.
Starring in the production are Macy Boungert, Rose Brown, Tue Huynh, Kirn Kim, Woo Dong Lee, Maria Kanaka Luna, Anthony Nguyen, Tin Thang, Toby Thet, Irving Revlova, and Meenakshi Ramamurthy. The East West Players' production From Number to Name originally streamed in April, 2021. Members of that cast join new faces for this iteration featuring new stories and multimedia segments exclusive to this production.
Godfrey Santos Plata will serve as assistant director, joined by screen manager Juan Sebastian Bernal, with Jennifer Chiou as the production assistant.
“The impact of incarceration on API communities is rarely considered, because it’s a population that even Asian Americans don’t realize exists,” shares Wong in a statement. “But incarcerated and detained APIs is actually a growing population, and the stigma around incarceration in our communities makes it so much more difficult to address. I am thrilled to direct this project for the second year in a row, and literally make history by supporting this cast as they put their stories into record.”
The production will also feature talkbacks with API RISE, a nonprofit organization which focuses on empowering the Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander American communities, and specifically those impacted by the criminal justice system.
For tickets and more information, visit EastWestPlayers.org.
