PrideArts’ 2022-23 season will close with the US Premiere of TANGO by Singaporean-born and London-based playwright Joel Tan. Described as one of the most exciting Singapore playwrights of his generation, the 36-year-old Tan has received acclaim for his plays’ lyrical and incisive interrogation of his home city’s politics and society. TANGO will be directed by Singaporean-born Chicago-based director and dramaturg Carol Ann Tan. TANGO is inspired by the Blog “4 Relative Strangers” by James D. Williams and based loosely on the experiences of a real-life gay male couple with two adopted sons who moved their family to Singapore, a country with no protections or legal recognition for non-normative families. Singapore offers uneven levels of acceptance for LGBTQ lives and thus has what the playwright calls “an ongoing and exhausting public debate about LGBTQ equality.” In TANGO, an elderly waitress insults a male couple and suggests the relationship with their adopted son is immoral. The incident becomes a social media sensation that causes havoc in the lives of the gay couple, their son, the couple’s father/father in-law, the waitress, and the nephew she has raised like a son. Press opening will be May 15, 2023, at 7:30 pm, following previews from May 11-14, and it will play through June 11, 2023.
PrideArts and director Tan have assembled a cast that includes Singaporean– born and other Asian -American actors to play the six Singaporeans among Joel Tan’s eight richly-drawn and deeply human characters. The two married men that are the targets of the waitress’s homophobic slur will be played by G Hao Lee, as the Singaporean-born Kenneth; and Mike Newquist as his British-born husband, Liam. Newquist is a veteran of the Chicago storefront scene who has performed with such companies as Aston Rep, The Comrades, Raven, Pride Films & Plays, Jackalope, Strawdog, and Mary-Arrchie. Lee is a recent transplant from Sydney, Australia who is making his Chicago debut. Luke Gerdes, a recent graduate of CCPA, will play their British-born adopted son, Jayden. Kenneth’s father, Richard, struggling to rebuild his relationship with his son, bond with his adopted grandson, and learn to use social media, will be played by Cai Yong. Yong was born and raised in Singapore and will be making his professional acting debut in TANGO.
In the role of the waitress Lee Poh Lin is the Chinese American actress Rainey Song, co-founder of AlMarte Productions, a Chicago-based arts and entertainment company. Her nephew Benmin, a man who is coming to terms with his sexual orientation, will be played by Oscar Hew, a Singaporean actor and a recent graduate of the Chicago College of Performing Arts who appeared in last fall’s NATIONAL MERIT by BoHo Theatre.
Carolyn Hu Bradbury, whose credits include WHITE MONKEY and MASKS OFF(Goodman Theatre Playwright’s Unit), PASSAGE (Remy Bumppo Theatre), and FAST COMPANY (Jackalope Theatre); will play Kenneth and Liam’s Lesbian friend Elaine. Zul, a young Singaporean gay man who awakens Benmin’s sexual desires after they meet online, will be played by Ronnie Derrick Lyall. Lyall’s credits include MACBETH (Fearless Fiction Productions); VALENTINE'S DAY (Bernath Media); and COMEDY LIGHTS THE DARK (MadTactics Technology and Media).
Top row left-right: Luke Gerdes, Oscar Hew, Carolyn Hu Bradbury, G Hao Lee.
Lower row left-right: Ronnie Derrick Lyall, Mike Newquist, Rainey Song, Cai Yong.
The production team for TANGO includes Elliot Hubiak (Lighting Design), Val Gardner (Sound Design), Savanna Nix (Costume Design), Hannah Dains (Properties Design), Kayla Menz (Intimacy Director), James Stone (Dialect Coach), Carol Ann Tan (Scenic Concept), MaK Eddins (Lead Electrician), Brett Baleskie (Technical Director), and Jacob Sexton (Stage Manager).
Performances will be Thursdays – Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 3 pm, and Wednesday, June 7 at 7:30 pm from May11 through June 11, 2023, at Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago. Tickets are $35 for regular performances, $25 for previews (May 11-14). Seniors and students receive a $5 discount off regular performance prices. Tickets will be on sale soon at www.pridearts.org.
Director Carol Ann Tan says, “Joel Tan's TANGO depicts a world under pressure: a world with strictly defined norms and a low tolerance for deviance, all filtered through the endless exposure of social media and the 24-hour news cycle. At its heart, TANGO asks us to consider the meaning of home. Is it possible to still call someone or something home after they have failed you, betrayed you, and simply let you down? I cannot wait to share this uniquely Singaporean story—a piece of my own home—with Chicago audiences.”
LISTING INFORMATION
TANGO
By Joel Tan
Inspired by the Blog “4 Relative Strangers” by James D. Williams
US PREMIERE
Directed by Carol Ann Tan
May 11–June 11, 2023
Press Opening May 15, 2023, at 7:30 pm
Regular run May 15–June 11, 2023
Curtain times Thursdays–Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago
Tickets $35 for regular performances, $25 for previews. Seniors and students receive a $5 discount off regular performance prices. Tickets and more information at www.pridearts.org.
773-857-0222
Gay Londoners Kenneth and Liam and their son Jayden relocate to Singapore to spend time with Kenneth’s ailing dad. It’s not a happy situation. Kenneth has a dark hate-hate relationship with Singapore, and the city’s tetchy policies around homosexuality present towering administrative hurdles. Then, a homophobic encounter with an elderly waitress launches the family into a social media war between ideological factions. Meanwhile, Poh Lin, the waitress, is caught in the same storm, and weathers it with her closeted nephew, Benmin.
BIOS
Carol Ann Tan (“Cat”), (Director) is a Singapore-born director, writer, and dramaturg. Directing credits include WOLF PLAY, CONSTELLATIONS, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (Brown/Trinity), TWO MILE FOLLOW, GOLF GIRL, (Brown University), AMPHITRYON (Theater at Monmouth), WARRIOR CLASS (The Comrades), DOMESTIC DEPARTURE (Haven Theatre), APARTMENT COMPLEX, and DOMESTIC DEPARTURE (University of Chicago). As a writer, Cat's plays include TRUMP CARD, APARTMENT COMPLEX, and DOMESTIC DEPARTURE. Cat’s plays have been performed at Haven Theatre, Other Theatre, Brown/Trinity, North Central College, and the University of Chicago. DOMESTIC DEPARTURE was awarded second place for the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize. As a dramaturg, Cat has worked with Writers Theatre, Silk Road Rising, TimeLine Theatre, the Gift Theatre, Sideshow Theatre, First Floor Theater, SoloChicago Theatre, and more. Cat is an artistic associate with Silk Road Rising and a 2017/18 Directors Inclusion Initiate at Victory Gardens. MFA Directing: Brown/Trinity. Carolanntan.com
Joel Tan (Playwright) is a Singapore playwright and performer based in London. Recent productions of his plays include TANGO (Pangdemonium, 2017), CAFE (The Twenty-Something Theatre Festival, 2016), MOSAIC (The M1 Fringe Festival, 2015), and THE WAY WE GO (Checkpoint Theatre, 2014). His plays have received acclaim for their range and complex insight on contemporary Singapore, and several are collected in JOEL TAN: PLAYS VOLUME 1, published by Checkpoint Theatre, where he is an Associate Artist.
Jay Españo (PrideArts Artístic Director). Born in Manila, The Philippines, he joined the prestigious Tanghalang Pilipino’s Actors Company in 1998, where he trained with acclaimed Filipino director Nonon Padilla. He acted in several commercials, television series and films. Notably, he was a regular cast member of Koko KwikKwak - a spin-off of Batibot (Philippine SESAME STREET). He toured The Philippines with that show’s mascots, performing for kids throughout the country. In 2000, Jay was one of many Filipino actors who were cast in the Action Theater Singapore’s hit musical CHANG AND ENG, which toured Asia for several years.
Since moving to the Chicago area, Jay has worked with storefront theater companies such as Silk Road Rising, Prologue, Ghostlight, Halcyon, and PrideArts. He has played the role of the King in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s THE KING AND I with various theater companies in the US and in Canada.
ABOUT PRIDEARTS
PrideArts tells queer stories on a variety of platforms, including both live and virtual performances. Since its founding in 2010, PrideArts has had several chapters, including operating as an itinerant theater for their first six seasons, and as the developer and primary tenant in the Pride Arts Center from 2016 to the present.
The company produces full seasons of plays and musicals, as well as events including cabaret, film, and more. The company has earned 39 Jeff Awards and nominations, and six nominations in the 2019 ALTA Awards from the Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists of Chicago. Programming has reflected the diversity of queer communities by including work made by and illuminating the experiences of women, gay men, transgender people, and BIPOC.
PrideArts is supported by Illinois Arts Council, a State Agency; City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), Alphawood Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Arts Work Fund, Driehaus Foundation, The Saints.
PrideArts is a member of Buena Park Neighborhood Association, Uptown United, Northalsted Merchants Association, League of Chicago Theaters, Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce of Illinois, Lakeview East Merchants Association.
For more information and to donate, visit www.pridearts.org or call 1.773 857 0222.