Ping Chong’s Chinoiserie Redux: Screening and Discussion

Chinoiserie Redux is a digital film created by Ping Chong inspired by his earlier theatrical work, Chinoiserie, which was part of a series known as The East/West Quartet. Chinoiserie Redux connects the present day and the personal with an historical past still being felt today. The film’s narrative weaves personal reflections, music and song, with historical strands, such as the opium war, the building of the railroads across the USA, the murder of Vincent Chin, and the mythical birth of tea, among other things. 

Join us for a screening of the film, followed by a discussion with Ping and Revelations Production co-founder Kristina Varshavskaya.

Bios

Ping Chong is an internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary artist, and founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of Ping Chong and Company in New York City. In 1972, Ping Chong gathered a group of artists at Meredith Monk’s loft in New York City to create Lazarus, his first independent theatre work.  Since then, he has created over 100 major works for the stage. Over the years, his explorations have also included video and visual arts installations. In 1992, Chong created the first Undesirable Elements production in an ongoing series of community-based oral history projects exploring culture and identity. Chong's published works include The East West Quartet and a volume on Undesirable Elements. The first comprehensive volume on his body of work, The Interdisciplinary Theatre of Ping Chong: Exploring Curiosity and Otherness on Stage by Yuko Kurahashi, was released in 2019.

Ping Chong is the recipient of two BESSIE awards, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, and the 2014 National Medal of Arts, awarded by President Barack Obama. In 2022, Ping Chong and Company celebrated Chong’s 50th anniversary as a visionary artist with Lazarus 1972 — 2022, a re-imaging of the production that set in motion his boundary-shattering career and marked his final work with the Company before his retirement from the role of Artistic Director. On February 27, 2023, Ping Chong received an OBIE award, his third, for Lifetime Achievement.

Kristina Varshavskaya is a co-founder of Revelations Production, an independent multimedia company that creates and works with artists from all over the world while promoting inclusivity, diversity, justice, and creative freedom. Her passion for digital media and creating comes from inspirations from film, editing, dance, theater, exhibitions and different forms of artistic creativity. Her recent works include award winning web series Amongst Angels Demons and Those in Between, collaboration with Ping Chong on an award-winning short Nocturne in 1200 seconds, and new and exciting collaborations underway.

She holds a BA in Theater from Brooklyn College with concentration on stage management, and has worked with multiple productions and organizations such as NYU Tisch, LaMaMa, Ron K Brown, New Settlement, NYU Steinhardt, Lincoln Center, The New School, and many others. 

Ping Chong and Company (PCC) creates theater and art that reveal beauty, invention, precision, and a commitment to social justice. Originally founded in in New York City in 1975 by leading theatrical innovator Ping Chong, today, the company is a highly adaptive and supportive home base for multigenerational, interdisciplinary artists with generative theater practices. The company’s work is centered on innovation, collaboration, and community engagement.