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East West Players (EWP), one of the nation’s oldest theaters of color and the largest producer of Asian American theatrical works, presents Kairos, by Lisa Sanaye Dring and directed by Jesca Prudencio. East West Players produces Kairos as a part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The dystopian love story, supported in part by the S. Mark Taper Foundation, is the first production of East West Players’ 2024 Season. Kairos premieres at the David Henry Hwang Theater April 4 through April 28, 2024 with opening night on Sunday, April 7, 2024.
Kairos, by Lisa Sanaye Dring (Rogue Artists Ensemble & EWP’s Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin, La Jolla Playhouse’s SUMO) and directed by Jesca Prudencio (EWP’s Interstate: A New Musical & Man of God), is the story of two people falling in love during a tectonic shift in society. Their nascent relationship is tested by the advent of Prometheus, a procedure that grants immortality to a select few. What happens to commitment, meaning, and care when linear time breaks open? At once a dystopian science-fiction play and a dark-comedy love story, Kairos is a deeply sensitive investigation of two humans whose ideal “happily-ever-after” is terrifyingly outpaced by relentless technological and societal upheaval.
Lisa Sanaye Dring, a longtime member of the East West Players community as both a performer and teaching artist, makes her EWP playwriting debut as the inaugural production of our mainstage 2024 Season. Kairos was originally developed as part of the Geffen Playhouse’s Writers’ Room 2021/2022.
Kairos is produced at East West Players as part of a National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere. Other Partner Theaters are Know Theatre of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) and Theatre Nova (Ann Arbor, MI). For more information, please visit nnpn.org. This production is supported in part by the S. Mark Taper Foundation.
Tickets to Kairos may be purchased online at eastwestplayers.org or by calling (213) 625-7000.
The cast of Kairos is led by Sylvia Kwan* (ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, EWP’s Vietgone, Signature Theatre’s King of the Yees) as Gina and Gerard Joseph* (Geffen Playhouse’s The First Deep Breath; Antaeus Theater Company’s SHE, Everybody, & 90027: Griffith Park) as David. Kairos features Ren Hanami* (EWP’s Company, Performance Anxiety, & Canton Jazz Club; CBS’s Star Trek: Picard; Disney’s Bunk’d) as Woman and William L. Warren (The Road Theatre Company’s Scintilla, The McCadden Place Theatre’s The Language Archive, Long Beach Playhouse’s Sister Act & Seven Guitars) as Man. Julie Zhan (The CW’s Walker: Independence, FOX’s The Resident) understudies the role of Gina while Zachary Bones (Howard Ho’s RESET, Ghost Road Company’s Super Duper) understudies the role of David.
The creative team includes direction by Jesca Prudencio^ (EWP’s Interstate: A New Musical & Man of God), assistant direction by Tyree Marshall (EWP’s Spring Awakening), scenic design by Yi-Chien Lee (EWP’s On This Side of the World, Diversionary Theatre’s Dragon Mama, Sierra Madre Playhouse’s King of the Yees), properties design by Zane Wayneright (Kirk Douglas Theatre, Disney), costume design by Ashphord Jacoway (EWP’s The Sitayana (Or How to Make an Exit), EWP Theatre for Youth’s Tam Tran goes Washington, Artists at Play’s Two Mile Hollow), lighting design by Szu-Yun Wang (EWP’s On This Side of the World; Long Beach Playhouse’s RENT, Urinetown, Company, Sister Act), sound design & original music by Steven Leffue (Diversionary Theatre’s TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX, Cygnet Theater’s Angels in America, Parts 1 & 2, La Jolla Playhouse’s Waiting for Godot), stage management by Brandon Hong Cheng* (EWP’s Spring Awakening, Interstate: A New Musical, Assassins, Man of God; CTG’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord), and assistant stage management by Irene DH Lee (EWP’s Spring Awakening).
