Tiger Plus by Chinese Theater Works Nov. 29 @ 9:30, Nov. 30 @ 8:00, Dec. 1 @ 9:30, Dec. 2 @ 3:00

An Evening of Overhead Projection "Tiger Tales" A wise old rabbit tells her grand-daughter some of her adventures, recounting with verve and a sly, subversive humor some of the episodes surrounding Tiger’s rise to power, his abusive rule and ultimate downfall. This shadow theater piece, using figures modeled on antiques from our collection, deals humorously with issues of power and survival of the small and powerless in today’s modern jungle. "The Turkey Vulture" The NYC premiere of a short piece about savage birds and the people who love them. CTW's Stephen Kaplin brings his award-winning design talent to Suzan-Lori Parks' "365 Plays in 365 Days" Project. ABOUT THE COMPANY Chinese Theatre Works is a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve and promote the traditional Chinese performing arts (including opera, shadow theatre, puppetry, dance and music); to create new works that bridge Eastern and Western aesthetics and forms; and to foster understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture in audiences, students, artists and educators around the globe. CTW productions have toured throughout North America and to Europe, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. The company has been honored in 2001 with a UNIMA Citation of Excellence in Puppetry Art for its production of "Toy Theatre Peony Pavilion", and in 2005 with four awards at the First International Shadow Play Festival in Tangshan, China for "Three Women, Many Plays" and "Tiger Tales". Our website is www.chinesetheatreworks.org. To contact us, e-mail us at ChineseThtrWks@aol.com, or call (718) 392-3493. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Kuang-Yu Fong majored in Chinese Opera at the Chinese Cultural University in Taiwan, specializing in the “Hau San” female singing and dancing roles. She studied under famous masters from the Fu Lien Cheng Peking Opera School in Beijing including Sun Yuen Bing and Sun Yuen Pua, and with other masters such as Wong Jing Zhi (a disciple of Mei Lan Fang) and Kun Opera master Xu Yen Zhi. After receiving her B.A. from Chinese Cultural University, she taught Chinese Opera movement in the Chinese Theater Department there for four years. She completed her formal training with an M.A. in Educational Theater from N.Y.U. She has taught at Pace University since 1990. Ms. Fong has conceived and directed many original, innovative productions, from "Kasper as a Banana" (1993) through "Book of Songs" (2006), including "Toy Theater Peony Pavilion", which won a 2001 UNIMA-USA Citation of Excellence in Puppetry, and "Tiger Tales" (2002) and "Three Women, Many Plays" (2005), which between them won four awards at the First International Shadow Theatre Festival in Tangshan, China in 2005. She has toured and taught all over the United States and in Asia and Europe. Ms. Fong founded Chinese Theatre Workshop in 1990, became co-Artistic Director of the Gold Mountain Institute’s Yueh Lung Shadow Theater in 1999, and since the merger of the two companies in 2001 has been Executive Director and co-Artistic Director of Chinese Theatre Works. Since 2003, she has served on the Board of UNIMA-USA, the international puppetry organization’s U.S. branch. Ms. Fong’s first book (with Stephen Kaplin) is "Tabletop Theater: Puppetry for Small Places" (2003). Stephen Kaplin designs, builds, performs and directs for puppet theater. He studied puppetry at UCONN under Dr. Frank Ballard. Recent professional credits include: designing and building giant puppets for TIMES SQUARE 2000; building shadow figures and puppet sequences for Julie Taymor's "Lion King", "Juan Darien" and "The Green Bird"; designing shadow sequences for Lee Breuer's "Peter and Wendy"; co-design and construction of puppets for the Public Theater's "The Tempest" and "The Caucasian Chalk Circle"; and puppetry design for Ping Chong’s "Cathay" (for which he received a 2006 Henry Hewes Award for Notable Effects. Since 1995 he has designed sets and puppets and performed in all CTW productions. Mr. Kaplin is a co-founding member of Great Small Works. He has been co-Artistic Director of Chinese Theatre Works since its formation in 2001. Mr. Kaplin’s first book (with Kuang-Yu Fong), "Tabletop Theater: Puppetry for Small Places", was published in 2003. Shuyun Cheng worked for ten years at Shiny Shoes Children’s Theater in Taiwan as a TV program producer, theater producer, scriptwriter, children’s theater teacher, puppet designer and puppeteer. Her TV production “Hi, Anybody at Home?” was nominated for an Emmy award. Another program, “A-Go-Go Theater”, was selected as Taiwan’s Best Children’s TV Program of 2000. Since moving to the U.S. and graduating from NYU’s Educational Theatre Program, she has worked as a teaching artist for the New Victory Theatre and elsewhere. Ms. Cheng has worked with CTW since 2001, appearing in almost all of the company’s puppetry productions, designing and co-writing the Zodiac! shows and coordinating the Arts in Education program. She has performed with CTW in New York City at the Provincetown Playhouse and many other venues, and toured across the U.S. and to Korea, China and Taiwan. Morgan Eckert is currently earning her MA in Educational Theatre at New York University. Prior to this, she worked as a puppeteer, actress and educator for McCarter Theatre Center, Mum Puppettheatre, Pig Iron Theatre Company as well as others. She debuted with CTW in "Monkey King in America: Day Jobs, Opera Dreams" and has performed since then in "Tiger Tales", "Book of Songs", "Ti-Oh-Oh" and "Songs from the Yellow Earth".