| GAF 2024 | Student Leadership Team | Artists | Events | Installation Views |
Tropopause
We’re at the nine-year mark since the end of the One Child Policy, a brutal violation against reproductive rights of women in China that lasted more than 30 years. Tropopause lives in the shadow of this blood-stained policy and the commercialized adoption pipeline behind it. At the same time, this story is an experiment of “Multilingual Theatre in Practice,” Dejing’s senior project. Using linguistics as a dramaturgy baseline, this play investigates the bilingual dynamics within the story in regards to linguistic and cultural code-switching, and moreover, beyond the story in regards to the making of bilingual theatre in this monolingual society. Tropopause wishes to become a radical yet reparative force against the current Western-centric, Anglophone monolingual discourse for the linguistics minorities, for the adoptees, for the eugenicized mothers.
Dejin Eloise Wang 王得静 (they/them) is a senior at NYU Gallatin, and this is their fourth year participating in the Gallatin Arts Festival. Their concentration, Translating Science on Stage, aims to explore the intersection between science and theatre, using science as a methodology for storytelling. Recent credits include 虚无的十字架 Hollow Cross (associate director, NYU CSSA GALA 2024), Anti-Gone 俺抬杠?! (director, Brandspankin’ New Works Festival), i want us both to eat well (director, BPPF), Penumbra (stage manager, PHTS), Stereotype Susceptibility (playwright/director, Gallatin Arts Festival 2022), Like Treason? (co-playwright/co-director, Gallatin Arts Festival 2021). Dejing would like to extend their gratitude to everyone who has supported them on this 17-month journey to bring Tropopause to life.
CAST
Jen Lee (she/her) is an educator, actress, director, writer, and journalist. She’s a second year graduate student studying Educational Theater at NYU Steinhardt and was trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute. She has a bachelor’s degree in Radio and TV Journalism and works for Washington Square News. Her recent directing projects include Stop Kiss, The Glass Menagerie, Treasure, Hollow Cross (Asst. Dir.). Her recent acting credits include leading roles in The Cabin for the FLOWFEST 2023 Program in NYC (produced by CHUANG Stage), Seattle Men’s Illustrated Book for Seattle First Chinese Comedy Festival (produced by Three Words Drama Club), The 1.5 Lives of Oliver Peters for Playwrights for Change Festival 2023 for American Alliance For Theater and Education (AATE), and ”In Between: A Collection of Short Plays” for Yun Theatre. Through leadership in the arts and education, she believes art explores humanity’s essence and amplifies love. @jenleejl
Vivian Hunt is an NYC-based actor, writer, and whimsy-maker—and she’s so excited to be a part of Tropopause! This story and these characters feel so close to her heart. Recent theater credits include Doula Monster (Theater for the New City), An Ideal Husband (Foul Fiend Theatre Troupe), Homebody (Tisch Student Works), dæmon (Tisch Drama) and Playwrights Horizons Theater School’s When Pieces of Us Come to Gather and Stay and Tales from the Other Country.
Lu Zhao (she/her) came from the beautiful coastal city of Qingdao in China. She began studying dancing, singing and the piano at the age 11. After graduating from college in 2008, she worked for Thailand Chinese TV station for two years in Bangkok. At present,she works as a reporter and news anchor, but remains devoted to performances on stage. 赵璐来自中國美丽的海滨城市青岛,从十一岁开始学习舞蹈、钢琴、声乐、架子鼓、表演。 2008年大学毕业之后在泰国中文电视台工作,雖然目也从事着电视行业有关的工作,但心中仍旧热爱着舞台,热爱它带给她的一切。
Yiwei Lu 陆一苇 (he/him) identifies himself not as an artist (艺术家), but a culture producer(文化工作者). He produces anachronistic literary pieces in search of the sublime across the East and the West; and he also produces historical theatrical pieces to critique the bourgeois melancholia rooted in his mind, as actor and playwright. He used to study classics, psychoanalysis, literature and theater, but he recently sold his soul to capitalism by going into law school, in vain hopes of buying it back one day with a company credit card or bitcoins. He now awaits a worldwide revolution to come and wash away his sins. Come pray for his sins on Instagram @fishermanlu
Anqi (she/them), a recent MFA acting graduate of ASDS Pace University, is a bilingual actor/singer based in NY. A recovering law school student hailing from China, Anqi cherishes her roots while also embodying many diverse characters. Anqi is thrilled to be in this production and be able to finally use the wooden fish she bought after a drunken night at a karaoke party. Off-Broadway: Constellations: Into the queer multiverse; Fefu and Her Friends; The Story of the Orca’s Silver Tongue. Regional: Hair, the musical. MV: Decisions (Young Devyn). Commercial: MTV, BoldVoice.
CREATIVE TEAM
Dramaturg: Zihe Tian (she/her)
Zihe is a NYU alum, now pursuing a MFA in Dramaturgy at Columbia University. She works as a dramaturg, artistic/cultural consultant, and voice director in theater, animations, games and radio dramas. She’s passionate about interdisciplinary art and presenting Classical Chinese culture and art across the world. She is honored to assist Eloise in this process.
Stage Manager: Carly Baker (She/Her) is a junior; her concentration is called “Theatrical Marketing and Producing”. She was a stage manager last year for Gallatin Theatre Troupe’s Zombie Prom and is honored to be on the executive board this year as Marketing Director. She was a social media intern last spring with Lamplighters NYU. This year she is stage managing with Broke People Play Festival and on the student leadership team for Gallatin Arts Festival. Carly is an avid theatre lover and is inspired by pieces like this bringing authentic Asian storylines to the stage and so happy to be a part of this piece and GAF 2024.