Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery

Event Overview

Location

The Feb. 17 8 p.m. performance will be American Sign Language-interpreted.

Lecturer in Theater Peter Kim directs Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery, Lloyd Suh’s fantasia on Asian America, a satirical play that hilariously challenges racial stereotype and caricature. Featuring theater seniors Kathy Zhao as Kathy and Ross Barron as Chan, with costume design by senior Julia Peiperl. Performances are February 10, 11, 16, 17 & 18 at 8:00 p.m. in the Marie and Edward Matthews ’53 Acting Studio at 185 Nassau Street. The Feb. 17 8 p.m. performance will be American Sign Language-interpreted.

Tickets are available through University Ticketing online and at the Frist Campus Center box office: $12 general/$11 students & seniors when purchased in advance; $17 general/$15 students & seniors on the day of the performance or at the door. This event is Tiger Ticket eligible for Princeton students through Passport to the Arts.

VIDEO TRAILER

#tellustigers

#TellUsTigers: “I feel really hurt when people confuse me for other Asian women. I’ve had someone ask me how I say things “in your language.” My language is English, I’m an English major, I speak English with an American accent. Yet I’m still perceived as foreign. It was implicit from first grade that I would do well in school & go to an Ivy League school. For immigrants, I think a huge part of success is achieving a stable career & position in American society. An acceptance to an Ivy League school is one of those achievements. For parents, it means they succeeded as parents. My eye doctor said, ‘We Chinese parents don’t know what to do other than science, so we do science.’ I was on a pre-med track when I got to #PrincetonU. I didn’t tell my parents that I declared English & started taking theater courses until a few months later. My dad asked me, ‘When did you ever get interested in theater?’ Asian Americans are underrepresented in the media, the Oscars, movies & TV. This makes me feel more motivated to work towards diversity. A few friends & I started Princeton’s first Asian American theater company, East West Theater. For my senior thesis show, which opens Feb. 10 at the Lewis Center (@PrincetonArts), I play Kathy Ching in ‘Charles Francis Chan Jr’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery.’ Kathy has a monologue where she says that she wants to be an artist & contribute to the universal good of humanity. I think we’re most similar in that we both want to effect positive change through our performance art. The show is about challenging ‘yellowface’ & racist stereotypes but it speaks to a larger experience of exclusion & discrimination resulting from xenophobia. I told my director Peter Kim about the worries I had about my parents’ disapproval about my thesis show & he said, ‘I understand completely.’ It was so reassuring. He went through the same experience & succeeded in making a career in theater.” [Performances 8 p.m. Feb. 10-11; 16-18, costumes by @JuliaPieperl, Class of 2017. East West holds a theater symposium to discuss diversity, identity & representation 2-6 pm Feb. 11] — Kathy Zhao, Class of 2017 (@snappkat), Photo by Cindy Liu, Class of 2018 #Princetagram
A photo posted by Princeton University (@princeton_university) on Feb 10, 2017 at 11:59am PST