DIS-ORIENTED: A trio of solo performances by Asian-American women

"DIS-oriented"
A trio of solo performances by Asian-American women


Friday, May 14 @ 8pm
Presented by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/103889


DIS-ORIENTED. Cultural indigestion, color-blindness and inter-ethnic vertigo. Is there a cure? Is it treatable? Is it contagious? That's what three women, Zahra, Thao and Coke -- Iranian, Vietnamese and Okinawan/Japanese -- try to find out as they aim to DIS-orient themselves from external stereotypes and internal expectations.

This show features a dynamic trio of performers whose individual solo pieces will lead you across a Muslim-Atheist supper table, the Mekong Delta, and Diagnostic Systems of Sexual Dysfunction. In between each solo performance are smart and biting vignettes -- comic sketches, audience improv games, and contemporary dance -- that will leave you happy to be as DIS-oriented as they are.

DIS-oriented is a performance presented by the San Francisco Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center as a part of the 13th Annual United States of Asian America Festival, a month-long tribute to Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May in the United States).


THE PERFORMANCES:

"All Atheists Are Muslim"
Written & performed by ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH.
How hard can it be for Zahra, an Iranian Muslim girl in her mid-twenties, to move-in with her Atheist White-American boyfriend and cheerfully tell her father that she doesn't need his blessing?

"Soft Tissue"
Written & performed by COLLEEN “Coke” NAKAMOTO.
What's a woman to do when her vagina says 'No!' and refuses to come out and play? See what happens when one girl's dreams of true love and professional go-go dancing get derailed by speculums, visiting spirits and the F word.

"Fortunate Daughter"
Written & performed by THAO P. NGUYEN
Thao, 25, wakes up on a good morning in Vietnam, dons her full-metal jacket and goes deer hunting on Hamburger Hill with Forrest Gump and Martin Sheen. Only she survives. Later, her mom takes her to meet her grandmother for the first time.


WHERE:
Mission Cultural Center
2868 Mission St, San Francisco
One block from 24th & Mission BART


TICKETS:
$15 General Admission.
$20 Patron of the Arts.
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/103889


DISCOUNT:
Discount code: twofortwenty
Offer: $20 for a set of two tickets.
Group rates also available online:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/103889


THE PERFORMERS:

ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH is a solo-performer and stand-up comedian, who's performed with Maz Jobrani from the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, and Shazia Mirza from Last Comic Standing. Her one-woman show "Hijab and Hammerpants," recently debuted at the SF Theater Festival, under the direction of W. Kamau Bell (SF Weekly's performer of the year, 2008). Find out more about her comedy and solo shows at http://www.zahracomedy.com.

COLLEEN "Coke" NAKAMOTO is a solo performer, curious about where words meet the body. Coke has presented her work at the David Henry Wangle Theater (LA), the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts (Carmel), and locally at NOHSpace, Stagewerx, CounterPULSE (Words First, APAture, Asian American Dance Performances), The Marsh, SOMArts (APICC/Eth-Noh-Tec), the San Francisco Theater Festival, and the Joyce Gordon Gallery (For Colored Girls Only). “Soft Tissue” is the second piece she has developed under the direction of W. Kamau Bell and the Solo Performance Workshop.

THAO P. NGUYEN has been writing and performing solo shows since she joined the Solo Performance Workshop in 2007. Her director, the critically acclaimed W. Kamau Bell ("Four Stars" in Time Out New York and SF Chronicle), has awarded her with the coveted "W. Kamau Bell Solo Performance Black Belt," a distinction which to this date has been awarded only four times. She also co-produces two monthly solo performance series in San Francisco: "Words First" at CounterPULSE and "City Solo" at Off-Market Theater.


http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/103889