World Premiere of Hilot Means Healer (Cahoots Theatre in association with b current performing arts) at the Theatre Centre, October 2019.
Photo credits: Seanna Kennedy and Dahlia Katz
“Under director Jasmine Chen, Hilot shifts between timelines and dimensions. These transitions are made with dramatic shifts in lighting by designer Jareth Li and the incredible live accompaniment by composer MaryCarl Guiao… Folklore and spiritual narratives are dramatically told and recreated… The second act of the play is action-packed as the realities of living under occupation and intergenerational trauma all come to a head.” - Samantha Edwards
NOW Magazine NNNN
“Director Jasmine Chen has mounted a solid production of a complex story. The scene changes are smooth, and an effortless cohesion allows the audience to experience both the reality of the Japanese occupation in Manila and the healing needed for future generations to thrive…The unfamiliar sounds, rhythms, and beats ratchet up the already intense emotion, accelerating our connection with the trauma of war.” Sesayarts
“Hilot takes its audience on an emotional journey… accentuated by the haunting set design of Jung-Hye Kim and the affecting sound design by MaryCarl Guiao, who brings the Philippines’ dying art of Obo Manuvu kulintang music to the stage for the first time in Canada… A densely-knit and painstakingly-detailed production… HILOT has a splash of magical realism, historical testament, spiritual homage, and the beginnings of ancestral healing all wrapped in a two-hour play.” - Justine Abigail Yu Intermission Magazine
Photo Credit: Cesar Ghisilieri
Yellow Rabbit (Soulpepper/Silk Bath 2018) enjoyed a sold-out run at The Young Centre for the Performing Arts.
"YELLOW RABBIT's ability to establish a cruel world, fuelled by racism from external and internalized sources, is better than some full-length feature films" - Broadway World
"Chilling, timely, relevant" - Mooney On Theatre
“The director, Jasmine Chen, makes skilful use of multiple elements—blocking on the stage, projected images, and sound—to frame strong performances by all four actors, who quickly evoke the a whole range of conflicting emotions that burst forth when dealing with issues as charged as race and sexuality.” - Graham Sanders Plays to See
"Provocative, darkly funny ... heartbreaking" - life with more cowbell
“The staging of striking barriers—both stone and silk—trap Man and Woman (and the audience) in sets made of diegetic video projection and clips. As characters speak, translated subtitles move above them and command the eye in a dance between movement, character, and context. For a setting much talked about but ultimately never seen by Man and Woman, Rich Man’s Hill is figuratively and literally cinematic. The effect is a prettily executed and affective nod to the ways in which the tyranny of the moving image has eaten the diasporic imagination into executive logics of thought.” Alt Theatre
CBC Coverage: Our Interview with CBC Arts
In 2016/2017 I created/directed The Mother Tongue Project, produced by Then They Fight Theatre, which enjoyed a sold-out run at the Black Cat Artspace. The Mother Tongue Project continued its development within the Cahoots Theatre Hot House Program. It received a community showing at the LIFT OFF! Festival 2017 at the Scarborough Civic Centre. It continued its development at the Gateway Theatre in February 2019 directed by Jiv Parasram.
BITE HARD: The Justin Chin Project is currently being developed at b current performing arts. The Bite Hard Collective were resident artists at Lemontree Creations in 2017. BITE HARD is a multilingual piano-poetry-drag-theatre smash up that subverts stereotypes, challenges expectations and examines the complex intersection of Queer and Asian identity. Using three pianos and the poetry of Justin Chin, three ferocious performers navigate the private spaces where the personal is political.
Production Stills from Le Ba-Ta-Clan with Opera 5. Photography by: Emily Ding
Le Ba-Ta-Clan | Director | Opera 5
Musik Für Das Ende | Assistant Director to Chris Abraham | Crow's Theatre and Soundstreams
In 2015/16 I was a member of the inaugural FACTORY FOREMEN Emerging Directors Unit at Factory Theatre. Masterclasses were taught by Nina Lee Aquino, Ric Knowles, Camellia Koo and Soheil Parsa. As part of the program I assisted Peter Hinton on Bombay Black (Dora Nominations for Best Direction, Best Lighting Design, Outstanding Performance -Female). As our final project, I workshopped and directed Yolanda Bonnell's Scanner for FACTORY WIRED, Factory's annual festival of new work.
Bombay Black | Assistant Director to Peter Hinton | Factory Theatre
Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots |
Assistant Director to Michael Mori | Tapestry Opera
In Pace Requiescat | Assistant Director to Aria Umezawa| Opera 5
Remount of The Penelopiad | Assistant Director to Kelly Thorton | Nightwood Theatre
Canadian Premiere of Feng Yi Ting | Assistant Director to Atom Egoyan | Luminato
World Premiere Enter the Shadow | Associate Director with Lee Pham and Jon Reid | Harbourfront Centre
North American Premiere of Stockholm | Assistant Director to Kelly Straughan | Seventh Stage Productions