The Golden Dragon

May 9–June 10, 2013
GermanyU.S. Premiere
In a tiny Asian take-out, a kitchen worker’s toothache leads to a botched extraction, blazing a trail of intrigue through the dining room and out into the world beyond. Five actors create a kaleidoscope of characters in this surreal and darkly hilarious portrait of migration and human connection
Meet the Artists

Roland Schimmelpfennig (Playwright) is one of the most produced European playwrights. His plays have been translated into over 20 languages and he made his US debut in 2007 with a production of his play Arabian Nights, produced by NYC’s Play Company. He first worked as a freelance journalist and author in Istanbul before studying as a theatre director in Munich’s Otto Falkenberg School in 1990. He then became an assistant director and later a member of the artistic team at Munich’s Kammerspiele. Roland Schimmelpfennig was then engaged as dramaturg and author at the Berlin Schaubühne for the 1999/2000 season and was resident playwright at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In 2010, Schimmelpfennig was awarded the Mühlheimer Dramatists Award for his play The Golden Dragon. The play premiered at the Burgtheater Vienna last season and has since received more than 20 productions worldwide. He just finished a commission for the Tokyo National Theater and the Burgtheater in Vienna. Schimmelpfennig is the recipient of the Else-Lasker-Schüler-Prize, the highest Playwriting Award in Germany, to honor his entire oeuvre.

Ed Sylvanus Iskander (Director) is a two-time Drama Desk nominee as Outstanding Director of the NY premieres of Sean Graney's These Seven Sicknesses and Amy Freed's Restoration Comedy (both at The
Flea). As Founding Artistic Director of groundbreaking NYC theatre collective Exit, Pursued by a Bear (EPbB), he incubated first stagings of Restoration Comedy, These Seven Sicknesses, Jason Williamson’s Lesser Mercies and Arok of Java, King Lear and Jeff Whity's The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler starring Whitty and Billy Porter (all NY premieres). Ed is an Artist-in-Residence with Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) and a New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Usual Suspect. Past honors: NYTW Emerging Artist Fellow, Drama League Directing Fellow, two-time Resident Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), alumnus of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and recipient of the Robert M. Golden Medal and the Sherifa Omade Edoga
Prize. Ed has taught at Stanford (BA Modern Thought & Literature) and Carnegie Mellon (MFA Directing). Upcoming: World premiere of Gabriel Jason Dean's Bacha Bazi (Broadway option, Davenport Theatrical).
Productions in 2013: NY premieres of Jason Williamson's Greater Angels (EPbB, recipient of EST/Sloan Foundation Grant), the international premiere of David Ives' Venus in Fur (SRT), Adam Gwon’s Untitled Cabaret (54 Below), Ismail Khalidi's

David Tushingham (Translator) works as a dramaturg and curator for the Salzburg Festival and the Duesseldorfer Schauspielhaus. He has adapted Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories for The National Theatre, London and translated plays by Roland Schimmelpfennig, Dea Loher, Falk
Richter and numerous other contemporary German playwrights. His recent translation of Roland Schimmelpfennig's The Golden Dragon has been performed in London, Edinburgh, Washington D.C., Toronto, Pittsburgh, Melbourne and on tour in India, Kurdistan and Ireland.

His favorite credits include: EPBB's King Lear starring Billy Porter (Dir. Ed Iskandar); Our Town (Dir. David Cromer); Playwrights Horizons' and the Vineyard Theater's coproduction of the Burnt Part Boys (Lucille Lortel Nom.); Yosemite (Rattlestick); and Ace: The Musical (St. Louis Rep., Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and The Old Globe) for which he received a Kevin Klein Award, a Cincinnati Entertainment Award, and an Acclaim Award. Love to the UWS clan, stewart, station 3, and JET.

Peter Kim (Actor) is an accomplished actor and award-winning producer. As NAATCO’s creative producer, the company has received numerous awards and nominations. As an actor, he has originated roles in world and NYC premieres Off-Broadway and regionally. Film/TV include BROS, The Forty-Year-Old Version, The God Committee, Saturday Church, Margin Call, Sex and the City, Hackers, Chicago Med, Ugly Betty, and L&O: CI. Peter is the recipient of TCG’s 2020 Rising Leaders of Color grant, a Founding Member of AAPAC and holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

K.K. Moggie (Actor) Off Broadway includes: Preparedness (Bushwick Starr) Eureka Day (Colt Coeur), Passage (Soho Rep), The Gravediggers Lullaby (The Actors Company) Daphne’s Dive (Signature Theater) Charles Francis Chan Jr’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery (NAATCO), One Night (Cherry Lane), The Golden Dragon (The Play Company), Bottom of the World (Atlantic Theater Company), Grace (MCC), Richard III (Classic Stage Company) Regional: Mary Stuart (title role, Chicago Shakespeare Theater) Film: Shackled, After Party, Home, Anna and the King, The Sleeping Dictionary T.V includes: Gotham Knights (Upcoming) (CW), Inventing Anna (Netflix), Bull (CBS), God Friended Me (CBS) The Good Wife (CBS), Gossip Girl (CW), Mercy (NBC), White Collar (USA)

Stephen Duff Webber (Actor) New York: Death and the Ploughman (CSC); War of the Worlds (BAM); Culture of Desire (NYTW); Radio Macbeth (Public); Trojan Women 2.0 (En Garde Arts); Freshwater (Women’s Project); Hotel Cassiopeia (BAM); American Document (Joyce); Antigone (DTW); Under Construction (DTW); Radio Play (Joe’s Pub). SITI CO: A Rite (Bill T Jones); Café Variations; bobrauschenbergamerica; systems/layers; La Dispute; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Cabin Pressure; Going Going Gone; The Medium; Private Lives; Hay Fever. Regional: ART, ATL, MRT, San Jose Rep, Magic Theater, Kennedy Center, Portland Stage, ASF, Court Theatre, Stage West.

Welker White (Actor) Theater: Originated roles in plays by Craig Lucas, Keith Reddin, John Patrick Shanley, Sam Shepard, Howard Korder, David Ives, Mac Wellman, Joanna Murray-Smith, Amy Freed, Lisa Kron. Film and television: Goodfellas, Dead Poet’s Society, Eat Pray Love, I Think I Love My
Wife, Morning Glory, Cedar Rapids, Wolf of Wall Street, many “Law and Order”s, “Sex and the City”, etc. Education: NYU Tisch, BS in Theater Studies from CUNY, and an MFA in directing from Brooklyn College.

Mimi Lien (Set Designer) is a designer of sets/environments for theater, dance and opera. Arriving at set design from a background in architecture, her work often focuses on the interaction between audience/environment and object/performer. She is an artistic associate with Pig Iron Theatre Company, and co-founder of JACK, a performance/art space in Brooklyn. Recent work includes Appropriate (Mark Taper Forum), John (Signature Theatre), Preludes, The Oldest Boy (Lincoln Center), An Octoroon (Soho Rep/TFANA) and Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Lien's designs for dance have been presented in the Netherlands, Russia and Taiwan, and her stage designs have been exhibited in the Prague Quadrennial. Lien is a recipient of the Joan and Joseph F. Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity at Lincoln Center, Lucille Lortel Award, American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award and Barrymore Award. She is a recipient of an OBIE Award and a 2015 MacArthur fellowship.

Loren Shaw is a two time Drama Desk Nominated Costume Designer, based in New York City. She is one of the founding members and resident costume designer for Exit, Pursued by a Bear, a socially immersive New York theater collective. Loren's background in fine art and dance has inspired her work, which is known for being bold, imaginative and sometimes truly outrageous. Her primary focus is on new plays and musicals for off-Broadway and regional theaters across the country; however, her career has recently expanded to the world of dance and opera.

Nicole Pearce (Lighting Designer) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Queens, NY. Her work has been seen across the United States, Cuba, England, Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy, New Zealand, and Russia. Recent works include The Look of Love choreographed by Mark Morris with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Catch Me If You Can Directed by Molly Smith with Arena Stage, and Children’s Songs by Choreographed by Jessica Lang with American Ballet Theatre. Her installation of 1,000 paintings entitled Tiny Paintings for Big Hearts is open to doctors, nurses, staff, and patients of Elmhurst Hospital in Elmhurst, NY.

Katie Down (Sound Designer) is a composer, sound artist, educator, and music psychotherapist. She performs with The Ukuladies and NewBorn Trio and is a professor at SUNY New Paltz. Katie also curates musical, theatrical and movement offerings at her space in the Hudson Valley, NY.

Erica Fae (Author, Director, Actor, Movement Director) Her feature film, "To Keep the Light", was awarded the Fipresci Prize (Mannheim) and Best Director (Berlin Independent), among a numerous other festival awards, and is available on Amazon Prime. Her play "Take What Is Yours" was a Critics' Pick in The New York Times, and she developed "Saved Again and by Him" while in residency at the New OHIO. She teaches physical acting at Yale/DGSD, and has performed extensively on TV/film and stage.

Jeremy S. Bloom (Sound Designer) is an Emmy-nominated sound designer who focuses on creating original soundscapes for film/TV, podcasts, and immersive exhibits. He is on staff at WNYC’s Radiolab. Other select projects include The Statue of Liberty Museum, Hot White Heist, Nancy, Armageddon Time, Listening to Kenny G, Fyre, Hail Satan?, and more.

Written by Roland Schimmelpfennig (Arabian Night, Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God), one of Europe’s preeminent playwrights, The Golden Dragon makes its New York debut under the direction of Ed Sylvanus Iskandar (These Seven Sicknesses, Restoration Comedy, The Mysteries), renowned for his immersive and whimsical invitation-only theater company, Exit, Pursued by a Bear.

For those trying to keep abreast of the more exciting playwriting voices beyond the United States and Britain, The Play Company has become an invaluable resource. The acclaimed German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig, little seen on these shores, presents a dark comedy about all hell breaking loose in a pan-Asian restaurant. With the rising director Ed Sylvanus Iskandar (“These Seven Sicknesses”) at the helm, the production shouldn’t be hurting for ambition.
–The New York Times

Written by

Roland Schimmelpfennig

Directed by

Ed Sylvanus Iskandar

Translated by

David Tushingham

Featuring

Noah Galvin Peter Kim K.K. Moggie Stephen Duff Webber Welker White

Set Design

Mimi Lien

Costumes

Loren Shaw

Lighting Design

Nicole Pearce

Sound

Katie Down

Movement

Erica Fae

Foley Artist

Jeremy S. Bloom

Production Supervisor

Production Core

Production Stage Manager

David Beller

Venue

New Ohio Theatre 154 Christopher Street New York, NY