TORONTO: GENERASIANS - Panel discussion led by Marissa Orjalo

About the Panelists:David Yee is a mixed race (half Chinese, half Scottish) playwright and actor, born and raised in Toronto. He is the co-founding Artistic Director of fu-GEN Theatre Company, Canada’s premiere professional Asian Canadian theatre company. A Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated actor and playwright, his work has been produced internationally and at home. He is a two-time Governor General’s Literary Award nominee for his plays lady in the red dress and carried away on the crest of a wave, which won the award in 2015 along with the Carol Bolt Award in 2013. He has worked extensively in the Asian Canadian community as an artist and an advocate.Julie Phan 潘家雯 feels empty inside. If this McGill dropout was a piece of art, she would be the world’s biggest rubber duck in the Toronto Harbour. She is a Hoklo- Vietnamese writer, actor and exotic dancer based in Toronto and Montreal and recent graduate from the National Theatre School of Canada in playwriting. She is best known for disappointing her father and her work with fu-GEN asian theatre company (double bill, fearless).郝邦宇 Steven Hao is a Chinese-born Canadian actor, director, and theatre creator based in Tkaronto. You may recognize him from the Tarragon stage as Cockroach in Jeff Ho's play Cockroach. Or maybe you’ve seen the latest rendition of A Perfect Bowl of Pho he directed at the Fringe. Or maybe you recognize him just as a regular fella, searching for love in this sometimes loveless city. Maybe you know him as a friend, who sometimes bought you bubble tea; maybe a foe, who wronged you in the past; maybe you know him as a stranger, you know, like one of those familiar-looking people you come across but don’t quite know if you know them or not; or maybe you don’t know him at all, maybe you don’t want to know him, and…maybe that’s ok. Maybe none of us actually really know each other, maybe we’re all just supporting characters in each other’s movies, maybe…maybe. This is Steven’s first time producing, so he wants to shout out David Yee, Marissa Orjalo, Tiffany Ledesma, Deborah Lim, and Crystal Lee for trusting him with this task. Toodle Loo!Marjorie works variously as writer, director and dramaturge in opera, and performance and is the Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille. Her work has been seen and performed in the United States, Scotland, Hong Kong, Russia and across Canada. Her plays include China Doll, and Lady Sunrise, which have both been nominated for the Governor General’s Award. Her other plays include, The Year of the Cello, The Madness of the Square, a nanking winter, and Tails From the City, as well as the libretti for the operas, Sanctuary Song, The Lesson of Da Ji, M’dea Undone, The Monkiest King, and upcoming The Nightingale of a Thousand Songs. Marjorie has been nominated for nine Dora Awards and is the recipient of four. Other recognition includes the KM Hunter Artist award, a Harold Award, Bra D’Or Award, and the George Luscombe Award. She has been artist-in-residence with Factory, Banff, Tapestry Opera, Cahoots Theatre, Theatre Centre, Theatre Direct, SUNY (Geneseo, New York) and Theatre du Pif (Hong Kong). Upcoming: Direction for The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh (fu-GEN/Studio 180/Crow’s) and the operatic adaptation of Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing.