Tori and Mabelle talk with Andy Lowe, the Director of Production and Casting for East West Players, the longest running professional theater of color in the United States. Andy talks about his beginnings as a storyteller towards social change and how his volunteer activism with nonprofits led to his stint as Artistic Director of Asian American Rep Theatre at 19 years old. Other topics include anti-racism, his full-circle journey with the Plays by Young Writers contest, his career journey of building platforms to uplift fellow artists, and his role as a podcaster for Pod Squadron.
Listen here or on your favorite platform.
Writing prompt (courtesy of Andy Lowe)
Exoticize Your Family’s Origin Story! Andy is the dramaturg for Vincent Schillings’ play, “American Dissonance,” which will be featured in Plays by Young Writers, January 26-28, 2023. There’s a scene in Vincent’s play that resonated with Andy and prompted this question: What is your family’s origin story if you could exoticise it? Andy goes on to explain that this is based on the idea that people didn’t want Chinese people in California. There was an Exclusion Act until Chinatown was created–a fake mystique, a tourist trap. Many Americans do not think of their family’s origin story in the way that Asian Americans are forced to think of themselves (e.g. as refugees escaping a war or from an ancient mystic people). So, what is your family’s origin story if you needed to put this veneer of exoticism to it?
- IG: @chinesepirate_
- Twitter: @chinesepirate_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChinesePirate.Productions
- East West Players: www.eastwestplayers.org
Andy’s bio
ANDY LOWE is Director of Production & Casting for East West Players. Was a finalist for “Plays by Young Writers ’94, Ovation Nominated Fight Choreographer, Actor, puppeteer and Director, helming over 50 Asian American workshops, readings, and mainstage productions at the San Diego, Asian American Repertory Theater, as well as pop culture musicals and R&D Projects for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Former Program Coordinator at La Jolla Playhouse, co-founder of AMP Music Festival, Gam3r Con, and Founding Artistic Director of SD’s Asian American Repertory Theater for 10 seasons. Currently; Casting the World Premiere Musical ON THIS SIDE OF THE WORLD by Paulo Tirol, and Dramaturging for the Young Playwrights Project’s Production of AMERICAN DISSONANCE by Finalist Vincent Schilling.
Check out this scene from “Man of God” by Anna Moench, fight choreography by Andy Lowe!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9ED-GPrHLk&t=266s
Join us for Play by Young Writers on Saturday, January 28: https://www.playwrightsproject.org/productions/pbyw/
Check out Andy on Pod Squadron: https://open.spotify.com/show/44HNxBUhzeXhKLm0AZQmKz?si=b8bd39a6de614ac3
Hey Playwright presents The Artist’s Way
SUNDAYS, January 29 – April 16 (online via ZOOM) (12 weeks)
To sign up, register here.