INTERVIEW: ‘June Is the First Fall’ explores themes of identity, sexuality, immigration
Photo: June Is the First Fall explores themes of identity, sexuality, family and immigration. Photo courtesy of Maria Barnova / Provided by Kamila Slawinski with permission.
June Is the First Fall, the play by Yilong Liu, will kick off its New York premiere March 31 at the New Ohio Theatre in the West Village. The production, directed by Michael Leibenluft, comes to the Big Apple courtesy of Yangtze Repertory Theatre.
In the play, a gay Chinese man named Don returns to his home in Hawaii to confront his past. While meeting up with the family, he has run-ins with his father and sister.
Liu’s show won the prestigious Paula Vogel Playwriting Award in 2017. Yangtze Rep is staging the production as an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, which occurred only a few blocks away. The company is interested in giving more opportunities to queer Asian and Asian-American voices in the theater.
Leibenluft is an accomplished director and Obie Award winner. He has helmed productions of I’ll Never Love Again (a chamber piece), How I Learned to Drive and Lost Tribe. He has assistant directed at Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theatre, P73 and American Theater Company. The Yale alumnus is also the founder of Gung Ho Projects, which is an educational and cultural exchange platform dedicated to increasing understanding between the U.S. and China.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Leibenluft about the new show. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What do you believe are the important messages of June Is the First Fall?
I think the play reveals our tremendous capacity for monumental change and discovery in the course of our lives. It also shows how the physical journeys we take — moving to the ‘big city’ or even to a new country — can intersect with a parallel process of self-discovery and transformation.
What inspired you to join this production as director?
I worked with the playwright, Yilong Liu, this past summer on a new project in Sichuan. He’s one of the writers on a bilingual folk musical my company Gung Ho Projects is creating. It’s called Flood in the Valley and is centered on minority hillside communities in Sichuan and Appalachia. In the process I met his family, and we collaborated, speaking a mixture of Chinese and English.
Back at home in New York, it’s been exciting to build our collaborative relationship but in a new cultural environment. We’re both gay men familiar with moving between Chinese and American cultural contexts, although we share such different backgrounds, and so I think it has made for a natural and dynamic joining of forces.
Do you believe the themes of the play are important to discuss in 2019? Are the themes of immigration, identity and sexuality very topical given today’s political scene?
Absolutely!
How have rehearsals been going? What’s it like to work with this ensemble of actors?
They’re a wonderful group and have been tremendously generous. We’ve developed the play significantly throughout the process, and their input and intuitions have been crucial to uncovering the core of the play.
You have experience working theatrically in China and being a bridge between the two cultures. What is it about the culture, the communities and the art of this country that draws you in professionally?
I am an ardent believer in the capacity of the arts and particularly performance to further intercultural dialogue. If we can get in a room together, share ourselves and create something new, then we are modeling a process of how to collaborate across culture and language as well as creating work that can hopefully further the larger societal conversation.
I’ve spent more than a decade learning Chinese and working between China and the U.S. because I think that there is tremendous potential and need for exchange between both countries. In our socio-political moment, the conversation feels essential and urgent, which is why I am passionate about keeping it going.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
June Is the First Fall begins March 31 and runs through April 20 at New Ohio Theatre in the West Village of Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
