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| Slant, the performance ensemble of Richard
Ebihara, Wayland Quintero and Perry Yung, will reprise its 1996 hit, "Big
Dicks, Asian Men," for a one-week engagement at La MaMa E.T.C. March 29
to April 1, during which the work will be filmed live by Michael Kang for a road
documentary film about the three-man troupe, this play, and how it is received
across America. Following the La MaMa production, "Big Dicks Asian Men" will tour across the country (in college engagements) and conclude with another filming performance (April 29) at East West Player's David Henry Hwang theater in Los Angeles. The tour offers audiences a chance to revisit this acclaimed work and possibly be in seen and interviewed for the movie, which is a co-production of Slant and Kang Is Man Productions. "Big Dicks, Asian Men" set out to have the very last word on Asian machismo and found an unexpectedly enthusiastic reception among Asians and round-eyes alike. It is an original Rock and Roll theatrical work where racial assumptions of masculinity,specifically Asian, are identified, examined and deconstructed. A crime involving the sale of a counterfeit Gucci bag brings together three Asian American males to a police line-up. Each of their alibis becomes a vehicle for individual vignettes of theater, choreography, and live music that is a sonic attack of finger snapping, foot-stomping banzai celebration. The Village Voice (Laurie Stone) described it as "a satirical revue as raucous as it is deadpan, as unironed as it is deliberate, as piercing as it is self-exposing." Brad Bradley (Manhattan Mirror) called it a "buoyant and at the same time adorable low-budget satire." Reviewing a subsequent production at Pan Asian Rep, D.J.R. Bruckner (New York Times) wrote, "SLANT must be incapable of dullness. This trio...seem inhabited by a single mischievous and merry spirit. They are good, if loud, musicians; they can dance; all are acrobats if not gymnasts, and no matter how much fun they poke at other people, they laugh at themselves more than at anyone else." The show's charm was not lost on out-of-town critics. The Philadelphia Weekly wrote, "Through dance, rock, and inventive dialogue, their pithy lessons induce convulsive laughter that makes their medicine easy to swallow and long- lasting. They polish their limber bodies and deadly wit with a chamois drenched in a winning sense of fun". LA Weekly opined, "SLANT is poised to tweak the mainstream with their beyond SNL appeal." The group followed with "The Second Coming" (La MaMa, fall 1996), a sexual satire of their genetic past and future through the saga of three innocent spermatozoa, racing against time as they travel through vignettes of music, dance and theater. Matt Stuart (Time Out) wrote, "Like a karate chop to the senses, the gifted guys of SLANT kick some comic ass on the stage of La MaMa....This is a riotous show quivering with an energy that would make the Blue Man Group proud." "Squeal Like a Pig" (1997) was a play on how new Americans from the Orient feel like aliens in a strange universe. The trio, costumed in white make-up and rubber suits as outer-spaceniks, tried to adjust to Earth life in an outrageous metaphor of acculturation and assimilation. Anita Gates (New York Times) wrote, "Slant's appeal is its members' ability to exude childlike loveability and create truly good-natured humor." Charles McNulty (Village Voice) added," SLANT has a way of throwing sticks of theatrical dynamite." The trio visited karaoke purgatory in "wetSpot" (1999), a show that asked the question, "Will I still be Asian when I'm dead?" Its last work was "High" (La MaMa, June 2000), which viewed the NYC subways -- a true multi-ethnic underground crossroads of the many characters of New York -- through the impudent eyes of young Asian men. The Village Voice (Charles McNulty) called it "A little bit of rythym and a whole lot of madcap delight." City Search NY (Drew Pisarra) wrote, "Where as Blueman and Stomp have invented lite experimental,SLANT reinvigorates the genre with social satire." Richard Ebihara is a third and fourth generation Japanese-American who was raised in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio. He has performed in Pan Asian Rep's "Cambodia Agonistes" and "Letters From a Student Revolutionary," Theaterworks USA's "From Sea to Shining Sea" and "The Velveteen Rabbit" and Saeko Ichinohe's "Tale of Genji." He has performed with Chen and Dancers in Symphony Space's Selected Shorts. He played the lead in "The Last Hand Laundry in Chinatown" in 1999 at La MaMa. Wayland Quintero was born in the Philippines, grew up in Hawaii and performed in the Bay area before moving to NYC in 1989. He has choreographed experimental/postmodernist dance works presented by DTW, Dia Center, St. Mark's Danspace, Gowanus Arts Exchange and Workhouse Theater. He toured with four modern dance companies for 13 years until 1994. As an actor he has appeared in Ping Chong's "Deshima" and Shigeko Suga's "Sotoba Komachi," Jeff Weiss's "Hot Keys," Zazou Productions' film "Sleepyheads" and most recently, a feature film by Francisco Aliwalas," Disoriented." Quinitero co-directed "Rajah Mangandiri" (La MaMa, December 2000), an original dance and music version of "The Ramayana," the great Indian classic, which was performed by Kinding Sindaw. This troupe of 16 young artists from the Philippines is led by Potri Ranka Manis, daughter of the Sultan of the Maranao tribe (a true modern-day Princess). Perry Yung is Chinese-American, originally from San Francisco. He trained extensively there in Chinese dance, martial arts and Martha Graham technique. He performed with numerous dance companies in the Bay Area and toured nationally with the alternative rock group Fibulator. He was a featured performer in Ping Chong's "Deshima" and Theodora Skipitares' "Under the Knife III" and a lead dancer in Muna Tseng's "The Pink," all at La MaMa, and was an original performer in Pan Asian Rep's "Cambodia Agonistes." He sings with Fred Ho's Afro Asian-American Art Ensemble and appeared in David Salle's film, "Search and Destroy." As a member of La MaMa's Great Jones Repertory, he played the title role in the most recent tour of Ellen Stewart's "Mythos Oedipus" and appeared in La MaMa Umbria productions of Huseyin Katircioglu's "The Garden of the Deer" and Andrea Pacciotto's "Geranos." He appeared in "The Trojan Women," directed by Andrei Serban with music by Elizabeth Swados, in its tour to Seoul, Korea and The Republic of China at Taipei. The three men of SLANT are recent recipients of a NYFA Fellowship and a Joseph Papp Public Theater Playwrghts Development Commission. |
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