Playwright’s Note

     Back in college, David Henry Hwang (the Tony Award winner) was my dorm mate. Carey Perloff (big time director and former Artistic Director at SF’s ACT) lived across Wilbur Hall from us. We’re all contributors to American theatre, but I suppose someone has to be on the left hand of the curve…

     I’m modestly skilled as a writer. My theatrical skills lie elsewhere; I’ve always said Asian America needs mediocre producers and advocates more than they do mediocre actors and writers.

     And yet…and yet…

     Every writer has stories and notions that won’t let go. The only way to get rid of them is to sit down and just write the damn thing. The story of the pirate queen of China is that for me.

     She was known as Ching Shih, Tse Zhang and other names. Nobody in the West has ever written a story about this historical figure, who cut quite swath. A woman who escaped grinding poverty, was a prostitute, reinvented herself as a pirate, willed herself to command a fleet, welded that fleet to others to form the largest pirate force ever and won a pardon from the Chinese government to live with all her ill-gotten gain. 

     Pirates of the Caribbean sorta showed her…but the real Ching Shih would have vamped Kiera Knightly off the screen and stuffed Johnny Depp through the nearest bung hole and not broken a sweat. There was talk of a mini-series, starring Maggie Q, but that fell through years ago…

    A story this kickass begs to be told. So I sat down and did it. I started with the historical facts and added some seasoning…such as the comics I read in the 70s, starring Conan the Barbarian and fellow rogue Red Sonja…a dash of Lois McMasters Bujold…and a little Qui Nguyen/Vampire Cowboys. Then dramaturg Dan Rector kept me on the beam whenver I tried to be lazy. And like David Hwang’s Yellow Face, the majority of what you’re going to see is true, historical fact. More or less.

     So sit back, relax and let me spin a yarn that traces roots to as diverse sources, as the pulps, the history books and the Marvel Cinematic Universe…

Director’s note

     This epic show could not have come together without our rockstar team, who knew how gargantuan a task it was going to be. I want to blame this on the playwright… but I’m the one who said “you know what this play needs? Music!… Ooh and magic lanterns!… Yes, more swords!”

     Telling this story on a fringe theater budget was a challenge to say the least – “who’s got a 19th century Chinese pirate costume?” – but what better opportunity to ask how we as East Asian Americans want to reimagine one of our own stories. A story from our cultural diaspora, told through the upbringing of Saturday morning cartoons (Scooby Doo and X-Men, in my case) while eating that dish we couldn’t pronounce but was so fricking good (I still couldn’t tell you).

     Thank you for partaking in PFP’s epic return to live theater. I hope you enjoy.