<p>Kristina Wong is a performance artist, actor, comedian, writer and elected representative in Koreatown Los Angeles. Following its highly acclaimed premiere at New York Theater Workshop, <em>Kristina Wong: Sweatshop Overlord</em>, was a <em>New York Times</em> “Critics Pick.” </p><p>Wong was then named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Drama, (2022). <em>Sweatshop Overlord</em> also garnered a veritable awards sweep this year including The Drama Desk Award, The Lucille Lortel Award and The Outer Critics Circle Award. <em>Sweatshop Overlord</em> has just had its premiere at The La Jolla Playhouse, is currently running at Portland Center Stage and will move on to The Kirk Douglas Theater at Center Theater Group in Los Angeles.</p><p>Wong’s other works have been presented across North America, the UK, Hong Kong and Africa. She’s been a guest on late night shows on Comedy Central, NBC and FX. As a published writer, Wong’s work is included in Routledge's “Contemporary Plays by Women of Color.” Wong wrote the introduction for "The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide To Mask Making, Radical Care and Racial Justice" published by University of California Press. She also had Artist Residencies at MacDowell, Hermitage, Montalvo and Ojai Playwrights Festival. Wong’s work has been awarded with grants from Creative Capital, The MAP Fund, Center for Cultural Innovation, National Performance Network, a COLA Master</p><p>Other career highlights include the Visionary Award from East West Players, “Local Hero Of The Year” nominee from KCET/ PBS, Asian Pacific Honoree from Fuse TV and the Best Of Arts Los Angeles issue from <em>LA Weekly</em>. </p>
Performer, Writer, Cultural Commentator and 'Eco-Comedian'
<ul><li><strong>Reality Television, Political Theater, and Social Change</strong></li><li>Kristina Wong is a performance artist, comedian and elected representative whose work onstage and in politics is informed by an obsessive knowledge of the reality television format. How does reality tv explain where we are today? What tropes from this genre have now surfaced in how we think, make decisions and move in the world? In this talk she will describe her research, brushes with reality television and how she’s played with the form in her activism and art for the benefit of social justice.</li><li><strong>Kristina Wong for Public Office</strong></li><li>Kristina Wong for Public Office is a 65-minute comedic performance that crosses the aesthetics of campaign rallies, church revivals, and solo theater shows to tell the story of what it means to run for local office, the history of voting, and the impact artists can have on democracy. The show comments on the real anxiety of the state of our democracy and asks, “How is it that artists and politicians have switched jobs? They now create the shock and spectacle that have us questioning reality. We now reclaim the quiet space for social change and truth.”. It’s a show that will get audiences amped up about civic engagement and the power of their vote. The show plays against a charming handsewn felt set designed and created by Kristina Wong.</li><li><strong>Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest</strong></li><li>Incisive writer and performer Kristina Wong mixes sharp humor and psychology in "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," a serio-comic portrayal of the high incidence of anxiety, depression and mental illness among Asian American women. Tangling, spinning and mixing yarns, she asks: Which came first, the sky-high suicides of Asian American women? The maddening world? And when the heck do we get to climax? Wong's irreverent and provocative work has given her a national cult following for "politically charged art with unapologetic humor." -<i> Bitch Magazine</i> "Wong Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a National Performance Network Creation Fund Project commissioned by Asian Arts Initiative and La Peña Cultural Center.</li><li><strong>Auntie Sewing Squad: Radical Care, Social Justice and Mask Making During Covid-19</strong></li><li>Performance artist and comedian Kristina Wong shares her pandemic journey from out of work performer to unlikely leader of the Auntie Sewing Squad, a national mask sewing collective that formed at the top of the pandemic to distribute cloth masks to the most vulnerable of communities left behind by the Federal Government’s neglect during the Covid-19 pandemic. </li><li>Connecting the history of this sewing to Chinese Americans immigrating to America and the undervalued work of garment workers globally, the Auntie Sewing Squad reflects a new model for care, community and allyship in times of crisis.</li></ul>