Artists at Play – This Is Not a True Story – AAJA National Convention 2022

Julia Cho (Cio Cio) born and raised in Los Angeles, is an actor and a founding member of Asian American theatre producing collective, Artists at Play. Upon graduating from UC Berkeley, Julia starred in the award-winning Word for Word production of Amy Tan’s IMMORTAL HEART at the Magic Theatre. She has performed/toured with East West Players, Will & Company, Playwrights’ Arena, Pasadena Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, and Boise Contemporary Theatre. Julia is probably best known as “Charlotte Lu” in the Emmy-winning web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Other credits include roles on TV shows Scandal, Goliath, and This Is Us. Find @thatjuliacho online.

VyVy Nguyen (Kim) is a Vietnamese American actress hailing from Anaheim, California. She studied acting at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts and her credits include Young Sheldon, Parenthood, The Mindy Project, NCIS: Los Angeles, and BoJack Horseman. You can currently hear her recurring on Netflix’s animated series Dogs in Space. She is represented by A3 and Crimson Media Group.

Jenny Soo (Kumiko/Takako) holds a BFA from NYU and an MFA from A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard. She has performed in various theaters all over Los Angeles, including GLORIA at the Echo Theater Company, for which she won a Stage Raw Award for Best Female Comedy Performance. Favorite Los Angeles theater credits include: DRY LAND, HOT CAT and most recently THE UNTITLED BABY PLAY. Film/TV: Parks & Rec, LA to Vegas, and Reverie. www.JennySoo.com

Preston Choi (Playwright) is a playwright most recently from Chicago whose work focuses on Asian American/mixed race/queer lives, social science fiction, and the horrors of being alive. His plays have been developed with Artists at Play, B Street Theatre, Interact Theatre, Sideshow Theatre, The Passage Theatre, and Silk Road Rising. His plays include HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARS ROVER (2022 Planet Earth Arts Award, 2022 Darrell Ayers Award), PERFORMING CLASS (2022 NNPN New Play Showcase, 20-21 Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series), A GREAT MIGRATION (2021 Paul Stephen Lim Award, 2019 NNPN National New Play Showcase, 2017 Agnes Nixon Award). He received a B.S. in Theatre from Northwestern University, and is currently a third-year MFA Candidate at UC San Diego’s playwriting program.

Reena Dutt (Director) Upcoming: ACCIDENTAL FEMINIST by Alaudin Ullah (staged reading, Columbia University), THE HOMBRES by Tony Meneses (Artists Repertory Theatre), AMERICAN FAST by Kareem Fahmy (Constellations Screen and Stage), YELLOW FACE by David Henry Hwang (UC Riverside). New York: BRUISED by Vivienne Glance (staged reading, Playwrights Realm), DirectorFest (A.R.T. New York), New Dramatists. West Coast: REFUGEE RHAPSODY by Yussef El Guindi (staged reading, Artists Repertory Theatre), UC Riverside, Greenway Court Theatre, East West Players, Sacred Fools, Theatre Planners. Asst. Director: The Public (Candis Jones), Fountain Theatre (Jennifer Chang), The Geffen Playhouse (Jo Bonney). Fellowships: Drama League NY Directing Fellow, LCT Directors Lab, Directors Lab West. www.ReenaDutt.com

Stefanie Lau (Producer) is a theatre producer whose work over the last 20 years brings diversity and inclusion to Los Angeles theatre. As a co-Founder and co-Producing Artistic Leader of Artists at Play, Stefanie produces mainstage shows, new play development programs, fundraisers, and other special events. During the pandemic she helped expand AAP’s programming with original online content including play readings of The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) by Tom Jacobson, and Theatre for Young Audiences performances of Question 27, Question 28 by Chay Yew and ALLOS: The Story of Carlos Bulosan by Giovanni Ortega; and episodes for the newly created AAP Podcast. Stefanie previously worked at Center Theatre Group, East West Players and Ford Amphitheater, and has been a Cold Tofu Improv associate member since 2003. A graduate of UCLA, Stefanie sits on the national board of the Consortium of Asian American Theatres and Artists, and is a member of the Greater Los Angeles BIPOC Artistic Directors Cohort and Theatre Producers League of Southern California.