Ping Chong & Company

Ping Chong & Company, formerly The Fiji Theatre Company, was founded in 1975 to explore the meaning of contemporary theatre and art on a national and international level.

The company's mission is to explore the intersections of race, culture, history, art, media and technology in the modern world. Today, the company creates innovative works of theatre and art for modern, multi-cultural audiences in New York and throughout the world.

Ping Chong & Company is a modestly sized, not-for-profit experimental arts organisation. The company is artist-run and maintains a small full-time staff, offices and storage facilities in New York City. Also, the company provides an artistic home and professional base for a multi-racial core group of performers, designers and theatre artists who collaborate with Ping Chong on a project basis.

Ping Chong was born in 1946 and raised in the Chinatown section of New York City. He studied film-making and graphic design at the School of Visual Arts and the Pratt Institute.

Ping Chong began his theatrical career as a member of Meredith Monk's The House Foundation. He collaborated with her on several major works including The Travelogue Series and The Games, for which they shared the Outstanding Achievement in Music Theatre Award in 1986.

He is the recipient of two OBIE Awards, including one for Sustained Achievement in 2000, six National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Playwrights USA Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a TCG/Pew Charitable Trust National Theatre Artist Residency Program Fellowship, a National Institute for Music Theatre Award, and two “Bessie” Awards for Sustained Creative Achievement and for Outstanding Creative Achievement. He has received honorary doctorates from Cornish College in 1999 and Kent State University in 2004. In 2006, Ping Chong received a USA Prudential Fellowship from the United States Artists Foundation. Since 1972 he has created over 70 works for the stage, which have been presented at major venues all over the world.

In 1972, Ping Chong gathered a group of artists at Meredith Monk's loft in New York City to create Lazarus, his first independent theatre work.

Since then, he has created over fifty major works for the stage including Humboldt's Current (Obie Award, 1977), A.M./A.M. - The Articulated Man (Villager Award, 1982), Nosferatu (Maharam Design Award, 1985), Angels of Swedenborg (1985), Kind Ness (USA Playwrights' Award, 1988), Brightness, which garnered two 1990 Bessie Awards, Deshima, Chinoiserie and After Sorrow. In 1998 he created Kwaidan, his first full-length puppetry work, in collaboration with Jon Ludwig and Mitsuru Ishii. His work has been performed at such major New York venues as The Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, The Joyce Theatre, La MaMa E.T.C., St. Clement's Theatre and The Central Park Summerstage, as well as at major museums, theatres and festivals in North America, Europe and Asia.

THE TEAM

Ping Chong, Artistic Director

Bruce Allardice, Managing Director

Sara Zatz, Associate Director

Jane Jung, General Manager

Jesca Prudencio, Production Associate and Education Coordinator

Associated Artists

Maya Ciarrocchi

Courtney Golden

Brian Hallas

Stefani Mar

Leyla Modirzedeh