Asia After Dark| Storytelling Through Performance

Date

Friday, May 30, 2025
5:30 pm–9:30 pm

Location

Freer Gallery of Art
Meyer Auditorium

Description

Tune in for this after-hours salon of performance storytelling, such as dance, theater, and public art. Through discussions and live performances, local and national talents will share how they tell their stories and express their full, authentic selves on stage.

Register in advance to get the best experience. Some activities have a limited capacity, with entry on a first-come, first-served basis. All activities will take place in the West Building (Freer Gallery of Art).

Schedule:

5:00 p.m. – House Opens
5:30–6:15 p.m. – Conversation on theater with Greg Strasser and Julia Izumi
6:25–6:40 p.m. – Dance performance
6:50–7:25 p.m. – Conversation on dance with Edwaard Liang and Robert Bettmann
7:35–8:00 p.m. – Dance performance
8:10–8:55 p.m. – Conversation on performance art with Anthony Le and Jess Trúc My
9:05–9:30 p.m. – Dance performance

Panelists:

Gregory Keng Strasser is a director and writer. His work spans theater, opera, video games, and film and has been performed in New York City; Washington, DC; Baltimore; Bethesda, Maryland; Arlington and Winchester, Virginia; and abroad in Bangkok, Thailand; Holstebro, Denmark; and Ubud, Indonesia.

Strasser is an artist-in-residence at Roundabout Theatre Company in New York (Roundabout Directors Group #6) and was the recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship from 2020–2024. He was the 19–20 Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage. You can find out more on www.gregorykengstrasser.com or stalk him on IG: @lil.scallion.pancake.
Julia Izumi (she/her/hers) is a writer, performer, and educator who makes plays, musicals, theatrical nonsense, and everything in between.

Her work has been developed and presented at Manhattan Theatre Club as part of the Ted Snowdon Reading Series, Clubbed Thumb, Bushwick Starr, WP Theater, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, WP Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, the CAATA National Asian-American ConFest, FringeNYC, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Rorschach Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, the NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights’ Workshop, the Maria Irene Fornés Playwriting Workshop, and Corkscrew Theatre Festival.

She is currently a resident at New Dramatists. Currently under commission from MTC/Sloan, True Love Productions, Playwrights Horizons, and Seattle Rep 20x30. She received her MFA in writing for performance from Brown University. She is the 2011 recipient of the Goddard Rhetorical Prize for excellence in performance at Tufts University, where she earned her BA in drama.

She has completed one half-marathon and has kept a fish alive for one month.
Edwaard Liang is the artistic director of The Washington Ballet. Edwaard is one of only four people to have led the organization, and the first person of color. He is also the first Asian American to lead a major American ballet company.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, and raised in Marin County, California, Liang began his dance training at age five with Marin Ballet. After studying at the School of American Ballet, he joined New York City Ballet in 1993. That same year, he was a medal winner at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition and won the Mae L. Wien Award. By 1998, he was promoted to soloist. In 2001, Liang joined the Tony Award®-winning Broadway cast of Fosse. By 2002, Liang was invited by Jiri Kylian to become a member of the acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater 1.

While dancing with NDT 1, Liang discovered his passion and love for choreography. Since establishing himself as a choreographer, his works have been performed by dance companies around the world, including the Mariinsky Ballet, New York City Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Shanghai Ballet, Washington Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, Singapore Ballet, Dortmund Ballet, National Theatre in Beijing, and many others. In 2012, Edwaard Liang was named the 5th Artistic Director of BalletMet and was named director of The Washington Ballet in 2023.
Robert Bettmann is the programs manager for Day Eight, a non-profit organization that contributes to the healing of the world through the arts. At Day Eight, he directs operation of the DC Arts Journalism Fellowship, leading the hiring and placement of fellows and convening an annual arts journalism conference and summer journalism institute. Bettmann has contributed to Washington City Paper, Washingtonian, The DC Line, Huffington Post, and others. His writing includes arts journalism and scholarship. Bettmann recently authored an article published in the Journal of Dance and Somatics titled “Public Programs in EcoSomatics” connected to his book Somatic Ecology.
Anthony Trung Quang Le is a Washington, DC-based multidisciplinary artist and identifies as Vietnamese, American, and Queer. They explore the joy of nonconformity across painting, video, sculpture, printmaking, performance, and curation.

Le cofounded Vagabond, a platform dedicated to amplifying Vietnamese American artists through projects such as a self-published 2024 art zine and the DMV’s first Vietnamese American exhibition, 50 Years of Hope and Ha-Has, at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH). Le is a three-time CAH Fellow (2023, 2024, 2025), and their work is part of the DC Art Bank Collection. In 2023, Le presented their solo exhibition, Golden Looking Hour, at Transformer in Washington, DC. Their work has also been included in exhibitions at American University, Towson University’s Asian Arts & Culture Center, Hamiltonian Artists, Touchstone Gallery, Culture House, Washington Studio School, Latela Curatorial, Rhizome DC, and Homme Gallery. They have shown work in group exhibitions curated by Washington Project For The Arts, Art Roving, Monochrome Collective, and Petworth Arts Collaborative. Le has received additional support from 51 for 51 and Mozaik Philanthropy.

Le cofounded the Model Mutiny art collective with their artist spouse Ashley Jaye Williams in 2021. Le earned a degree in landscape architecture at Pennsylvania State University in 2009.
The DMV’s very own Jess Trúc My is a musician, performance artist, political educator, and grassroots community organizer who became a founding member of Viet Place Collective (VPC) with a vision—to tend to the intergenerational wounds of a post-war community with creativity at the forefront. Musically known as "Fictionals," their debut EP, Ancestor, uplifts the stories and dreams of a double-displaced diaspora. Deeply rooted in local cultural and DIY music scenes, she shows up with an anti-imperial and non-carceral ethic—onstage, in the streets, and within community. Their organizing and cultural work within the Vietnamese community has been featured in places like The Washington Post, NPR, and various local platforms. She looks up to artists like Gil Scott-Heron, Marvin Gaye, and Nina Simone, figures who have transformed their music into vehicles for liberation, a sentiment that profoundly resonates through Fictionals' music.

Dance Performances by Umami Playground:
Founded in 2022, Umami Playground is a collective of movers who come together to play, explore, make mistakes, and grow. We blend street and club dance with contemporary styles, combining multiple influences from our multicultural backgrounds and diverse experiences to create fun work that resonates with normal people's lives.

This event is part of our annual IlluminAsia Festival in celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month. Join us for the entire weekend to continue celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month and World Pride!

Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.