ODC Theater presents Cat Lady November 4, 2011

Nov 4, 5 at 8:00pm; Nov 6 at 7:00pm

ODC Theater in collaboration with Circuit Network is pleased to announce the West Coast premiere of Kristina Wong's Cat Lady, a darkly comic theater piece exploring the parallel worlds of two pathetically lonely archetypes living at the margins of gender and society - musty cat ladies and fast-talking male pick-up artists.

Wong, a multi-talented performance artist whose diverse body of work ranges from stand-up comedy to commentary on American Public Media's "Marketplace" to film documentary and articles in Playgirl magazine, has been called "sassy" and "original" (LA Times), "raucous and irreverent" (AP) - an "Asian American Lily Tomlin" (American Theatre Magazine). Cat Lady is her fifth full-length show, and her first full-length ensemble piece.

A theme uniting Wong's various performances is her offbeat curiosity and social conscience. Whether it's exploring the high incidence of depression and suicide among Asian American women (Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) or the contradictions of the bio-fuel movement (Going Green the Wong Way), Wong consistently displays a subversive intelligence and a knack for interpreting the strangeness of our times.

Wong's cat, Oliver, and his recent rash of spraying problems was the inspiration for Cat Lady, which premiered as a work-in-progress in the REDCAT NOW Festival. In Cat Lady Wong delves into the psychology behind hoarding -- of both animals and humans. Unmarried women who live alone with cats ("cat ladies") and aggressive pick-up artists commingle in Wong's pop culture universe which manages simultaneously to draw on VH1 and Martha Graham.

Collaborating with Wong is an ensemble of three actors - drag legend Miss Barbie Q, Clayton Farris, and Jabez Zuniga - under the direction of Shawn Sides of The Rude Mechanicals (Austin, TX), with set and light design by Ian Garrett.

Official Website: http://odcdance.org/performance.php?param=77