Audience Participates in Creative Process During Isaac Ho's Award Winning Screenplay Reading

NEW YORK - Aug. 2, 2013 - PRLog -- August 2, 2013 – The Asian American Film Lab ("Film Lab"), Asian CineVision and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute of New York University ("A/P/A") presented a special reading of award-winning screenwriter Isaac Ho’s newest feature, THE CHINESE DELIVERY MAN, as part of the 2013 Asian American International Film Festival on August 1.  Professional actors, primarily selected from the Film Lab’s Actor Directory, performed a staged reading of Ho’s script under the direction of Film Lab’s Unfinished Works Coordinator Lorna Nowve and Director Daniel Finley.  As part of the Film Lab’s signature “Unfinished Works” style, Nowve then invited the audience to participate in the creative process and to directly address both the screenwriter and the cast with comments and questions, opening a lively and sometimes gut-wrenching dialogue about race and human relations in the United States today.

Laura Chen-Schultz, Deputy Director of A/P/A, was particularly moved by the reading.  Repeatedly, audience members used the word, “powerful” to describe what they had just witnessed.  For many viewers, such as Chen-Schultz, herself, the screenplay reading stirred up difficult memories of when they, too, were treated as “less than human.”  Chen-Schultz recalled working as a delivery person and having customers treat her in demeaning or insulting ways.  She lauded Ho’s screenplay as a way for audiences to relate to and humanize people with whom they interact on a daily basis but all too often dismiss…or worse.

Ho said afterwards, "I'm grateful to Asian CineVision and Asian American Film Lab and for all the wonderful and talented people I got to meet.  I'm honored to have The Chinese Delivery Man chosen for this award.  Diversity doesn't mean the same thing today as it did twenty years ago.  Once upon a time you could set a scene in a Chinese restaurant or cast a Middle Eastern as a cab driver or make the priest Latino and call that progress.  Today, that's not good enough.  Today, diversity also means diversity in points of view. Why hire diverse talent if you're only going to ask them for a mainstream point of view? Our responsibility as artists of color is to tell stories from our unique point of view and make Hollywood catch up."  Ho’s author page can be viewed on Amazon at: http://amazon.com/author/isaacho

The cast:  Jim Chu* (Lau), SAG-AFTRA.  Film: Almost Perfect (2011) TV: Fortune Sun (2013),  Theater: Five Chinese Brothers (writer and actor).  
Yoko Hyun* (Fan Yee), AEA. Film: Poison berry (2012), Hanafuda (NYU Grad, 2012), Karaoke (NYU Grad, 2011) Theater: I am a Moon (Columbia MFA play festival), Tomb Stone (Moosehall Theater Company), The Secret of Osono (Pan Asian Rep), Shogun Macbeth (Pan Asian Rep), Tea (E.Phoenix Idealis).
Kamran Khan* (Detective Jackson), SAG-AFTRA. Film: Centaur (2013), Two Pieces (2013 Asian American Film Lab 72 Hour Shootout), Theater: The Domestic Crusaders (2009-2011). Awards: Nominated for Audelco Award Best Ensemble - The Domestic Crusaders, Hasselblad Masters 2010 Semi Finalist, Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Screenplay Quarter Finalist and Worldfest REMI Bronze Medal for original screenplay "Ground Zed."
Jennifer Betit Yen* (Audrey, Shantice), SAG-AFTRA.  Film: The Martini (2013 Asian American Film Lab 72 Hour Shootout), DaZE (2013), The Problem of Gravity (2012).  TV:  Reading Rainbow, Dirt (FX), La La Land.  Theater: Suddenly Last Summer (Catherine), DHHWI New Works Festival at East West Players (Yut Ho), The Paper Dragon (Bot), Much Ado About Nothing (Hero), As You Like It (Celia).  Video/Voiceover:  Audible, Random House, Need for Speed II: Special Edition.  Awards:  Accolade Award, Best Television Pilot (lead actress, La La Land).  Newscasting and Hosting:  Toastmasters, WVBR-FM, Cisco, Project Success.
Mark Ellmore (Ice Agent Chidester), AEA.  Film & TV: Errors, Freaks & Oddities, Hedgehog, Six Degrees, Killer Voices.  Theatre:  Reflections of a Heart(Off-Broadway) Stones in his Pockets, Of Mice & Men, Romeo & Juliet (NYC & Regional theatre).
Austin Ku* (Sai Ho), SAG-AFTRA.  Film: Fall to Rise (2014), Any Day Now (2014), The Woman in the Dress, Blind Love. TV: Assistance (2013 NBC pilot) Theater: Chinglish (Broadway Tour).  Awards: Dean Goodman award winner; nominee for Barrymore, IRNE, and BroadwayWorld Boston awards.
John Wu* (Nam Hoi, Prosecutor, News Reporter), SAG-AFTRA, AEA. Film: For One More Day, Coda with a Curse. TV: The Sopranos, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Fringe, Mercy, Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Web: The Onion.
Garrett Lee Hendricks (Fuller, Neeley, Marcus, Customer), SAG-AFTRA.  Theater: Miss Evers' Boys (Caleb), Stealin' Home (Jackie Robinson).  Film:  Café, The Paragon Cortex.  TV:  Law and Order, Nurse Jackie, White Collar and The Americans.
Stan Vidal* (Huang Yin, Cordell, Assailant’s Voice, NYC Mayor, Derrick), Film:  Happy Five Years.  Theater:  Secret; Love (Downtown Urban Theater Festival, NYC).
David Dennis (Scalper, Teenager), filmmaker and the Coordinator of the Film Lab’s Connections department.
Marissa Carpio* (Siobhan, Chinese Sales Girl), Theatre: Julius Caesar (Portia), Twelfth Night (Olivia).    Graduate of NYU.  Student of the traditional dance forms of various Philippine indigenous tribes with the Kinding Sindaw theatre ensemble.
Eugene Oh* (Sanford, Winston, DeShawn), SAG-AFTRA.   INS and Outs (2013 Grand Prize Winner Asian American Film Lab 72 Hour Shootout), Terra Cotta (2011 Grand Prize Winner Asian American Film Lab 72 Hour Shootout); Select Theater credits: Geek! (Vampire Cowboys); La Bohème / Turandot / Carmina La Burana (Lincoln Center New York City Opera). Eugene can also be seen online in sketch videos for Good Cop Bad Cop.
Joel Haberli (Tony, Judge Spodeck, Cornwall, White Man), Film:  What’s Eating Dad?, Regret, Trunk, Hearts In Atlantis. TV: Team Umi Zoomi, Unanswered Prayers, All My Children.  Theater:  Boy Friends, Mush, Glengarry Glen Ross.  Voiceovers:  AARP, Aspercreme, Optimum Business.
Ginger Brown (Linda, WHW Inatke Nurse), SAG-AFTRA.  Theater: Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar, Girl Gone.  TV: AT&T, Elsevier Books, Enterprise Rental Car,  One Life to Live.
Vera Lam* (Court Officer, Agape Intake Nurse, CSU Tech, Female Neighbor), Film: Coming Home, Happy Family (2013 Asian American Film Lab 72 Hour Shootout), Under The Gun.
Jon Okabayashi* (Councilman Wong, Uniformed Cop), SAG-AFTRA, EMC.  Film: Customer Service (2013), You Fit The Description, Venus & Lola.  
*Appearing courtesy of the Asian American Film Lab Actor Directory, www.asianamericanfilmlab.org