AAPAC, The Asian American Performers Action Coalition, was awarded the Obie Awards’ 2020 Special Citation for Advocacy in the field of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion during the 65th Annual Obie Awards ceremony on July 14, 2020.
The ceremony was hosted by entertainer Cole Escola, and continued its tradition of honoring the best in Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater.
Presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice, the 2020 Obie Award ceremony recognized AAPAC steering committee members Pun Bandhu, Cindy Cheung, Angel Desai, Christine Toy Johnson, Peter Kim, Julienne Hanzelka Kim, Kenneth Lee, Eileen Rivera and Nandita Shenoy, for their important and necessary contribution to the American theater.
In 2011, a group of artists emerged to initiate a conversation around diversity and the lack thereof in New York City theater. With their regular reports, “Ethnic Representation on New York City Stages”, they have provided hard data about racial, gender and disability representation in casting both On and Off-Broadway, bravely exposing where the industry falls short in its commitment to inclusion. Nine years after their founding, the landscape of New York theater has been changed for the better, thanks to the grassroots efforts of this organization-though they will tell you there’s still more work to be done, and they would be right.
To learn more about AAPAC, please visit www.aapacnyc.org.
The full ceremony is available on the American Theatre Wing’s official YouTube channel.
American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice Set 2020 Obie Awards for July 14
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman. She stars in and served as Executive Producer for the short independent films Hide and Seek, Balancing Act, Rom-Com Gone Wrong, Belongingness and When the World was Young. She is also the Executive Producer for The Cactus, The Language Lesson, The Writer and Cream and 2 Shugahs.
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