Winner of the first Los Angeles New Play Project Award, Carla Ching’s Revenge Porn or The Story of a Body makes its world premiere on Friday, September 23, 2022 at The Pico. Preview performances began on September 21 and the production will run through October 9.
Directed by Bernardo Cubría for Ammunition Theatre Company where it was part of the 2021 Ammo Writers’ Lab, the play takes a very public look into the private lives of people who hurt the ones they love most.
When Kat Chan’s ex-husband posts revenge porn images of her, and tags everyone she knows, Kat wrestles with a choice:be humane to someone she used to love or take him out in a very public way? A play about public shaming, ownership of women’s bodies and images, and the earthquakes that are caused by dissolving a marriage.
“I read an interview with a woman in her 20’s who had intimate pictures of herself stolen and shared online. To reclaim her body and her image, she had a photographer take more photos of her naked — not sexualized but doing everyday things — and posted them herself. So that she could be seen the way she saw herself. So, she was the subject not the object. I wondered, what if this were a woman — Kat — in her middle years, with a family and career to lose? How does she get her life back, asks playwright Ching. “It’s important to me that both halves of the title be used when putting the play into the world, because I think half of it is Mac’s perspective, and the other half is Kat’s perspective. To her, it’s the story of her body. To him, it’s the story of what he did with that body.”
Carla Ching (Playwright) is a native Angeleno and co-recipient of the inaugural playwriting award from The Los Angeles New Play Project. Her plays include Revenge Porn or The Story of a Body (Toulmin Commission for the Atlantic; O’Neill Playwrights Conference 2021), Nomad Motel (Rolling World Premiere at City Theatre, Pittsburgh, Horizon Theatre in Atlanta and Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City; NY Premiere at The Atlantic Theatre Company), The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up (Artists at Play, Theatre Mu), Fast Company (South Coast Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre) and TBA (2g). Carla’s full-length plays have been produced or workshopped by Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, CTG Writers’ Workshop, Huntington Theatre Company, The Kitchen, The Lark Playwrights Workshop, Lyric Stage, Ma-Yi, Midnight Rice, PFP and The Women’s Project among others. Proud member of New Dramatists and founding member of The Kilroys. Former artistic director of 2g. Carla is a corecipient of the 2021 Horton Foote Playwriting Award from the Dramatist Guild. In television, she has written for “Graceland,” “Fear the Walking Dead,” “I Love Dick,” “The First,” “Preacher,” “” and the forthcoming “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” co-created by Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover. Carla is currently developing projects with Monkey Paw and Superfrog for Amazon, Field Trip and Hivemind for FX, Shondaland for Netflix and Imminent Collision.
“I think that Revenge Porn is truly one of the best American plays in the last 10 years. At one point during rehearsals, I was moved to tears while watching Tina Huang and Jeanne Sakata rehearsing a scene where two very complex and nuanced women (who happen to be Asian American) are discussing deeply complex and nuanced issues. It speaks directly to the Ammunition Theatre Company mission of supporting voices of color and conversations on all levels,” believes director Bernardo Cubría.
Bernardo Cubría (Director) is a Mexican director/playwright/screenwriter who was recently awarded the 2021 Smith Prizefor political theatre. He helmed the World Premiere of Malcolm Barrett’s Brain Problems for Ammunition Theatre Company in 2019. Cubría’s work, The Play You Want, premiered at the Road Theatre in Los Angeles in 2022 and garnered the Generation Award by Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, and the Ingenio Award for new play by a Latinx Playwright by The Milagro Theatre in Portland, Oregon. In 2019 Cubría was nominated for BEST PLAYWRIGHT at the Ovation, Stage Raw, and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for his play The Giant Void In My Soul. The play is having its Regional Premiere at Luna Stage in Orange, New Jersey, its international Premiere at Foro Shakespeare in Mexico City in 2022, and it received a reading on Broadway at Circle in the Square in 2019. His play Neighbors: A Fair Trade Agreement was a Semifinalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference in 2016, and was produced Off-Broadway at INTAR in fall of 2017, as well as regionally.
In 2016 his play The Judgment of Fools received three productions nationally, in NYC, Los Angeles, and Houston. Cubría is cowriter of the film “Kill Yr Idols,” which is being Executive Produced by Carlos Lopez Estrada. He was also the co-writer of the short film “Spanish Class,” winning Best Comedy at The NBC Universal Shorts Awards in 2018.
The cast features Tina Huang as Kat Chan (award-winning actress/storyteller Celestial Events-IAMA Theatre; Ojai and O’Neill Playwrights conferences, Sundance); Kahyun Kim as Nice (starred in Tracy Letts’ Linda Vista at Steppenwolf, Universal Studio’s film Cocaine Bear; A. R. Gurney’s Love And Money at Signature Theatre, Juilliard’s Drama School); Christopher Larkin as Elliot (Nomad Motel at the Atlantic, I’ll Be Seein’ Ya at the Kirk Douglas), The Play You Want at The Road, Kafka on the Shore at Steppenwolf); Nelson Lee as Mac (Off Broadway in Zayd Dorn’s World Premiere of Outside People, Carla Ching’s Nomad Motel, and Ryu in Maple and Vine both ACT in San Francisco and City Theatre in Pittsburgh. Currently, the Dragon King on CW’s “Stargirl” from DC); Roland Ruiz as JJ (Hit the Wall – Los Angeles, Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” and series Pure Genius episode nominated for a GLAAD award); Jeanne Sakata as Betty/Mia (La Jolla Playhouse world premiere of Here There Are Blueberries, directed by Moisés Kaufman, the Vineyard Theatre’s Off-Broadway premiere of Do You Feel Anger? Special honors: LA Ovation Award, Outstanding Lead Actress – Red by Chay Yew, at East West Players; 2019 East West Players Trailblazer Award, Outstanding Artistic Achievement; 2016 Playwrights’ Arena Lee Melville Award, Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles Theatre Community; Jeanne’s solo play Hold These Truths – Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance; Theatre Bay Awards, Outstanding Production, Lead Performance and Direction). Brian Kim, Tracy S. Lee, and Jenn Liu will serve as understudies.
The creative team includes Amanda Knehans (Scenic Design), Azra King-Abadi (Lighting Design), Mischa Stanton (Sound Design), Courtney “Lou” Cranch (Costume Design), Yuki Izumihara (Projections), Arian Saleh (Composer), Erica Smith (makeup).
Ammunition Theatre Company (AMMO) is a collective of Los Angeles based artists that since its inception has
been diverse by design and whose members and collaborators use their voices and stories as ammunition for change.
As both artists and activists, AMMO not only creates theater but also partners with philanthropic organizations to bring theater to under-served communities. Past partnerships include My Friend’s Place (an organization addressing homelessness among youth in L.A.), Wise & Healthy Aging (a non-profit organization serving older adults), Central High School (an alternative school in South Los Angeles), and POPS (an organization that creates safe, empowering spaces in high schools for the children and loved ones of incarcerated individuals). Since its inception 7 years ago, the company has been nominated for every major LA Theatre award (Ovation, Stage Raw, LA Drama Critics Awards), received grants from California Arts Council, Los Angeles New Play Project, Atlantic Theatre Company, and has cohosted the Stage Raw awards in 2019.
REVENGE PORN OR THE STORY OF A BODY has preview performances on Wednesday, September 21 and Thursday, September 22 at 8pm. Opening night is Friday, September 23 at 8pm, with a reception to follow.
Performances are Thursday -Saturday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 7pm through October 9, 2022. The Pico is located at 10508 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064. Tickets are $35 online. Click here for tickets.
Ammunition Theatre Company COVID-19 Health and Safety Policy
COVID-19 Vaccinations Required & Masks Required
Ammunition Theater Company asks our audiences to join us in providing the safest space possible for patrons, cast, crew, and staff. Our Covid-19 policy requires ticket holders to wear masks and to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Guests who need a reasonable accommodation for medical reasons or due to sincerely held religious belief must provide a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours prior to entering the theatre. Children under 5 will not be admitted to the theater.
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer, activist and an Award winning filmmaker and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Lia is also the host and Executive Producer of BACKSTAGE PASS WITH LIA CHANG, a new Arts and Entertainment program that airs on Sundays at 6:30pm on FIOS 34, RCN 83, Spectrum 56/1996 and MNN2.
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. Her short film, When the World Was Young recently garnered a 2021 DisOrient Film Audience Choice Award for Best Short Narrative. 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. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2022 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang, unless otherwise indicated. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at backstagepasswithliachang@gmail.com
Backstage Pass with Lia Chang 