Kudos to Rick Shiomi, an award-winning Japanese Canadian playwright, director and the Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts, for receiving the 2012 Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement, at the 8th annual Ivey Awards, which were held at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, MN on Monday, September 24, 2012.

“This award is truly a recognition of the talented performers, writers and directors that have gathered at Mu. It’s only through many wonderful Mu productions such as Into The Woods, Little Shop of Horrors, Yellow Face,Asiamnesia and Flower Drum Song that a company such as Mu Performing Arts can have the impact warranting such recognition,” said Shiomi.

There are no set categories for the Iveys, the Twin Cities’ annual celebration which honors and showcases the work of professional theater companies and artists over the past year. The Lifetime Achievement Award for Shiomi and the Emerging Artist Award, which was presented to Isabel Nelson, a performer, director, and theatre creator, are the only predetermined...

8 year old USA Team member Awonder Liang of Madison, Wisconsin is the best chess player in the world for his age group. He won the gold medal at the World Youth Championship in Brazil in the Under 8 Open, November 26, 2011. 

This year's coach and World Chess Federation Senior Trainer (FIDE - Fédération Internationale des Échecs) was Michael Khodarkovsky. 

Photo (Left): USA Team member 8 year old Awonder Liang wins Gold Medal at World Youth Chess Championship in Brazil.

Photo by permission Andrea Rosen

 Here's a sample of the rankings from the American team competing at the World Youth Championship in Caldas, Novas Brazil this year:

Awonder Liang of Wisconsin earned a gold medal in the Under 8 Open with 7.5/9

Ruifeng Li of Texas earned a silver medal in the Under 10 Open with 7/9.

Sarah Chiang of Texas earned 4th place in the Girls Under 14Jeffrey Xiong of Texas earned 5th in the Open Under 12.

David Peng of Northbrook, Illinois earned 7th in the Under 8 Open.

Albert Lu of Southern California placed 12th in the Under 10 Open.

Kevin Wang of Maryland placed 15th in the Under 14 Open. 

Varun Krishnan of La Jolla, California placed 14th in the Under 14 Open. 

Click here for the story from NPR here for the story in the New York Times and
here to the U.S. Chess organization. 

Time Magazine has named David Henry Hwang’s sexy and hilarious new play Chinglish the number three show out of the Top 10 Broadway shows of the year. Chinglish will feature special audience post-show talkbacks with the cast and creative team members at the Longacre Theatre in New York.

Beginning Wednesday, December 14th after the evening show, the cast will come out to answer audience questions. The mostly bi-lingual and multi-cultural cast will also be answering questions in Mandarin and maybe give a lesson or two. In addition to the 14th, talkbacks will be held after the show on December 20th, 21st, 22nd, 27th, 28th, 29th.

After the post-show talkbacks, head to the front of the orchestra and you’ll have the opportunity to meet the cast members.

Chinglish is a new comedy about the misadventures of miscommunication. It is the story of an American businessman desperate to launch a new enterprise in China. There are only three things standing in his way: He can’t speak the language. He can’t learn the customs. And he’s falling in love with the one woman he absolutely can’t have.

The Chinglish cast features Jennifer Lim, Gary Wilmes, Angela Lin, Christine Lin, Stephen Pucci, Johnny Wu and Larry Lei Zhang.

The play is directed by Leigh Silverman, who directed Lisa Kron’s Well on Broadway and won a 2011 OBIE for directing both Go Back To Where You Are and In The Wake, Chinglish had its world...

Dogs Lie, Richard Atkinson’s latest indie feature starring Samrat Chakrabarti (Elle Magazine Top 100 Talents to watch), Frank Boyd and Ewa Da Cruz, scored two awards, for “Best Film” (USA) and the “Feature Film Audience Award,” at the 2011 ITN Distribution Film and New Media Festival in New York.

“It was a great thrill for all involved to receive recognition,” said director Richard Atkinson. “The movie will be released in 2012 and will highlight a cast of rapidly rising acting talent……I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more of Samrat Chakrabarti, Frank Boyd and Ewa Da Cruz… they have all been involved in multiple movie and TV projects since we shot Dogs Lie….they are exceptional …TNA World Wrestling Champion, Ken Anderson, has a feature role as Yuri a Russian mobster. It all makes for great entertainment with unexpected twists and turns.”

Dogs Lie won “Honorable Mention” at the Los Angeles Movie Awards 2011 and was an “Official Selection” at The Big Apple Film Festival (BAFF) in NY, the La Femme International Film Festival in LA, and the Filmi SE Asian Film Festival in Toronto, where it was the “showcase feature.”

Samrat Chakrabarti plays Iqbal Khani, a likeable, conscientious clinician and romantic opportunist, alongside Frank Boyd as Josh Logan, a clinician who is a compulsive jokester with a competitive streak. The two are thrown together with eight patients at a luxury NY sleep clinic for a night of...

Forbes Magazine has released its "30 under 30" for 2011. 

Distruptors and Innovators in the field of Energy include Danielle Fong, Zizhou Zhou, Eden Full, Javier Fernandez-Han son of Peter Han, the president of NGO, Inventors without Borders, Inc., and Alexis Ringwald. Congratulations!