Cindy Cheung in SPEAK UP CONNIE. Photo by Lia Chang

This month, Cindy Cheung debuted her solo show SPEAK UP CONNIE, at Stage Left Studio, 214 W. 30th St., 6th Fl. in New York for 5 performances. In SPEAK UP CONNIE, the versatile Cheung writes, performs, and provides original music and lyrics in a comedy about getting a word in edgewise, under the direction of BD Wong.

Cheung’s last two performances on January 24th and 25th are sold-out, but due to popular demand, new show dates have been added – Saturday, February 4th, Sunday, February 5th, Tuesday, February 7th, Wednesday, February 8th, Sunday, February 12th, and Wednesday, February 15th at 7:30pm. Tickets are $20. ($2 ticketing surcharge will be added). Click here for tickets.

Cindy Cheung’s theater credits include The Sugarhouse at the Edge of the Wilderness (Ma-Yi),Middletown (The Vineyard), The Seagull and Antigone, (NAATCO),Goodbye Cruel World (Roundtable),Sides: The Fear Is Real… (Ma-Yi/Miyagi), Masha No Home (E.S.T.),W;t (Florida Studio Theater), The First Picture Show (A.C.T.), A Christmas Carol (South Coast Rep),Sweeney Todd and Into The Woods(East West Players). Film and TV credits include: Children of Invention(Sundance 2009), Lady In The Water, Robot Stories, “Bored To Death,” “White Collar,” “Fringe,” “Law and Order,” “L&O:SVU,”...

The Time Has Come: Asian Americans Arrive on the Red Carpet

By Amy Lieu

Asian American actors and members of Hollywood's entertainment industry graced the red carpet at the 20th Anniversary Gala Celebration for the Coalition for Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) at Union Station in Los Angeles Nov. 12, 2011.

The evening honored the talents of Asian Americans in entertainment and celebrated the advancement of diversity in the media.

For years, Asian Americans have been under-represented in Hollywood.

However, CAPE's red carpet event indicated more Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) talent are in entertainment today. AAPIs have come a long way

Maggie Q, the beautiful and savvy renegade spy from Nikita shared space with Carrie Ann Inaba, the talented dancer and one of the judges for Dancing with the Stars.

George Takei, who played Sulu from Star Trek, YouTube musician sensation David Choi, and professional poker player Maria Ho, who has played in the World Poker Tour were also among the celebrities on the red carpet.

The Gentlemen of YTF also strutted the red carpet; the group includes Ryan Higa, the most subscribed YouTube personality, as well as Victor Kim and Dominic of Quest Crew, who won the third season of America’s Best Dance Crew.

Wenda Fong, says she co-founded CAPE twenty years ago when Asian Americans did not have a strong voice in the entertainment industry. CAPE is now one of the largest Asian-American professional...

On February 2, civil rights icon Fred T. Korematsu will become the first Asian American featured in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery permanent exhibition, “The Struggle for Justice.” Two 1940s-era original photographs of Korematsu will be presented on February 2 at 9:30 a.m. at the Portrait Gallery, Eighth and G Streets, NW in Washington, D.C.,in a private event featuring speakers including the Honorable Norman Y. Mineta. The photographs will be available for public view when the museum opens at 11:30 a.m.

The event takes place just three days after the second annual Fred Korematsu Day, an official day of special significance passed in the state of California in 2010. Celebrated every January 30, on Korematsu’s birthday, Fred Korematsu Day is the first day in U.S. history named after an Asian American.

The National Portrait Gallery’s “The Struggle for Justice” exhibition opened in 2010 and features many images of individuals who have worked on behalf of civil rights, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eunice Kennedy Shriver and César Chávez. The museum, which drew in one million visitors last year, is the first museum not specifically focused on the Japanese American experience to include Mr. Korematsu’s story. To date, the Japanese...

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Ma-Yi Theater Company – one of the country’s leading Asian-American theater companies – in association with the Obie Award winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company present the Off-Broadway debut of Qui Nguyen’s critically acclaimed comedy THE INEXPLICABLE REDEMPTION OF AGENT G. Preview performances begin February 7 prior to an official press opening of February 14 at Theatre Row’s Beckett Theatre (410 West 42nd Street) in New York, with performances continuing through March 4.

Directed by Robert Ross Parker, the cast of THE INEXPLICABLE REDEMPTION OF AGENT G includes Jon Hoche (SOUL SAMURAI, PULLMAN CAR HIAWATHA) and Bonnie Sherman (SOUL SAMURAI) from the play’s original Off-Off-Broadway production in April 2011, joined by newcomers Neimah Djourabchi (ACTION PHILOSOPHERS), Brooke Ishibashi (KUNG FU SUNSHINE FLOWER),and Temar Underwood (ODYSSEUS DOA, FIGHT GIRL BATTLE WORLD).

THE INEXPLICABLE REDEMPTION OF AGENT G is described as follows: It’s been 10 years since Agent G was last in Vietnam where his family and friends were all viciously slain. He’s now come back looking for answers and a good bit of revenge; however forces are at hand trying to stop him as well as the playwright from finishing this brutal task.

AGENT G has scenic and lighting design by Nick Francone, costume design by Jessica Shay, original music and sound design by Shane Rettig, multimedia design by Matthew...

UPDATE:

We received alot of positive feedback to our posting of Guy Kawasaki's Spring, 2013 talk at the UC Berkeley Startup Competition (Bplan).

The former chief evangelist of Apple and co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures is such a good speaker that you wanted to hear more of him.  He was the keynote speaker at the first Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup Business Plan Competition at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond in 2005, and its timeless. 

You can click on the top blue headline to the full story and his video or click here. In his keynote, "The Art of the Start" he gives insight into the characteristics that make a successful start-up.

His first test is, "Are you making "meaning?"  He finds that the start-ups which have the highest chance of success are created by people who have a mission. He says they want to make "meaning" and not money. He feels the entrepreneurs who more often succeed are those who want to change the world. They want to make the world a better place, to improve the quality of life, to right a wrong, to fix something and change it to make it better, or they want to prevent the end of something good. 

He urged his audience of students to be "Prototypers" not typists. He was referring to entrepreneurs who create things, or develop something, versus those who merely write a business plan with a mission statement. 

Kawasaki says, "Get going." "As an entrepreneur - Think different. Don't...