Debuted in 2013, Post-American Girl is an avant-garde production by The Public Theater, a landmark venue in New York. This play was written and performed by Abigail Washburn, a renowned banjo player and singer both in the U.S. and China, drawing from her 17-year relationship with China to explore how a contemporary young American woman brought her conflicted feelings and simultaneous love of a changing China together with similar conflicted feelings and love of her own country’s culture.
In Post-American Girl, CTW continued utilizing its cross-cultural creative strengths, blending American folk music by Abigail Washburn with traditional-style shadow puppets and life-size dolls designed by Stephen Kaplin, Gu-zheng played by Chinese folk musician Wang Jungling, Peking Opera percussion performed by Chinese percussion master Tian Gang, and Peking Opera sung by Kuang-Yu Fong. In the new composition of Chinese folk music and puppetry with American cello, violin and banjo, Post-American Girl presents Abigail’s fruitful journey of growth through the melding of East and West.
