Three Women, Many Plays spans almost 70 years and two continents, telling the stories of three border-crossing artists; Pauline Benton, who founded the pioneering Red Gate Players and introduced Chinese shadow theater to American audiences in the 1920’s; Jo Humphrey, the founder of Yueh Lung Shadow Theater in New York City, who restored many of Benton’s shadow figures; and Kuang-Yu Fong, CTW’s founder, who brought the Benton shadow figures back to the stage in post-9/11 New York City. Three Women, Many Plays narrates this intriguing cultural odyssey from the point of view of Benton’s beloved shadow puppets, and uses a visually exciting blend of traditional and contemporary shadow puppetry to bring documentary performance together with the classical repertoire.
Three Women, Many Plays debuted at the First Tangshan International Shadow Festival in 2005, where it won awards for Best Playwrighting and Direction, Best Performance and Best short Play.
