Tisch School of the Arts Asia

Invited guests, students and faculty members were on campus for a double-bill screening of The Mudge Boy by Michael Burke, a faculty member from the graduate film and Gone Shopping by Wee Li-lin, a student from dramatic writing on 8 April 2009. Both screenings were followed by a Q&A with the respective directors of the films.

Viewers were curious how Li-lin managed a shoot in Mustafa, a popular 24-hour shopping mall in Singapore that is almost always crowded with people. Just before this screening, Gone Shopping premiered in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. This movie also took part in international film festivals in Hawaii, Puchon, Shanghai, Rome and Hong Kong. Li-lin shared her experience as both the writer and the director of this film and the challenges of working on this film.

The Mudge Boy tells the story of a sensitive boy growing up in a harsh rural environment. The movie is a remake of the short film Fishbelly White by Michael Burke who is an alumnus of Tisch School of the Arts and a faculty member in film at Tisch School of the Arts Asia. The Mudge Boy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and in 2003 and 2004 it made the rounds at several gay and lesbian and independent film festivals around the United States. The Mudge Boy was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It won a Grand Jury Award LA Outfest.

Actors from the United Kingdom, Brazil, Singapore and Australia participated in a staged reading of The Masrayana at Tisch School of the Arts Asia, February 5-6. The Masrayana, written by Bill Kovacsik, an award winning playwright and associate professor at Tisch School of the Arts Asia, is a play about Gopal Masra, an Indian farmer whose relatives bribe local officials to have him declared dead in order to inherit his land.

Kovacsik’s inspiration came from an article in the New York Times about Lal Bishari, an Indian farmer. The Masrayana combines elements of Bishari’s story with interludes of classical Indian dance, while adding a fable-like twist and a Brechtian flair.

An array of talent comprised the eight-person cast. Andrew Lightheart, who played Vijay Gupta, dual role of narrator and barrister, noted that the play was originally written for an Indian cast, but Kovacsik’s choice of a multi-cultural cast points to the more universal themes of the play.

Jordan Mann, a first year student in the Department of Animation and Digital Arts and who is enrolled in Kovacisk’s lecture, “Storytelling for Animation,” attended the performance and raved.

“It was good to see Bill demonstrate his artistry on stage,” Mann said.

The Masrayana, winner of the Joseph Jefferson Citation Award as Best New Play in Chicago, 2005-2006, was described by the Chicago Tribune as "a deftly told story of identity theft and governmental indifference...one of the strongest productions to debut in years...a Kafka-esque tale of one man and his infuriating attempt to prove that he exists."