A purple-and-pink-hued poster, decorated with Chinese lanterns and advertising the upcoming play “Dance with New Year’s Eve,” reads: “Cheer or fear, which fate is near?”
The producers of the show, on June 8 and 9 at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, are hopeful about its intended tone. Showrunners with the Elite Performing Arts Group USA, a nonprofit based in the San Gabriel Valley, said their production reflects on the mass shooting that happened one year ago at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park on Jan. 21, 2023 — the eve of the Lunar New Year.
The “Dance with New Year’s Eve” play was originally scheduled to run at the playhouse this past weekend, Jan. 20 and 21 — on the 1-year mark of the harrowing tragedy, when a gunman entered the studio and killed 11 Asian dancers, all seniors.
But the play was postponed to early June due to recent “COVID-19 challenges” with some cast and crew members, producers said. They also faced scheduling conflicts with the city’s candlelight vigil for the shooting victims last Sunday, and didn’t want to have the show at the same time as the anniversary.
With two performances — one in Mandarin and one in English, with two different casts — planned, June was the soonest available weekend at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, showrunners said.
Angela Sheng, a producer and president of the Elite Performing Arts Group, said that “Dance with New Year’s Eve” is meant to shine a light on the arts as a way to heal, mental health issues, and to show what Star Dance truly meant to people — especially immigrants.
Sheng said that the show is also partly a musical, concluding with a “tribute to peace and harmony” for the victims that features original songs she composed, and dance performances.
“The main purpose of the whole play is for the remembrance of Star Dance, the community, the innocent people who passed away. Hopefully it will bring attention to human nature,” Sheng said,…
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