This month has been AMAZING!! I’m so excited to share everything that’s been going on!
First things first! I woke up this morning to discover that I have been elected the new Artistic Director of Floor Five Theatre Company for the 2019-2020 season! Floor Five Theatre Company is comprised of my fellow Conservatory Graduates of 2018 at Atlantic Acting School, and this is the group taking zounds! to Edinburgh in August!
Here’s my upcoming shows! Next up:
Friday May 24 & Saturday May 25 @ 7 PM, Sunday May 26 @ 2 PM
The Kraine Theater
85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003
(4th St and 2nd Ave)
I have some free tickets to Shrews available! Let me know which show you’d like to attend and I will put you on the list! A reviewer said this gender-bent LGBTQ adaptation of Taming of the Shrew is, “like a Marx Brother movie,” and “Ellen Ko as Vincentio had a small but pivotal part at the end of the play but she played it with brash bravado.” !!!
Sunday May 26th, 2019 @ 9:00 PM
Magnet Theatre Main Stage
254 West 29th St, New York, NY 10001
(btwn 7th and 8th Ave.)
Yes, May 26th will be another time I have 2 different shows in a day! Shrew matinee and Model Majority in the evening!
June 5th @ 9:30 PM
The Tank
312 West 36th Street New York City, NY 10018
(36th and 8th Ave)
This is the last show in our Silent But Deadly run, so if you haven’t come already this might be your only chance to see us!
Thursday, July 25 @ TBD
Location TBD
New York, NY
August 2 - 3 & 5 - 10 @ 9:55 PM
theSpace @ Surgeons Hall
Nicolson Street, EH8 9DW
Edinburgh, Scotland
And now onto highlights from the past month! Dreams really do come true! I had the pleasure of being interviewed about my life as a New York actor for podcast Barbie Kong (episode 60, “Quantum Ko”). I’ve listened to several of interviewer Katie Repman’s previous episodes, and I feel honored to be in the company of so many awesome theatre women! We recorded that episode May 7, and that’s when I told Katie, "I thought I would come to New York and be either a performance artist or a video installation artist."
Well guess what happened the NEXT DAY? I met artist Marc Lafia to begin work on his immersive, interactive video/movement/performance art experience, “Everything is Everything and There is Nothing Else.” The whole time we were rehearsing, I wanted to cry with joy because I was fulfilling a fantasy I’ve had since I was in college. The performance was an amazing experience, and I still marvel realizing this is my real life!! And I am living my dream alongside the most beautiful, creative, and inspiring people I can imagine. Video from the performance was recorded will be incorporated into the piece as it tours Berlin, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, and Mexico City; check out some photos from the event here!
The woman who directed the mask segment of Everything is Everything, Shelley Wyant, was my Theatre Mask teacher at Atlantic, and after working together on Marc’s project, she invited me to assist her teaching Theatre Mask to high school students at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts - the “FAME!” high school!! Of course I said yes because every moment with Shelley is enriching and I learn so much by being around her! Studying mask with Shelley at Atlantic was a TRANSFORMATIVE experience, and I was thrilled to watch some of the city’s most promising young artists (9th graders!) discover the form!
Earlier in the month I performed at UCB as an actor for Madalyn Baldanzi’s UCB 301 Sketch Writing Class Grad Show, which was super fun!! Madalyn, the writers, and my fellow cast members are all SO talented, I was honored to be a part of it. Three of the sketches were recorded and posted online - click to watch Tidying Up: The People Edition by Kyle Marian, DJ Casper by Katherine Coleman, and Midas Records by XXXX!
My sketch comedy group, Model Majority, performed at Persisticon III: There Is No Planet B alongside an amazing lineup of comedians and performers including David Cross, Aparna Nancherla, Amber Tamblyn, and my stand-up comedy teacher Carolyn Castiglia! Performing at Persisticon was also a dream come true for me... because we had a green room (the waiting area for performers) WITH CATERING!!! Hahaha, it’s literally been my dream to perform comedy in a situation with a catered green room and it happened! And it was really good food too! Also, Model Majority was featured in an article titled, "Crazy funny Asians: the comics proving Western stereotypes are laughable" in the South China Morning Post!!
May also saw the premiere of the short film Broken written and directed by Sabrina Kheang at the Gold Coast Film Festival. I play the mother in a dysfunctional family at the edge of collapse. This film is a highly personal project for Sabrina, and even though the script is about a dysfunctional family, the cast and crew are the sweetest and I enjoy working with all of them! I call them my Broken Family!
If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU! I know it’s a lot, and I’m so grateful that I have a lot to be excited about! Thank you for coming on my dream journey with me, let’s see where the future leads!!
LOVE!
Ellen