A Year of blessings
As a member of the Five Blessings Collective, I was a co-writer on Episodes 1, 3, 5, and 6. I was the Voice Director on Episode 5: Legend of The Whooshhh and Episode 6: Operation Double Happiness. A Year of Blessings is available to listen to for free and has been streamed internationally on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and other global streaming platforms.
Co-Presented by Gateway Theatre and Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre. Five Blessings has also performed live readings at Morrow and Gateway Theatre. I will be directing a special Lunar New Year episode reading at the Museum of Vancouver in January 2025.
Voice directing at Monarch Studios. Pictured in booth: Angela Chu
Live Reading of Episode 3: Band of Dragons at Morrow for Asian Heritage Month 2024. Stage Manager: Charlie Cooper.
We celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with Eunice, RoRo, and Mabel. The three chum salmon swim upstream from the ocean, through the estuary, up the creek, and homeward bound into the forest where they will spawn. With rising temperatures and lowering water levels, The Three Chums will need to rely on their enduring friendships, new connections, the myth of Chang Er, and the legend of The Whooshhh—the salmon cannon—to get them safely home.
Legend of the Whooshhh is devised and co-written by Nancy Tam, Derek Chan, Jasmine Chen, Howard Dai, and Kristin Fung.
A Year of Blessings’ finale episode, Operation Double Happiness tracks a family of Taiwanese Mandarin ducks who reside in different parts of Turtle Island. Clara and Cici are identical twins who have been in rivalry since birth and are now estranged, but their daughters Jamie, and Mallory are tightly connected–thanks to the interwebs. The two BFF cousins hatch Operation Double Happiness to unite their family for the Winter Solstice celebration in Taiwan. Jamie and Mallory narrate their mission to us in this heist-style, spy-movie episode—think The Incredibles meets 007. Will the wily cousins be able to restore family harmony?
Operation Double Happiness is devised and co-written by Nancy Tam, Derek Chan, Jasmine Chen, Howard Dai, and Kristin Fung.
Hilot Means Healer
World Premiere of Hilot Means Healer (Cahoots Theatre in association with b current performing arts) at the Theatre Centre, October 2019.
Photo credits: Seanna Kennedy and Dahlia Katz
“Under director Jasmine Chen, Hilot shifts between timelines and dimensions. These transitions are made with dramatic shifts in lighting by designer Jareth Li and the incredible live accompaniment by composer MaryCarl Guiao… Folklore and spiritual narratives are dramatically told and recreated… The second act of the play is action-packed as the realities of living under occupation and intergenerational trauma all come to a head.” - Samantha Edwards
NOW Magazine NNNN
“Director Jasmine Chen has mounted a solid production of a complex story. The scene changes are smooth, and an effortless cohesion allows the audience to experience both the reality of the Japanese occupation in Manila and the healing needed for future generations to thrive…The unfamiliar sounds, rhythms, and beats ratchet up the already intense emotion, accelerating our connection with the trauma of war.” Sesayarts
“Hilot takes its audience on an emotional journey… accentuated by the haunting set design of Jung-Hye Kim and the affecting sound design by MaryCarl Guiao, who brings the Philippines’ dying art of Obo Manuvu kulintang music to the stage for the first time in Canada… A densely-knit and painstakingly-detailed production… HILOT has a splash of magical realism, historical testament, spiritual homage, and the beginnings of ancestral healing all wrapped in a two-hour play.” - Justine Abigail Yu Intermission Magazine
YELLOW RABBIT
Photo Credit: Cesar Ghisilieri
Yellow Rabbit (Soulpepper/Silk Bath 2018) enjoyed a sold-out run at The Young Centre for the Performing Arts.
"YELLOW RABBIT's ability to establish a cruel world, fuelled by racism from external and internalized sources, is better than some full-length feature films" - Broadway World
"Chilling, timely, relevant" - Mooney On Theatre
“The director, Jasmine Chen, makes skilful use of multiple elements—blocking on the stage, projected images, and sound—to frame strong performances by all four actors, who quickly evoke the a whole range of conflicting emotions that burst forth when dealing with issues as charged as race and sexuality.” - Graham Sanders Plays to See
"Provocative, darkly funny ... heartbreaking" - life with more cowbell
“The staging of striking barriers—both stone and silk—trap Man and Woman (and the audience) in sets made of diegetic video projection and clips. As characters speak, translated subtitles move above them and command the eye in a dance between movement, character, and context. For a setting much talked about but ultimately never seen by Man and Woman, Rich Man’s Hill is figuratively and literally cinematic. The effect is a prettily executed and affective nod to the ways in which the tyranny of the moving image has eaten the diasporic imagination into executive logics of thought.” Alt Theatre
THE MOTHER TONGUE PROJECT
CBC Coverage: Our Interview with CBC Arts
In 2016/2017 I created/directed The Mother Tongue Project, produced by Then They Fight Theatre, which enjoyed a sold-out run at the Black Cat Artspace.
featured director
30 under 30 Interviews for the 30th Anniversary of Cahoots Theatre
BITE HARD: THE JUSTIN CHIN PROJECT
BITE HARD: The Justin Chin Project was developed through residencies with Lemontree Creations and b current performing arts between 2016-2018. BITE HARD is a multilingual piano-poetry-drag-theatre smash up that subverts stereotypes, challenges expectations and examines the complex intersection of Queer and Asian identity. Using three pianos and the poetry of Justin Chin, three ferocious performers navigate the private spaces where the personal is political.
Devised with and performed by: Jeff Ho, Michael Man, and Jonathan Tan.
le ba-ta-clan
Production Stills from Le Ba-Ta-Clan with Opera 5. Photography by: Emily Ding
“Directed by Jasmine Chen, the operetta is a rollicking little piece. The singers get a chance to flex their acting skills as they plow over each other in their various, well-cast roles… Ba-ta-clan makes full use of the space and leaves no joke unturned…Ba-ta-clan was fantastic, an honest must-see piece” - Mooney on Theatre
Director | Opera 5 | 2014
Musik Für Das Ende
Assistant Director to Chris Abraham | Crow's Theatre and Soundstreams | 2017
factory foremen director training
In 2015/16 I was a member of the inaugural FACTORY FOREMEN Emerging Directors Unit at Factory Theatre. Masterclasses were taught by Nina Lee Aquino, Ric Knowles, Camellia Koo and Soheil Parsa. As part of the program I assisted Peter Hinton on Bombay Black (Dora Nominations for Best Direction, Best Lighting Design, Outstanding Performance -Female). As our final project, I workshopped and directed Yolanda Bonnell's Scanner for FACTORY WIRED, Factory's annual festival of new work.
Bombay Black
Assistant Director to Peter Hinton | Factory Theatre | 2015
Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots
Photography by: Dahlia Katz
Assistant Director to Michael Mori | Tapestry Opera | 2013
In Pace Requiescat
Assistant Director to Aria Umezawa and Movement Consultant | Opera 5 | 2013
The penelopiad
Assistant Director to Kelly Thorton | Nightwood Theatre | 2013
Feng Yi Ting
Assistant Director to Atom Egoyan | Luminato | Canadian Premiere | 2013
Enter the Shadow
Associate Director | Harbourfront Centre | World Premiere | 2012
Stockholm
Assistant Director to Kelly Straughan | Seventh Stage Productions | North American Premiere