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Dear Friends of NAAP,
2025 was a very busy year for all of us at NAAP. And despite the challenges, we prove that with determination, we can still continue to make a difference in our AANHPI community.
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Baayork Lee
Baayork celebrated her beloved A Chorus Line's 50th Anniversary with a gala for City Springs Theater in Atlanta, a gala at the Shubert Theater in New York, a flash mob of 350 participants at Lincoln Center Plaza, receiving the Gaudium Award with Jane Pauley for work in their fields, and performing in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with 45 musical theater high school students. She also directed and choreographed The Wizard of Oz at City Springs Theater in Atlanta, and produced NAAP’s inaugural Broadway Holiday Celebration.
| | Baayork at the parade; photo by Eva Merrill | |
Steven Eng
Steven's year was full with various projects, both at NAAP and NYU Tisch Drama where he's on faculty. His outside performance work included numerous readings (Prospect Musical's The Troupe, Rashomon, etc.) and voiceover projects (Disney+ "Hyperknife," "Higher Ground"). His voice and dialect work included Reunions (Off-Broadway) and conference work that took him to New Zealand. He's currently in preparation to voice and dialect coach the upcoming season at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.
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Nina Zoie Lam
Nina Zoie continues her directing partnership for the graduate student thesis musicals at NYU/Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre program. She was invited as a guest speaker in dramaturgy at Pace University. She directed Jeremy Rafal’s Where Voices Linger at Chain Theatre One-Act Festival, and directed the staged reading of Christine Toy Johnson‘s Empress Mei Li Lotus Blossom, opening Pan Asian Repertory’s 49th Milestone Season.
| | Steven Eng, Baayork Lee, Nina Zoie Lam | | We’re also thrilled that this year, Discover: New Musicals was able to make a full return as a dynamic showcase of short new musicals, held at Theatre 315 (New York, NY). This year’s works included: | | |
WHERE WE ARE: A SONG CYCLE
Music and Lyrics by RAE COVEY, Direction by BRIAN JOSE, Musical Direction by RUIRAN XUN
| | Teresa Attridge, Danny Bae, Elaine Baez, Jenelle Catherina, Kevin Shiu, Cole Hong Sisser, Vikas Venu, James Wong; Photo by Eric Bondoc | |
DEATH & TAXES
Music by BROOKE TRUMM, Book and Lyrics by CLARE FUYUKO BIERMAN, Direction by CASSEY KIKUCHI KIVNICK, Musical Direction by MINHUI LEE
| Kat Capili, Isabella Paragas, Siobahn Sung; Photo by Eric Bondoc | | |
THE PEARL OF THE EAST
Music, Lyrics and Book by ZONIA TSANG, Direction by AUSTIN KU, Musical Direction by YAN LI
| | Jennifer Duka, Lydia Gaston, Kyanna Villaruel; Photo by Eric Bondoc | | NAAP hosted a uniquely memorable gala this year, celebrating the 50th anniversary of A Chorus Line and honoring the role of Connie Wong. | |
Front row: Suzen Kukana Murakoshi, Janet Wong, Catherine Ricafort McCreary, Baayork Lee, Emma X. O'Loughlin, Bella Villanueva, Sara Chiu
Back row: Susan Ancheta, Francine Espiritu, Yuka Takara, Nina Zoie Lam, Karin Kawamoto, Cassandra Hlong, Jolina Javier; Photo by Eric Bondoc
| | NAAP BROADWAY COMMUNITY CHORUS | | And this year, the NAAP Broadway Community Chorus celebrates one year in residence at the Hotel Edison, performing each month in the heart of Times Square. | |
EDUCATION: P.S. 124 & P.S. 48
NAAP’s Theatre Club continues classes in musical theater at PS124 Yung Wing Elementary School. This year, students learned and performed the musical “Finding Nemo.”
The graduation Songwriting program is in its sixth year at PS48, where 5th graders engage their creativity in songwriting workshops that culminate in a grade-wide performance.
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BROADWAY HOLIDAY CELEBRATION
NAAP celebrate its inaugural “Broadway Holiday Celebration,” a musical revue featuring the NAAP Broadway Community Chorus, elementary students from the PS124 Theatre Club, a 16-member ensemble of dancers/singers, and vocal soloists from the Broadway community.
| | Baayork walking at Malan Breton—Runway—Sept 2025 New York Fashion Week; Photo by Imaxtree | | |
With your help, we can do more to keep our theater community thriving in the coming year. Your tax-deductible donation ensures that NAAP can continue these programs, and give our community the opportunity to showcase their best work. None of NAAP's accomplishments or important programs could have been done without your help. Please help us continue to move forward!
To make a contribution, use the DONATE button below, visit our website (www.naaproject.org), or send a check directly to:
National Asian Artists Project
10 West 66th Street, Apt. 23C
NY, NY 10023
Thank you again for all your support of NAAP. Best wishes for the holidays and a wonderful New Year. We hope that you and your families stay well, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Always in loving spirit,
Baayork, Steven, Zoie and the NAAP Team
| | National Asian Artists Project (NAAP) is a community of artists, educators, administrators, community leaders, and professionals. It is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that recognizes the need to build bridges between the work of artists of Asian descent, and the many communities that the work can serve, from underserved primary school students to seasoned arts patrons. | | | | |
