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Photos by Annie Lesser
Kristina Wong for
Public Office
(2018 – 2021) Director, Co-Devisor, and Dramaturg
Kristina Wong is an actual elected representative of Koreatown, Los Angeles. But before she created a raucous show about her current stint in Public Office, she was a scrappy performance artist with a bright future in reality television. The system she used to ridicule is now the one she’s become. Is she more effective as a performance artist or a politician? Can she Abolish ICE? Is there actually a difference between performance art and politics?
Kristina Wong for Public Office is a 65-minute comedic performance that crosses the aesthetics of campaign rallies, church revivals, and solo theater shows to tell the story of what it means to run for local office, the history of voting, and the impact artists can have on democracy. Originally built to tour alongside the rallies leading up to the 2020 Presidential election against a charming hand-sewn felt set she sewed herself, this rally has aroused civic engagement and counter-hijacked our democracy as a live stage production, a live broadcasted, interactive digital production, and a film.
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Presentations
November 2020 (film)
Center Theater Group's Digital Stage
October 28, 2020
Yale University
October 23, 2020
USC Visions & Voices
October 22, 2020
Art2Action
October 20, 2020
Ferguson Library & Flynn Center for Performing Arts
October 16, 2020
Arts For LA: State of the Art Summit 2020
Seattle ACT
OC Film Fiesta
October 14, 2020
LACMA, co-presented Center Theatre Group
October 14, 2020
ArtPower at UC San Diego
October 8, 2020
Hartbeat Ensemble
October 3, 2020
Boston Court Pasadena & Los Angeles Performance Practice
September 18 & 20, 2020
UT Austin
September 10, 2020
Wesleyan University and University of Massachusetts at Amherst
February 7, 2020
Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles
December 5, 2019
Comedy Central Stage, Los Angeles
November 10-11, 2019
REDCAT, Los Angeles
July 15-16, 2018
Grand Performances, Los Angeles
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Press
“Wong has always addressed fraught social themes in her work, but now she is actively dedicated to making social change, as she freely blurs the lines between artist, activist and elected political representative.” —LA Weekly
“Her energy is miraculous. It’s not easy to crack jokes in capacious silence...the storyteller is marvelous company. You’ll feel saner after spending 75 minutes with her.” —LA Times
”When Political Theater Ditches the Disguises of Fiction” —NY Times
“A RIOTOUS ADVENTURE. Kristina Wong for Public Office” is a zany, 75-minute semi-autobiographical meditation on Wong’s recent creative life, the history of voting and the red tape of democracy.”
—Argonaut
“In the politically minded comedy “Kristina Wong for Public Office,” Wong recounts her experience as a performance artist and theater maker who got elected as a representative on the Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council, an advisory board to the City of Los Angeles.” — NY Times
“A performer not afraid to fill up her available space, Wong stalks the perimeter of the Kirk Douglas Theatre stage like a prizefighter, an Elvis-style studded cape with her name stitched in sequins on the back fluttering in her wake. Her talents as a fabric artist are on proud display: a banner emblazoned with a rainbow-striped eagle and a marijuana leaf, hand-sewn stars and stripes draped over the podium.” —KQED
“KRISTINA WONG FOR PUBLIC OFFICE is witty, topical, and timely. It also draws fascinating parallels between show biz and politics in a country currently going to the polls to vote for a reality TV star or a career politician. Kristina is energetic, flashy, and even a bit gaudy (love her WONG sequined cape) as she documents her rise in political influence. She is the perfect unconventional candidate – who somehow ends up being right in line with her politician brethren. Get ready to laugh – but also to think about what politics have become in the past few decades. This is a thought-provoking poke at the world of today.” — Splash Mags
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Credits
Kristina Wong, writer, co-devisor, and performer
Diana Wyenn, director, co-devisor, and dramaturg
Mark McClain Wilson, sound designer
Diana Wyenn, lighting designer
Kristina Wong, scenic, costume, and prop designer
Kristina Wong for Public Office has been supported by a 2019 Center Theater Group Sherwood Award and a 2018 City of Los Angeles Career Artist (COLA) Fellowship.
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Additional links