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PROFILES OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTISTS

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F. MURRAY ABRAHAM (narrator, A Dream in Hanoi) has appeared in over 60 films, such as Mighty Aphrodite, Finding Forrester, The Name of the Rose, Star Trek IX, By the Sword, Children of the Revolution, An Innocent Man, Scarface, The Ritz, and Amadeus (Best Actor Oscar, Golden Globe, and Los Angeles Film Critics Award). Of his more than 80 plays, favorite performances include The Man in the Glass Booth (with Harold Pinter), The Caretaker, Antigone, Uncle Vanya (OBIE Award), The Seagull, The Madwoman of Chaillot (with Geraldine Page), A Month in the Country (with Helen Mirren), and Waiting for Godot (with Steve Martin and Robin Williams).


DOAN HOANG GIANG (co-director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) has directed over 300 plays in both contemporary and traditional Vietnamese genres. He has written more than 50 plays, including The Eyes, My Ha My, In the Name of Justice, Ms. Sita, History and Witness, and Danbien’s Song. Mr. Giang’s plays My Ha My and In the Name of Justice have been staged in over 30 different productions throughout Vietnam. Giang studied theater in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and China as well as Vietnam’s Stage and Movie School. From 1958-1960, he was editor and director of art and literature programming for Vietnam Radio. From 1964 to 1972, he was an actor for the Central Dramatic Company of Vietnam. From 1972 on, he has been directing plays for the company. At present, Giang is chairman of the Arts Council of Vietnamese Theatrical Artists Association.

ALLEN NAUSE (co-director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is the artistic director of Portland, Oregon’s Artists Repertory Theater. He has directed many of its most popular productions, including The Crucible, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Wit, A Delicate Balance, Incorruptible, Three Days of Rain, Amazing Grace, Beast on the Moon, Fortinbras, A Perfect Ganesh, A Pirates’ Lullaby (Drammy Award, World Premiere), A Taste of Honey, The Diary of Anne Frank, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! and A Long Day's Journey into Night. An international actor and director, Nause represented American regional theater in the 1994 U.S.I.A. Arts in America Tour, directing A Journey Through American Comedy. On this tour, he performed and did workshops in Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Allen has performed at many of the Northwest’s major theaters, including the Portland Repertory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Tacoma Actors Guild, Seattle Repertory Theater, The Empty Space Theater, A Contemporary Theater and Intiman Theatre. He appeared in the feature films Frances and The Runner Stumbles, and will be seen in the upcoming Gathering Evidence. Allen directed the feature film ZigZag, starring Dan Reed.


DO DOAN CHAU (co-producer and designer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is the artistic director of the Central Dramatic Company of Vietnam and was the set designer for over 100 of its productions. He is also a fine-art painter, whose works have been displayed in Europe, Asia and the United States.


LORELLE BROWNING (co-producer and dramaturg, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), professor of English and Peace Studies at Pacific University in Oregon, is the founder and director of the Vietnam America Theater Exchange, the umbrella organization that made possible the American/Vietnamese co-production portrayed in A Dream In Hanoi. In addition to teaching Shakespeare, peace studies, and Vietnamese culture and history at Pacific University, Ms. Browning has served as the coordinator of Renaissance Studies at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and as project coordinator for A.C.T.E.R., A Center for Theater Education and Research at the University of California at Santa Barbara.



KRISTEN MARTHA BROWN (Helena) received her training in theater at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She has appeared in numerous roles, including Rosalind in As You Like It for the Portland Actors Ensemble, Kaleria in Summerfolk and Lady McDuff in MacBeth for LAMDA, theVelveteen Rabbit in The Velveteen Rabbit for Triangle! Productions, Jeri Lee in Last Days at the Dixie Girl Café for the Lakewood Theater, and Tanya and the Angel in Sex, Lies and Coffee Beans for Princess Multnomah Productions.


ANH DUNG (Oberon) trained at Hanoi’s Professional Theater and Film college. He has been an actor in the Central Dramatic Company of Vietnam since 1971, and has received gold medals for his performances in Troung Ba’s Soul in the Butcher’s Skin, Memories of the Moonlit Hill and The Girl on The River. In addition to appearing in hundreds of productions for the Central Dramatic Company, Mr. Dung has written and directed works for television and the large screen. He directed The Nightingale Returns to Its Nest, Classmates, The Fallen, and The Road to Nghe, and was author and co-director of Happiness Is Waiting. In 1993, he was awarded the title of “Eminent Artist” by the Vietnamese government.


NGAN HOA (Hermia) trained at Hanoi’s Professional Theater and Film college and has been a member of the Central Dramatic Company since 1995. She has performed as Lark in The Eyes, Lu Vien in The Warning Bell, Hoa in Farewell at Sunset and Clementine in Maxime’s Restaurant. She received an award for her performance of "Girl" in The Leaf-Shaped Boat at the Vietnam National Small Stage Festival in 1996. Her film roles include Huong in The Sound of Birds in the Fields, Anne in The Sweetness of Lychee Fruit, Kim in Wind Blowing Through Dappled Sunlight, and Sanh in Their Time.


DAMON KUPPER (Flute/Thisbe) has appeared in numerous productions of the Texas Shakespeare Festival and the Buffalo Shakespeare Festival and on television in The Young and the Restless (CBS) and The Mystical Realm (OCTV, Berlin). He has worked as a street performer in the United States, Central America, Europe and Asia, specializing in clown and pantomime acts. He received his M.F.A. in acting from the University of California at Irvine and has taught movement and stage combat at El Camino College and the Academy of Theater and Film in Hanoi.


DO KY (Demetrius) graduated from the Central Dramatic Company’s Professional Training course in 1982 and from the Directing Course of Hanoi’s Professional Theater and Film College in 2000. His roles, in productions of the Central Dramatic Company, have included Colexop in The June Farewell, Dung in Playing for the Other Side, Manh in Witness of History, Lieutenant Cuong in In the Name of Justice, Doctor Hoang in My Life Is a Song, Khoa in Living by Another’s Name, and First Mate in Disease of Arrogance. Do Ky recently made his directing debut with Blue Daisies in the Pond by Luu Quang Vu. He is a vice director of the Central Dramatic Company.


DOUG MILLER (Lysander) has appeared in numerous productions of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, the Tygres Heart Shakespeare Festival, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and Portland Center Stage. His roles have included Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Richard in Richard III, Navarre in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hal in Henry IV (Part 1 and 2), Prospero in The Tempest, the Duke in Measure for Measure, Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, Geoffrey in The Lion in Winter and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. He received his M.F.A. in Theater Arts from the University of Delaware in 1992.


QUANG THAI (Bottom) has been working at the Central Dramatic Company since 1958. He has played in hundreds of Vietnamese and foreign plays, of which the most prominent are: It Happened in Irkutsk, Maxime’s Restaurant and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mr. Thai is a recipient of the title of "Eminent Artist" from the Vietnamese government.

CHIEU XUAN (Titania) Graduated from the Acting Course of Hanoi’s Professional Theater and Film College in 1990. She has also studied and worked extensively in France. She played numerous roles in Vietnamese and foreign plays, including the lead role in Maxime’s Restaurant and A Stormy Night by I. Caragiale. In 1996, she received the award for Best Actress in the Vietnam National Film Festival for her portrayal of Na in My Lover Is Getting Married. She also received a gold medal at the Vietnam National Stage Festival in 1999.