PROGRAM: THURSDAYS COME AT MORNING

Lee Cataluna | Playwright

Lee Cataluna’s plays include Heart Strings (Atlantic Theater, NYC; Filament Theatre, Chicago), Flowers of Hawaii (Native Voices workshop; Chautauqua Institute; University of Hawaii), and Home of the Brave (La Jolla Playhouse; Honolulu Theatre for Youth.)  Current commissions include Emalani for Arena Stage, Super Aunty for the national BIPOC Superhero project, and Sons of Maui, which was a Eugene O’Neill 2023 finalist. Her work has been supported by NEA grants and the ReImagine TYA/USA grant. She was a member of the inaugural Oregon Shakespeare Festival Indigenous Playwrights Cohort and was part of the 2024 Ojai Playwrights Conference and 2025 SparkFest New Play Festival.  www.leecataluna.com

Les J.N. Mau | Original Story & Additional Material | “Howard”

Les J.N. Mau is a fourth-generation American, born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii of Chinese descent. An actor in New York City for over 40 years, he has appeared in Off and Off-Off Broadway theatres and on the regional stage at Yale Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, and Baltimore Center Stage among many others. He has also performed at the Young Vic, London, UK in Wild Swans, a play based on the autobiography of Jung Chang. He has appeared in numerous independent films and TV movies and many other television dramas filmed in New York City. He workshopped and performed the role of "Howard" at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in 2024.

Chris Chinn | “Sam”

Theatre Highlights: Song Liling in M. Butterfly at Monterey Mainstage, opposite Carrie Snodgress in The Manchurian Candidate at West Coast Ensemble, the Premiere of Tennessee Williams’ The Day On Which A Man Dies at the legendary White Barn Theatre directed by Arthur Storch, and the Latin ACE Award for Confesion En El Barrio Chino at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, co-produced by Miriam Colon. Other Theatre: Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, National Arts Club, NJ Rep, Boomerang Theatre Co, HB Ensemble, and staged readings at New York Theatre Workshop, Mark Taper Forum, and South Coast Rep. TV & Film: The Departed, Angels In America, “One Life To Live”, “Kidnapped”, “The Unusuals”, “Saved By The Bell”. Dedicated to my Bu, Frankie Ruiz!

Brian Tong | Stage Directions

Brian Tong (he/him) is an actor, producer, and theater artist dedicated to amplifying AAPI and other underrepresented voices on stage.  He is currently pursuing his BA in Theater from Fordham University and has also received training at LAMDA and Interlochen. Growing up in Queens, New York, as a first-generation Chinese American, he often grappled with the intersection of cultural heritage and contemporary issues in his artistic journey. Theater, an industry that has historically marginalized Asian performers, became both a challenge and a calling—one that fueled his passion for creating spaces where Asian American stories are not only represented but celebrated. Recent: Stuy or Die (Flushing Town Hall), ThreePenny Opera (Fordham). Upcoming: The Tempest (Fordham). He has also collaborated with NAATCO/ Transport Group/ Classic Stage (Bus Stop), (Isabel), and interned at The Tank, Theaterlab, and New Perspectives Theater Company. IG: @brianyangtong

John FitzGibbon | Director

John FitzGibbon directed Monica Bauer’s Made for Each Other starring John Fico for the East to Edinburgh Festival at 59E59. It then played to sold-out audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe. He directed her Two Men Walked into a Bar for the Dream Up Festival at Theatre for the New City.  Also her Democracy Sucks, a one-man show starring Mr. Fico for the Gay Summer Festival at NJ Rep.  At NJRep’s Theatre Brut Festivals, he has directed the plays of Robin Rice Lichtig, John Weagly and Jacob Zack.  As an actor, at NJ Rep he has played roles in 12 new plays.  He received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at LAMDA, received  an OBIE Nomination for his “Lame Beggar” in W.B. Yeats’ Cat and the Moon, a Carbonell Nomination for his “Nick” in Sight Unseen and a Best of Boston Award for his “James Tyrone” in Moon for the Misbegotten.

C.Q. Quintana | Talkback Moderator

 [pronouns: any/all] is a queer nonbinary writer with Cuban blood and New Orleans roots based on unceded Canarsee and Munsee Lenape land in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. Across genres, CQ's stories proclaim: you are not alone.​

​CQ's plays & musicals have been developed and produced nationwide with the Kennedy Center, Diversionary Theatre, INTAR, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and more. Scissoring is available via Dramatists Play Service, and you can listen to The 126-Year-Old Artist via Audible. For more, visit NPX.​

CQ's poetry, fiction, and lyric nonfiction is published in BOMB, Third Coast, Jacar Press, The Wildness Journal, Foglifter, great weather for MEDIA, and beyond. The author of the poetry chapbook The Heart Wants (Finishing Line Press), CQ's poem "She-lium" was featured on Radiolab's "Elements" episode in collaboration with Emotive Fruition/Poetry Well. 

CQ's television writing credits include Fox/Sony's ALERT: Missing Persons Unit (Seasons 2 and 3), AMC/Boat Rocker's Orphan Black: Echoes, and ABC/Keshet's The Baker and the Beauty.​​ 

CQ is the recipient of grants & fellowships from NYSCA, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, MacDowell, Playwrights Realm, Van Lier/New Voices at The Lark, CubaOne, Lambda Literary, and Queer|Art, as well as commissions from The Kennedy Center, Audible, The Civilians, EST/Alfred P. Sloan Project, and more. CQ is a proud graduate of the deceased College of Santa Fe and holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.

Follow CQ on IG at @cquintanatown and subscribe to Prosebuds, a monthly Substack featuring CQ's serialized fiction and showcasing the multi-genre writing community. www.cquintana.com

Mars Juno Bartolome Neri | Production Stage Manager

Mars Juno Bartolome Neri is a Filipino-American artist and stage manager who has had a passion for the creative their entire life. They love eccentric styles of art from sewing to baking to resin casting. This led to them finding their joy in the intricate collage of art that is theatre making and supporting others through stage management.

Drawing from their artistic upbringing and passion for social justice, Mars Juno Bartolome Neri (they/them) is a stage manager that strives to support others who wish to share their personal stories and build community through social justice oriented art. They believe in non-hierarchical structures and the importance of centering anti-racist and decolonial practices through a process over product mindset that uplifts the people who create and the relationships that form within an ensemble. They put that in practice by deconstructing the formal role of a stage manager and encouraging open and equal communication within a team. Through this, they strive to create an environment that promotes healing, growth, and sparks insightful conversations about the world by prioritizing the voices of the marginalized and giving everyone the care needed to proactively and joyfully work in a room. www.marsjbneri.com

Pradanya Subramanyan | Producer, Leviathan Lab

Pradanya Subramanyan is an Indian American artist and advocate dedicated to cultivating equitable and sustainable spaces in the entertainment industry. Specializing in producing, intimacy direction, and management, she supports artists in bringing underrepresented narratives to the stage— always with a focus on accessibility and the transformative power of storytelling. 

By supporting marginalized communities and dismantling industry barriers, she strives to produce work that resonates authentically and empowers future generations to see themselves represented with agency onstage and onscreen. Pradanya currently serves as the Producing Assistant at New York Stage and Film and a Producer at Leviathan Lab.  www.pradanyasubramanyan.com

Ariel Estrada | Producing Artistic Director, Leviathan Lab

Ariel Estrada is Webby Award-winning producer, actor, writer, and advocate for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander performing artists and all performing artists of marginalized identity. As an actor, he has performed on television, film, commercials, digital media, and Off-, and Off-Off-Broadway. As a producer, Ariel is the Founder and Executive Artistic Director for Leviathan Lab, a nonprofit creative studio for Asian American performing artists. As an arts administrator, he is a current Associate Consultant with Benvenuti Arts; the immediate past Marketing & Membership Director for the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists; and sits on the boards of Musical Theatre Factory and the Episcopal Actors’ Guild, and the Advisory Board of Houghton Hall Arts Community. His leadership has been recognized by Theatrical Intimacy Education, artEquity, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Theatre Communications Group. As a grant writing consultant, he has won over $1M in grant funding for small NYC arts nonprofits. He is also a Fortune 500-level graphic designer. www.arielestrada.com

This reading of THURSDAYS COME AT MORNING was made possible in part by the generous rehearsal support of the Museum of Chinese in America.