creative team
CHRISTINE TOY JOHNSON (Book and Lyrics) is a Tony, Obie, and Jonathan Larson award honored, Rosetta LeNoire, JACL, Actors’ Equity Foundation, and Asian American Arts Alliance award winning writer, actor, and advocate for inclusion. Her written work has been produced and/or developed by the Roundabout, Lortel Theatre, Village Theatre, O’Neill Center, the Abingdon, Greater Boston Stage Company, Florida Studio Theatre, Ars Nova, Barrow Group, Prospect Theatre, Weston Playhouse, Musical Theatre West, Goodspeed Opera House, and more, and is included in the Library of Congress’s Asian Pacific American Playwrights Collection. Published by NoPassport Press, Smith & Kraus, Rowman & Littlefield, Applause Books. Treasurer of the Dramatists Guild and host of the Guild’s podcast "Talkback" on Broadway Podcast Network. BMI, Writers Lab, Sarah Lawrence College alum, co-founder of AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition), founder of the Asian American Theatre Artists Collective, Inaugural Catalyst for Change fellowship through the Dramatists Guild Foundation. As an actor, Christine has appeared extensively on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theatres across the country and on television and film. Insta: @CToyJ Details: www.christinetoyjohnson.com
CECILIA LIN (Composer), graduate of Royal College of Music (London), is a four-time Chinese Music Award winner for Best Composer of the Year. Beginning her professional career at age 15, Ms. Lin has written over a hundred pieces of pop music for various Asian pop stars and twenty-one songs that reached #1 on Chinese Music Radio (Chinese Billboard). Ms. Lin also has a selection of film and TV credits, including composing additional material for Disney’s High School Musical (Asia). In 2015, Ms. Lin signed on with the Paris National Symphony Orchestra as its first Asian composer and is the youngest artist ever to be on the national stamp issued by the CHINA POST. Since 2018, Cecilia has been living in New York pursuing a career in the Broadway theatre industry, earning multiple awards as a co-producer, including Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical.
Geling Yan, MFA, a novelist and screenwriter from China, has published over 40 books and won over 30 literary and film awards. Her work has been translated into 21 languages. Many of her works have been adapted for film. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. FUSONG is based on her novel The Lost Daughter of Happiness, which she researched and wrote in San Francisco. Her website is www.yangeling.com.
GABRIEL BARRE (Director) directed and co-authored the original production of Here You Come Again which toured the US, the UK and currently touring Australia. He is an internationally acclaimed director who directed Amazing Grace on Broadway. Off Broadway credits include the original productions of A Sign of the Times, The Wild Party (by Andrew Lippa), Summer of ’42, john & jen and Almost, Maine. National Tours include Amazing Grace, Pippin and Cinderella. US Regional theater credits include the original productions of Memphis in Boston and San Fransisco, as well as revivals of Billy Elliot, Sweeney Todd, Finian’s Rainbow and many new musicals at Goodspeed Musicals in CT. Among the many countries he has directed productions in are: China (recent production Sound of the Silk Road), Mexico (Mexican premiere of Billy Elliot), Japan (Japanese premiere of The Scarlet Pimpernel), Korea (world premiere of the new musical, Tears of Heaven) Germany, and numerous shows in the Czech Republic at the Karlin Theater, including the recent hit, Beetlejuice, as well as the long running, Carmen, Jesus Christ Superstar, Aida, and Holmes, The Legend. Gabe is also busy preparing to direct the world premiere of the exciting new musical, Reunion, by Frank Wildhorn and Rinne Groff about the reunion of a fictitious rock band. As an actor, Gabe has appeared often in television, film and stage and was nominated for a TONY award as Best Actor in a Musical.
Lawrence A. Walker, MBA, is the managing director of Fusong LLC and of New Song Media GmbH. He has worked as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, serving in Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America; as managing director of a U.S.-German bilateral trade organization; and as business development director for a Silicon Valley-based venture capital company. He has translated several Chinese-language works of Geling Yan into English. His company’s website is www.newsongmedia.de.