Tom Zhang (they/them) is Duke Theater Studies’ Artist-in-Residence for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Tom is an actor and theater-maker dedicated to creating performances that use humor to explore race relations and Asian American identity. As an actor, singer and writer, their works focus on telling stories typically left out of mainstream entertainment.
Tom graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a Master of Fine Arts in Acting, and is coming to Duke from Emory University, where they were an instructor and the inaugural Emory Arts Fellow in Theater. At Duke, they will be teaching Acting (THEATRST 145S) while working with students to develop a devised project, DEI: Discovering Everyone’s Issues, to be presented in Sheafer Lab Theater on February 15-17, 2024.
What excites you most about Theater Studies at Duke?
The people! Getting to work with forward-thinking colleagues as well as creative and energetic students has always been the highlight of my artistic journey. Everyone at Duke is so brilliant and generous, so I can’t wait to see what new, funky ideas we all come up with together. If anyone would like to chat about theater, devising or just random life stuff, my door’s open (Office: Bryan Center 046)!
What’s your biggest upcoming project?
As part of my artist residency, I’ll be developing a new devised theater piece called DEI: Discovering Everyone’s Issues. The idea is to combine an actual Diversity, Equity & Inclusion workshop with a play. The audience will participate in discussions and exercises in the middle of a workshop that starts to fall apart due to infighting and constant undermining from an institutional figure playfully positioned as a lawyer. It will be presented in February, and I’m setting up workshops this semester to try out some ideas and gather student collaborators.
The other part of my residency is teaching Acting, which has already been a treat! My students are jumping right in to all the weird acting exercises and having a blast while also making great observations about how to connect the concepts to on-stage challenges. I’m eager to see what they’ll take away from the class by December.
What has been your proudest professional accomplishment?
As a theater maker, my proudest accomplishment was my project Witness the Yellow Peril, which I premiered at Son of Semele as part of their Company Creation Fest. It was a show exploring Asian American stereotypes in the U.S. through comedy, with a focus on my own experiences growing up Chinese American. The show jumped between stand-up-like monologues and sketches playing with different U.S. entertainment genres like Film Noir, 80s sitcoms and Infomercials. As part of that production, I assembled an entirely Asian creative team and worked with other devisers and actors of color to create a piece that resonated with the Asian and Asian American audience members who came to see it. It was written pre-COVID so it’ll need a lot of revisions before its next iteration, but I hope I’ll get to produce it again soon.
As a teacher, my proudest moments are when students let loose and start exploring outside conventions. In a devising course I taught at Emory, my students responded to a prompt to create a celebration by transforming the classroom into a restaurant. Instead of food, each course of the meal was a selection of discussion prompts asking the table to talk about successes in school, work and relationships. They really blew me away with that one.
What is one of your favorites plays and why?
Sister, Braid My Hair by my friend and collaborator Sarahjeen François. The play combines heightened poetic language, African drumming, dance, tableau, traditional braiding techniques and painting-inspired mythological figures to explore intimacy and the passing of knowledge between Black and Brown women and the weight of over-policing in their communities. It's a mind-blowingly cool production.
What advice would you give to Theater Studies students?
Practice the fine art of saying “no,” and slow down so you can enjoy the moment. And maybe most importantly, remember that you are enough. Imposter syndrome and feelings of comparison come up all the time, especially in a community of lifelong overachievers like you. In those moments, remember that you bring your own unique skills, perspectives and gifts to every room you walk into. Your value is not defined by which project you land, how many compliments you get on a performance or what job you wind up in. Your value is yours to decide. Don’t ever forget that.
Theater Studies