Clarion Performing Arts Center hosts a special film screening of the 1985 American Playhouse television adaptation of Genny Lim’s Paper Angels (1985)
Join Genny Lim, playwright of award winning drama; co-author of Island: Poetry & History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, for a rare archival screening of the 1985 American Playhouse television adaptation of her 1980 play, Paper Angels.
Saturday, Jun 29, 2024, 4:00PM – 6:00PM; Clarion Performing Arts Center, 2 Waverly Place, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA
 Paper Angels: Post-screening Q+A with Genny Lim at Clarion |
 Paper Angels (1985) Publicity Still |
Directed by John Lone, featuring an all-star cast, with searing performances by Victor Wong, Beulah Quo, James Hong, Joan Chen and Rosalind Chao and others.
“We were invisible on television, in films, and the mass media. Nobody looked like us.”
— BEULAH QUO
Breaking the Color Line in Hollywood: Beulah Ong Kwoh, Actor
 Beulah Quo as Chin Moo in “Paper Angels” (1985) |
 Under Investigation – American Playhouse television adaptation of Paper Angels (1985) |
Production Credits
- Lindsay Law … Executive Producer
- Phylis Geller … Executive Producer
- Ricki Franklin … Producer
- Marilyn Larson … Associate Producer
- John Lone … Director
- Genny Liu … Developed by
- Genny Lim … Writer
- Lucia Hwong … Music by
- Michael Small … Theme Music by
- William St. James … Announcer
- Rosalind Chao … Cast, Ku Ling
- Joan Chen … Cast, Mei Lai
- Dennis Dun … Cast, Mr. Wong
- Mike Genovese … Cast, Henderson
- Robert Harper … Cast, the Inspector
- James Hong … Cast, Fong
- David Huang … Cast, Lum
- Karen Huie … Cast, Miss Chan
- Beulah Quo … Cast, Chin Moo
- Tom Rosqui … Cast, the Warden
- Kate Williamson … Cast, the Matron
- Victor Wong … Cast, Chin Gung
- Ping Wu … Cast, Lee
- Grace Zabriskie … Cast, Miss Gregory
Source: https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?item=T86:1895
About “Paper Angels”
Paper Angels premiered on September 12, 1980 at the Asian American Theater Company. In 1982, the New Federal Theatre in New York produced the play. That same year, Lim founded her own production company, Paper Angels Productions, and brought the play to the Chinese Cultural Center in San Francisco. A television adaptation of Paper Angels was later filmed and appeared on PBS’s AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE in July of 1985.
The play has been awarded the SF Fringe Festival Award, the Viillager Award from Village Voice, NY, and the James Wong Howe Award from AAPAA, Los Angeles.
Watch the Asian American Theater Company’s 1980 production on the Internet Archive. Digitized by California Revealed, from the AATC Archives.
 Original Cast of Paper Angels premiere at Asian American Theater Company (1980) |