In 2013 I teamed up with PAT Theatre Company founders Chye-Ling Huang and James Roque to create the first New Zealand production of "F.O.B." by Asian-American Playwright David Henry Hwang.

The play was important to me as a means of promoting Chinese culture and encouraging New Zealand audiences to embrace the many incredible facets of the multi-cultural society around them.

Personally too, it highlighted the need to showcase a minority (in this case, New Zealand's asian population) in an educational way. And I could draw on the feeling of minority from my own experience as a gay man. You can read more about my thoughts at the time in an interview I had with GayNZ here:

Interview - Meet: Adam Moorhead

Note: The term "FOB" stands for "fresh off the boat", a term that was used largely in the USA during early days of Asian immigration there by ship. However, it is used in New Zealand too, particularly as a means to describe new immigrants from the Pacific Islands. Depending on it's use now it may be considered a derogatory term.

"FOB" Written by David Henry Hwang
Director:     Adam Moorhead
Asst Dir:     Amanda Tito
Producers: PAT Theatre Co. and Tayla Pitt
Actors:       Chye-Ling Huang, James Roque,                           Benjamin Teh
Lighting:    Sam Mence
Music:        Han Huang

Reviews and further material on F.O.B.:

"The great strength of Moorhead as a director can be found in his precise, almost laser-like vision. He doesn't allow for superfluous details. The actors flit from scene to scene, giving us a fast-paced show with snappy scene changes. The result is a show that ends while the audience is still alive and responsive." - Joselyn Khor, Theatreview

"Some of the portrayals are so realistic and heart-rending I became quite drawn into the sliver of history the actors were triumphantly re-creating through their craft" - Kandee Teiotaata-Iobu, KeepingUpWithNewZealand

For more information and to see other works by PAT Theatre Company visit their website here:

www.prettyasiantheatre.com