ARTIST BIOS

Rachel Lin (writer/performer)

is a Brooklyn based actor and writer. World premieres include: Ajax by A.R. Gurney (The Flea, NY Times Critics' Pick), Women, (Hollywood Fringe, the PIT) Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love (The Flea), Fat Kids on Fire by Bekah Brunstetter. Regional: Caught (St. Louis Rep), Egress (Cleveland Play House), War of the Worlds (Montana Rep). TV: Law & Order: Organized Crime (NBC), Pose (F/X), Bull (CBS), and Black Cake (Hulu). She is so grateful to you for coming.

Nana Dakin (director)

is a queer Thai American director of new work, classics and devised performance based in NYC. Her work pursues social equity by examining the way culture is constructed and unsettling dormant biases. She is the first Thai theatre director to direct at the Royal Court Theatre in London and in NYC her work has been presented and developed at Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Civilians, Clubbed Thumb, Ma-Yi Theater Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, The Playwrights Realm, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Soho Rep and more. Regional: “The Chinese Lady” (Everyman Theatre), “Again” (Theater Mu), “Eurydice” (American Shakespeare Company). Nana is a core member of B-Floor Theatre, Thailand’s most highly awarded theatre company, of Superhero Clubhouse, a company that creates theater to enact climate and environmental justice, and the Board President of the Thai Theatre Foundation. MFA Theatre Directing: Columbia University. www.nanadakin.com

Kelly Letourneau (producer)

(she/her) is a NYC-based actor, playwright, director, and producer. As an actor, Kelly has appeared off-Broadway, regionally and on tour. Acting credits include: THREE SISTERS (Two River Theater), A VALENTINE FOR SONDHEIM (Fiasco Theater), MIDSUMMER (Tiltyard), PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Kate Hamill (Playhouse on Park), and THE APPLE BOYS (HERE Arts Center). Kelly has assisted new play development as an assistant for Kate Hamill’s DRACULA and as director of THE JUMP SHOT. Kelly is a proud tentacle of Octopus Theatricals, where she works as Producing Associate. Training: Fiasco Theater, RADA, NYU Tisch School of the Arts. For MJ. Kelly’s all-time favorite role is Auntie. www.kellyletourneau.com @kelletourneau

Cinthia Chen (projection Designer)

is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn and Taiwan. She has created and developed original work through Theater Mitu, Mabou Mines, Fault Line Theater, Corkscrew Theater Festival, and Asian American Arts Alliance. She is an adjunct artist at Theater Mitu and co-facilitates their Hybrid Arts Lab fellowship. Cinthia also works as a video and projections designer and was recognized at La MaMa’s Design Fest 2020 and USITT Prague Quadrennial 2023. Recent projects include: “Salesman之死” (Connelly Theater), “The Healing Shipment” (La Mama), “Where Are You?” (Mabou Mines), “Specially Processed American Me” (Dixon Place), and “american (tele)visions” (NYTW, asst. designer). www.cinthiachen.com

Jonathan Cottle (lighting Designer)

Jonathan Cottle (he/him/his) is a NYC based artist that creates and facilitates live performance in traditional theatrical venues, clubs, bars, dusty basements, living rooms, neglected backyards and once, a bus.

Caroline Eng (sound designer)

(she/her) is a sound designer and podcast engineer based in New York. Selected Sound Design: Merry Me (New York Theatre Workshop, co-design Kate Marvin), Little Women (Theaterworks, UCCS), Three Sisters (Two River Theatre), Belfast Girls (Irish Rep), A Christmas Carol (Trinity Rep), The Late Wedding (Brown University/Trinity Rep), Clue (Greater Boston Stage Company), Twelfth Night (Theatreworks, UCCS) Selected Assistant Design credits: Bring Down The House (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Fefu and Her Friends (Theatre For A New Audience)

Kalina Ko (Dramaturg)

(she/her) is a Cantonese-American theater director, dramaturg, and literary administrator interested in the radical connection and community building of storytelling. She is currently a Co-Coordinator for the Ma-Yi Writer's Lab, Literary Associate at Roundabout Theatre Company, and a Curator for Hedgepig’s Expand the Canon. Past experience includes directing Laura Neill's Pink Unicorn Frappuccinos (Chain Theatre), Nina Ki's Rescues (Clubbed Thumb Emerging Writers Group), Paige Conway’s Tag (drafted), and Sophie Poole’s Ethanol (NOMADS). She has served as associate director for Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife Gloria (NAMT, dir. Jess McLeod), assistant director for T. Adamson’s The Straights (The JACK, Brooklyn, dir. Will Detlefsen), and script assistant for Hansol Jung on Wolf Play (Soho Rep). She was also a NAMT Directing observer in 2021 and is part of the 2023-2024 Moxie Arts Incubator Cohort. www.KalinaKo.weebly.com

Juni li (stage Manager)

Born in NYC, she has worked as stage manager, production manager, and sound designer for numerous Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions since 2010, winning an Outstanding Stage Manager award in 2015 from the New York Innovative Theatre Awards. Companies she's worked with include: Nicu's Spoon, Pan Asian Rep, Gallery Players, Rising Sun, Stolen Chair, NLTP, Storm Theatre, Yara Arts, and Soho Rep. Currently she serves as line producer for the upcoming short film Last Tattoo. Free time activities include: traveling, reading, drawing, painting, birding, and watching osprey and royal albatross nest cams online.

Cate Mccrea (Scenic consultant)

is a scenographer specializing in collaborative development of new works.  Her designs are inspired by and drawn from craft techniques, recycled materials, archival collections, and daydreams. You can find her at the library. Recent work off-Broadway: The Good John Proctor (Bedlam), Corsicana (Playwrights Horizons, co-design with Lael Jellinek), The Collision/The Martyrdom (59E59). Other work at Danspace Project, the Brick, New Ohio Theatre, the Tank; and with The Acting Company, Little Opera Theatre of New York, and the Drama League. Cate is a 2023 Target Margin Institute fellow, and a member of USA 829.

DEAR JOHN is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

The Museum of CHinese in America

The Museum of Chinese in America has preserved, presented and celebrated the 200-year history, heritage, culture, and diverse experiences of American communities of Chinese descent, since its founding in 1980. Through exhibitions, education, public programs and community partnerships, MOCA aims to engage audiences in an ongoing and historical dialogue, in which people of all backgrounds are able to see American history through a critical perspective, to reflect on their own experiences, and to make meaningful connections between: the past and the present, the global and the local, themselves and others.