Tom X. Chao
| Tom X. Chao | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Playwright, writer, actor, musician |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
University of Southern California New York University |
| Notable works | Cats Can See the Devil |
| Website | |
| tomxchao |
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Tom X. Chao is a comedic playwright, actor, and musician based in New York City whose works have been produced in the United States and Canada. Chao regularly stars in his own work, usually playing an unflattering autobiographical character named "Tom." During the 1990s, Chao was a member of New York City's Art Stars alternative performance scene, and The New York Times called him "a dryly funny downtown comedian," and Time Out New York labeled him a "hilariously angsty writer-performer." He is best known for his play Cats Can See the Devil, which appears in Plays and Playwrights 2004.
Chao's first production, an experimental one-act play in which he also starred. The lead character spends the entirety of the show delivering existential monologues while lying under a large piece of black cloth, until he is challenged by an otherworldly woman in a white dress. Chao created The Negative Energy Field as part of his Masters thesis in performance art at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, premiering it in 1996 at Pink, Inc. in New York City, with Shawn Sides originating the role of the Woman in the White Dress. It was subsequently produced at Dixon Place, the New York International Fringe Festival, and elsewhere.
Chao's first produced work to include a full cast and the only in which he has never played a role, Summer, Deepening Then Gone involves a teenage girl who magically summons an unwitting poet to protect her from the unwanted advances of a suitor. It debuted in 1999 at HERE in New York City under the original title The Universe of Despair before being retitled for later productions. Script published on Indietheaternow.com in May 2016.
A one-act play in which a young woman tries to help a hapless King Crimson fan understand relationships, Can't Get Started premiered at the St. Marks Theater in 2000 as Chao's first work as an artist-in-residence at New York's Horse Trade Theater Group. An early performance of the play was included in the video archive series of New York City experimental theater NotPerformanceArt.Can't Get Started later saw multiple productions in Canada, one featuring Chao at the 2006 Edmonton International Fringe Festival, and a revival with a new cast for the 2011 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.
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