Brandon Zang

Brandon Zang

Brandon Zang (he/him) is a sci-fi and fantasy playwright who uses worldbuilding to distance, deconstruct, and dissect the complex issues of today. His work has been developed at Lifeline Theatre, Live Arts, KCACTF, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Queen's University, Boston University, and the University of Chicago. His play Ah Wing and the Automaton Eagle is the winner of the 2023 Voaden Prize.
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Brandon Zang (he/him) is a sci-fi and fantasy playwright who uses worldbuilding to distance, deconstruct, and dissect the complex issues of today. His work has been developed at Lifeline Theatre, Live Arts, KCACTF, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Queen's University, Boston University, and the University of Chicago. His play Ah Wing and the Automaton Eagle is the winner of the 2023 Voaden Prize.

Brandon is currently a MFA playwright at Boston University, and he holds a double BA in theater and anthropology from the University of Chicago.

Plays

  • Nüwa in Fairyland by Brandon Zang
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Shakespeare, Asian-American + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, fantasy
    Keyword: Shakespeare, Asian-American, adoption, A Midsummer Night's Dream, high school, coming of age
    After 15-year-old Benji does a deep dive into method acting to prepare for his role as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Benji's reality begins to blend in with the hazy woods from Shakespeare's play. Things start to go wrong when he runs into an unfamiliar character: the Chinese creator goddess Nüwa. Does Nüwa hold the key to the birthplace of Benji, a transracial adoptee? Or will he never escape Fairyland?
  • Ah Wing and the Automaton Eagle by Brandon Zang
    Cast: 
    8–12
    ·
    Genre: drama, period + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Steampunk, Asian-American + 5 more
    Genre: drama, period, science fiction
    Keyword: Steampunk, Asian-American, 19th century America, San Francisco, Chinatown, automatons, period
    Ah Wing, a genius kid inventor living in 1877 San Francisco Chinatown, has built a sentient automaton eagle and the whole world wants it for their own. Together with his ambitious older sister, they must figure out a way to protect their invention before it falls into the wrong hands. In a metropolis forged from steel, nothing is quite as it seems.
  • Quantum Eve by Brandon Zang
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: experimental, fable/folktale + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: one act, Biblical + 2 more
    Genre: experimental, fable/folktale, science fiction
    Keyword: one act, Biblical, artificial intelligence, quantum physics
    Eve does math and Adam writes stories. In the Garden of Eden, the two lovers are imprisoned by their creators for six thousand years to solve one question:

    What is reality?
  • Floor 40 by Brandon Zang
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: melodrama, period + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: historical, Great Depression + 2 more
    Genre: melodrama, period, political
    Keyword: historical, Great Depression, wall street, Stock Market Crash of 1929
    October 24: Hulda gets on an elevator. She is a stockbroker.
    October 24: The day the market crashed. The first day of the Great Depression.
    October 24: 11 stockbrokers throw themselves off buildings. Or did they?

    It's October 24, 1929. Hulda gets off the elevator.