APAture 2015: Future Tense
Performing Arts Showcase | Artist Bios
BAD Repertory Theatre is an improvisational and sketch comedy group based in the San Francisco Bay Area. BAD Rep is dedicated to providing artists—predominantly but not exclusively of Asian-American heritage—with a collaborative space to create entertaining, provoking, and amusing work while giving people a reason and opportunity to hang out and joke with one another.
Sammay Dizon is a Los Angeles native turned Bay Area transplant, currently leading the first-ever performing arts program for the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco. She is a deep believer of using arts for social activism and has committed her life to community and cultural arts advocacy. Her most recent performance credits include BIRTHRIGHT? by Rhodessa Jones and She, Who Can See by Alleluia Panis. Sammay was a featured artist for the 18th Annual United States of Asian America Festival where she produced, curated, and created "URBAN x INDIGENOUS: Spirits of the Streets."
Raskia Kumar is a Bharatanatyam performer and choreographer. She is currently the associate artistic director of the Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose (ADC), having studied under her mother, artistic director of ADC Mythili Kumar, and other renowned teachers. Since 2005, Rasika has been a soloist, principal dancer, and choreographer for all of ADC’s performance seasons. Her choreography has been featured in the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and SF WestWave Festival and has earned her an Arts Council of Silicon Valley Performing Arts Fellowship (2008). Rasika’s collaborative rhythmic arrangement with Franco Imperial of San Jose Taiko garnered an Isadora Duncan Award in the music category (2011). Last year, she won the Lakshmi Viswanathan Award from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India) for her solo performance during the 2014 season.
Fong Tran is a Sacramento community organizer and youth advocate. He first started writing poetry through June Jordan's Poetry of the People class at U.C. Berkeley's African American Studies Department. His writing emphasizes giving voice to marginalized peoples, and he is deeply entrenched in the values of social justice and intersections of community struggle. He has a B.A. in social welfare and a double minor in education and public policy from U.C. Berkeley, and a master's degree in community development from U.C. Davis. He currently serves as the program advisor/coordinator for the U.C. Davis Cross Cultural Center.