Katherine Chou on Directing "The Dance and the Railroad" at Los Angeles Theatre Center

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A co-production by Asian American theater collective Artists at Play & Latino Theater Company

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Asian American theater collective Artists at Play and Latino Theater Company reunite for their fourth collaboration in four years with a rare revival of The Dance and the Railroad, an early play by David Henry Hwang which was a Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Play and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Directed by Artists at Play producing member Katherine Chou, the production stars Tony Jin and Scott Keiji Takeda as Lone and Ma, two immigrant laborers building the transcontinental railroad during the Chinese Railroad Workers’ Strike of 1867, and centers on how labor, identity, friendship and the power of artistic expression can collide in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

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Here’s my interview with Katherine Chou (pictured, courtesy of the artist) on directing the production, why its message will still ring true to modern audiences, and how she handles representing the intersection of art and labor in its storyline.

Thanks for speaking with me, Katherine. What drew you to The Dance and the Railroad , and what made you want to direct this particular play now?

Artists at Play brought the play to me in 2023 for a reading they were producing with A Noise Within. I was drawn in by the play’s simple poetry and artistry, as well as how surprisingly funny, absurd, and surreal it was. As a director, it was a vehicle for many things that excited me, from surreal structural shifts to the theatrical language of Chinese opera to an intimate relationship at the heart of a remarkable pause where nothing changes while everything changes. That experience created a desire to see the gestural approach of the reading fully realized. Three years later, I’m thrilled to have the chance to do so.

Historical photo of Chinese Railroad Workers

David Henry Hwang wrote the play in 1981, yet the press release describes it as “arguably more timely now than ever.” What feels especially urgent about the play to you in 2026?

We are producing this play in a political and cultural moment where the contributions of immigrants and artists are actively being attacked and erased. The questions that The Dance and the Railroad grapples with—about how much we value the labor that has built this country or the necessity of art as an expression of a person’s mind and soul—are the questions that we all face every day in 2026. 2026 also marks the 250th anniversary of the United States. The Dance and the Railroad challenges the nation-building narrative that has made the Chinese railroad workers mere footnotes in US history, taken credit for their labor, and simplified them into avatars of victimhood by instead showing us a moment where these complex, passionate individuals organized and fought for their rights.

Historical photo of Chinese Railroad Workers

The play centers on Chinese immigrant railroad workers who are fighting for their rights. What did you discover about the historical context of the 1867 strike that influenced your directorial approach?

I don’t remember learning about the 1867 strike at all in school, so its very existence as the largest labor action up to that point in American history was a major touchpoint throughout the process. Recent advances in research and archaeology have also uncovered a deeper understanding of the Chinese workers as people who actively engaged with writing, art, and craftsmanship in their daily lives. In my directorial approach, I wanted to center them as complex individuals with agency, who were clear-eyed and self-assured enough to demand better working conditions in a foreign country. With every department, we took an inside-out approach that fleshed out Lone and Ma as different people with different interests and backgrounds, then led with their psychology so that every aspect of the show grew from their point of view.

Scott Keiji Takeda and Tony Jin Photo by Stefanie Lau

Hwang contrasts Ma’s idealism with Lone’s pragmatism and independence. How are you exploring the differences between these two men?

It’s been interesting to explore those differences with the actors because the push and pull between them is one of the central questions of the play and what makes their dynamic so fun to watch. Each comes to influence and profoundly change the other over the course of a week. One example of how we’ve also been exploring their differences through design is in our approach to their costumes. In past productions, Lone and Ma have been dressed similarly in a sort of laborer’s uniform. Here, Costume Designer Jojo Siu and I wanted to represent their personalities and backgrounds in more distinct ways. What armor or uniform might Ma wear to fit in and get ahead in a new promised land? What traditions might Lone be holding onto for comfort or security?

At the heart of the play is the relationship between labor and art. What does Chinese opera represent for Ma and Lone, and what does it allow them to express that they cannot express through their work?

On one level, the opera represents different things for each of them. For Lone, the opera was everything he lived for back home. He finds security and meaning in its hierarchy and traditions. Ma is drawn to its beauty, but he doesn’t have any connection to the tradition or craft of it. On another level, the play asks questions about the value of labor that is dictated by others—labor without a mind or soul behind it—versus labor in the service of self-expression, aka the opera. Are we really alive if we labor for others? Although the opera is no less physically taxing, Lone and Ma ultimately find more meaning in the use of their bodies for self-expression.

Tell me about the two actors, Tony Jin and Scott Keiji Takeda (pictured), who are portraying Ma and Lone and how you went about casting them given the various acting and performance skills necessary to bring the two characters fully to life.

Tony and Scott have been incredible to work with and have thrown themselves fully into their roles. We knew that we’d need to find actors with movement experience and vocal dexterity in order to fully bring the Chinese opera elements of the play to life. Even with the dance and musical theater experience they each came in with, this is a deceptively simple show that is actually physically, vocally, and emotionally demanding on another level than most, and they’ve been unafraid to take it all on. Beyond that, there’s something intrinsically Lone and Ma about each of them, whether it’s Tony’s grace or Scott’s charm. Things only get more interesting from there when you put the two of them together.

The characters practice Chinese opera on a mountain while workers struggle below. How are you staging that contrast between physical hardship and artistic freedom?

Although Hwang never brings the railroad or the labor around it explicitly onto the stage, I wanted its presence—and absence—to be felt throughout. When do we feel the oppression of the physical hardship that made up their lives before the strike, and when do we feel the relief of its pause? Once we enter the opera, how does the artistic freedom brought by this art form allow us to transcend reality? These were the questions that drove my conversations with all the designers, but especially those with our lighting designer Szu-Yun Wang and sound designer Jesse Mandapat , which led us to take an expressionistic, surreal approach to staging the show. We hear the oppressive repetition of labor just as we see the sky take on the striking primary colors of Chinese opera, so that we feel that contrast through each of our senses.

Scott Keiji Takeda and Tony Jin Photo by Stefanie Lau

Chinese opera is central to the characters’ relationship, but audiences may have little familiarity with the art form. How are you making it accessible without over-explaining or diminishing its cultural specificity?

I love that the play presents Western theater and Chinese opera on equal footing. I believe that both are equally valid ways of expressing drama, and that audiences of all backgrounds will be able to access something of the events or emotionality of what they’re seeing, even when faced with staging that’s not in their theatrical “native language.” We did a lot of research to honor the cultural specificity of Cantonese opera as best we could. We reached out to local opera groups, attended lectures and performances, and referenced musical and video resources at every step of the process. We also worked with a Beijing-based Cantonese opera director to map Hwang’s English lyrics onto Cantonese opera and folk melodies, then coach our actors in their vocal approach to those moments in the show. My goal was to treat Cantonese opera as a living art, one that could withstand experimentation and intentional diversion in the telling of a Chinese American story, then carefully balance levels of realism and abstraction so that we preserved the specificity of opera while making it accessible to audiences with varying levels of familiarity to the art form. But at no point was I concerned with making it “palatable.”

What role does movement and choreography play in this production, particularly given Annie Yee’s involvement as choreographer?

Movement and choreography are a major part of this production. A significant portion of the play is told through Chinese opera, which relies on movement to tell a story. Beyond that, Annie did some beautiful work in crafting choreography for Lone that shows us an opera performer at the top of his game. We’ve also intentionally differentiated Lone and Ma through movement, at times going against what “good” movement should be in service of character. I’ve really enjoyed this process with Annie because she understands the importance of weaving character and story into the choreography rather than just creating movement for spectacle’s sake…although the results are often pretty spectacular.

Scott Keiji Takeda and Tony Jin Photo by Stefanie Lau

Hwang specifically sought to reject the stereotype of the “submissive immigrant laborer.” How does your production emphasize the characters’ agency, ambition and complexity?

I’m deeply aware of the image of the Chinese railroad worker as an avatar of suffering, and I wanted to push against that in every respect on this production. Everyone on our team has some personal experience with immigration, whether it’s firsthand or through family and friends, so it wasn’t a challenge to imagine our characters having the agency, ambition, and complexity that we all have as human beings. But I also think that’s what any good theater artist does when approaching any show. From there, we naturally made an effort to center Lone and Ma’s points of view and carve out who they were as individuals. Most of our creative decisions were made to express that complexity and place the audience inside their experience and perspective.

The production is a collaboration between Artists at Play and Latino Theater Company—the fourth collaboration between the organizations in four years. What has this partnership made possible artistically?

As a result of this partnership, Artists at Play has been in residence at the Los Angeles Theatre Center for the past four years. There’s been so much creative growth as a result of the stability that comes with having an artistic home, and you can see it in each of the four shows we’ve produced together, whether it’s in terms of the dive

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/article/Interview-Director-Katherine-Chou-of-THE-DANCE-AND-THE-RAILROAD-at-Los-Angeles-Theatre-Center-20260930)._