2019 Productions | CAUGHT 

Intiman Theatre presents

CAUGHT By Christopher Chen
Directed by Desdemona Chiang

March 7-March 30, 2019 at 12th Ave Arts, 1620 12th Ave, Seattle

An art gallery hosts a retrospective of the work of a legendary Chinese dissident artist who was imprisoned in a Chinese detention center for a single work of art. Recently profiled in the New Yorker, the artist himself is present, and shares with patrons the details of an ordeal that defies belief. A labyrinthine exploration of truth, art, social justice, and cultural appropriation, where nothing is as it first appears.

This irreverent new genre-bending work invites you to navigate a shape-shifting trail between truth and perception, authority and authenticity, illusionary art and real jeopardy.


​New York Times Critics Pick: “An intricately constructed, unrelentingly destabilizing puzzle of a play about the anatomy of truth and the provocative power of illusion… As perceived realities dissolve, the one thing spectators can be sure of is that they are inside a production that is also a kind of art installation, and that it is messing with them. ​” – Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times

CAUGHT previewed on March 5, 2019, opened on March 7, 2019, and closed on March 30, 2019

12th Ave Arts
620 12th Ave
Seattle, WA 98122

Click for information on the venue and parking.

Please join us every Sunday after the performance for an in-depth conversation on various aspects of the production. Phillip Chavira, Intiman’s Executive Director, will moderate each discussion with artists and community members. Any ticket holder, of any performance, is welcome to attend.

Sunday, March 10, 2019: On Asian Pacific Americans in Theatre and the Arts with guest Roger Tang, Executive Director of Pork Filled Productions, an Asian American Theatre Company

Sunday, March 17, 2019: On Representation and Appropriation with guests from the Seattle Asian American Film Festival

Sunday, March 24, 2019: Art as a Tool for Social Change. Guest TBA.

Photos by Naomi Ishisaka for Intiman Theatre

Christopher Chen he/him (Playwright) is an Obie Award-winning playwright whose full-length works have been produced and developed across the United States and abroad, at companies such as the American Conservatory Theater, Arcola Theatre, Artists Repertory, Asian American Theater Company, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Beijing Fringe, Berkeley Rep/Ground Floor, Central Works, Crowded Fire, Cutting Ball Theater, Edinburgh Fringe, Finborough Theatre, Firefly/Think Tank, hotINK Festival, Impact Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Just Theatre, Lark Play Development Center, Long Wharf Theatre, Magic Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, Playwrights Horizons, Rep at St. Louis, San Francisco Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Shotgun Players, Sideshow, Silk Road Rising, Sundance Theatre Lab, Theatre Mu, U.C. Berkeley/Zellerbach Playhouse, The Vineyard and The Wilma.

Desdemona Chiang she/her (Director) is a stage director based in Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area. Co-Founder of Azeotrope (Seattle). Directing credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, California Shakespeare Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Playmakers Repertory Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, ACT Theatre Seattle, American Shakespeare Center, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Heritage Theatre Festival, Book-It Repertory, Aurora Theatre Company, Seattle Public Theatre, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire Theatre Company, Azeotrope, Impact Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, Golden Thread Productions, Washington Ensemble Theatre, One Minute Play Festival, Ohio Northern University, University of Washington, and Cornish College of the Arts, among others. Assisting and dramaturgy credits include: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Intiman Theatre, Playmakers Repertory Company, A Contemporary Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Arizona Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum, Magic Theatre, Theatreworks, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, among others. Intersection for the Arts Triangle Lab Artist-Investigator. Adjunct Faculty, Cornish College of the Arts. Awards/Affiliations: Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre, SDC Sir John Gielgud Directing Fellowship, Drama League Directing Fellowship, TCG Young Leader of Color, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and Directors Lab West. Gregory Award Recipient for Outstanding Direction. BA: University of California at Berkeley. MFA Directing: University of Washington School of Drama.

Bradford Farwell he/him (Bob) Previously at Intiman: John Baxter, All My Sons, Grapes of Wrath, Richard III, A Thousand Clowns. Broadway: Much Ado, The Miser. Seattle Repertory: Charles III, Photograph 51, You Can’t Take it With You, Imaginary Invalid, Twelfe Night, Noises Off, Great Gatsby. ACT: Daisy, Worse than Tigers, Seven Ways to Get There, Christmas Carol, Mary Stuart, Jekyll and Hyde. Seattle Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, Cymbeline, Julius Caesar. Strawshop: Breaking the Code, New Century Theatre Company: Festen, Asher Lev. 5th Avenue: Guys and Dolls.

Justin Huertas he/him (Lin Bo) is an award-winning playwright, composer-lyricist, and actor recently seen in Everybody with Strawberry Theatre Workshop. Acting credits also include Lizard Boy (Seattle Repertory Theatre, Diversionary Theatre), Legally Blonde (Showtunes Theatre Company), and Welcome to Braggsville (Book-It Repertory Theatre). Justin is currently developing several original musicals, including The Lamplighter (with Sara Porkalob and Kirsten deLohr Helland) and Lydia and the Troll (with Ameenah Kaplan). Next: Tiny Beautiful Things at Seattle Repertory Theatre and the World Premiere production of his latest musical The Last World Octopus Wrestling Champion at ArtsWest.

Jonelle Jordan she/her (Joyce/Curator) is happy to make her Intiman Theatre debut with Caught. Jonelle originally hails from Louisville, Kentucky, and received her BFA in performance from Otterbein University in Ohio. She is a company member of Off Road Shakespeare and has performed in both the public and touring productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet. Other local credits include: Arms and the Man, The Government Inspector, The Winter’s Tale (Seattle Shakespeare Company); King Lear (Wooden O); Frozen (ArtsWest); Every Five Minutes,99 Ways to F***k a Swan (Washington Ensemble Theatre); The Big Meal (New Century Theatre Company); Crimes of the Heart (Village Theatre); Bethany (ACT Theatre), and the Northwest premiere of A Mazewith Theatre Battery in Kent.

Narea Kang she/her (Wang Min) is a New York-based actor, producer and director who also calls Seattle home. NYC: Madonna col Bambino (Ars Nova, New Ohio Theatre), Salty (Lyra Theater), Hot Cross Buns (Corkscrew Theater Festival). Regional: The Hard Problem, A Christmas Carol, and John (American Conservatory Theater), The Tempest (Livermore Shakespeare Festival), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (SF City Theatre Co). Seattle: The Clockwork Professor (Pork Filled Productions), Within the Silence (Living Voices). TV: Blue Bloods. Training: MFA American Conservatory Theater.

Lex Marcos he/him (Set Designer) is from Manila, Philippines. He studied Painting and Art History at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He designed sets in Manila for nine years, working with acclaimed Filipino directors, designers, visual artists, and playwrights. He recently got his MFA degree in Scenic Design at the University of Washington School of Drama, last March 2017. Since then,  he’s been designing shows in Seattle, including We are Pussy Riot and Everything is PR for Theater Battery. A back to back designs for ArtsWest, The Who and The What and The Nance. American Huwangap for West of Lenin. Welcome to Arroyo’s for Theater Schmeater, Seattle premiere Musical Disenchanted. #Nowall for Theater Battery. Native Gardens for INTIMAN Theatre, Parliament Square for Pony World Theatre.‘B’ for Washington Ensemble Theatre . ArtsWest production of Jayne Eyre, M Butterfly and the upcoming world premiere musical of The Last World Wrestling ChampionHis works Ang Post Office ng Hari and Umaaraw Umuulan Kinakasal Ang Tikbalang have been selected for Philippines exhibit in the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space in 2011 and 2015. He received an award from Broadway World Philippines for best scenic design in a musical for Manila premiere of the Little Mermaid. This is Lex’s second design for Intiman.

Natalie Shih she/they her/them (Co-Costume Designer) is a Seattle-based costume designer. Since graduating from Cornish College of the Arts in 2017, she has designed for a number of companies in the Seattle area. Recent credits include The Rules of Charity for Sound Theatre Company, Persimmon Nights and the Kimchi Kittens for Café Nordo, and Straight White Men for Washington Ensemble Theatre. Additionally, she designed costumes for Gregory Award nominated play of the year Ironbound with Seattle Public Theatre.

Christine Tschirgi she/her (Co-Costume Designer) Some selected credits include: As You Like It (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Pride and Prejudice (Pittsburgh Public Theater), King of the Yees (Baltimore Center Stage, A Contemporary Theatre); The Journal of Ben Uchida, Citizen 13559 (Seattle Children’s Theatre); Richard III, Bring Down the House (upstart crow collective); Constellations (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Building the Wall, (Azeotrope), Bright Half Life (New Century Theatre Company). She holds an MFA in Costume Design from the University of Washington and is a member of USA 829.

Reed Nakayama he/him (Lighting and Projection Designer) is a Lighting and Video Designer based in Seattle. Originally from Denver, Colorado, he moved to Seattle to attend Cornish College of the Arts. There, he studied Lighting and Scenic Design, receiving a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in 2007. He has lit productions by Strawberry Theatre Workshop (Our Town, Proof, The Birds, Lydia), Pacific Northwest Ballet (The Perpetual State, A Dark and Lonely Space) and Teatro Zinzanni (In Tents, Mezzo Lunatico).

Meghan Roche she/her (Sound Designer) is a Seattle-based freelance sound designer and technician. Most recently, she designed Richard III with Rob Witmer for Seattle Shakespeare Company/upstart crow collective, Pageant for A Sensible Theatre Company/ACTLab, and House of Suenõs at 18th & Union. Other PNW credits include design/assistant designs at: ACT, Book-It, Macha Theatre Works, NCTC, ReACT, Sandbox Radio, Seattle University, Taproot, Theater Schmeater, Twisp Merc Theatre, and West of Lenin. When not designing or teching shows, she works at Seattle Shakespeare Company as Associate Production Manager.

Rebecca K. Hsia she/her (Stage Manager) is an Intiman Emerging Artist Program 2018 alumni and is excited to be working with Intiman Theatre again! She recently worked with The 5th Avenue Theatre on Rock of Ages. Other credits: Annex Theatre Silhouette, which was the 2018 Gregory Award winner for Best New Play; Centerstage Theatre Pajama Game and Rapunzel; Fantastic.Z Theatre Femme; Phoenix Theatre Crossing Delancey and Twist of the Magi; Fully Reciprocal Theatre Company Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; and WARP Theatre 4Twenty. She also has worked in Seattle as a Producer, Production Manager, and Playwright.  Her most recent play, The Way Back was selected as a part of The 2018 Scratch Seattle Workshop Series. Up next, she will be working on West Side Story (The 5th Avenue Theatre).

Click here to download the program.

Intiman sits down with Obie winner Christopher Chen to talk about #CHENMINDFUCK. Read more here.

Broadway World Seattle Review: Come ready to leave your accepted notions behind. Come ready to explore, question, and think. But above all, just come. This is a show and experience you won’t want to miss. -Kelly Rogers Flynt

The 58 Best Things To Do in Seattle This Week: I’d count Christopher Chen’s Caught as one of the four smartest/powerfulest/provocativest straight plays I saw in 2016. The play is meta-theatrical, but in a meaningful way—less of a self-flagellating/self-congratulatory annoying ouroboros kind of thing and more of a flower blooming out of another flower kind of thing. It’s about Western responses to Chinese dissident art. Sort of. It’s also about relative pain. It’s also about how the truth is a collaborative fiction, and about how nobody can really know anyone else. Importantly, it’s about an hour and a half long, tops. This remount is presented by Intiman and directed by Desdemona Chiang. Go see it. RICH SMITH

Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: On the List | More Fats More Femmes Witch Market, Intiman at 12th Ave Arts, Grandpa Party

“…The execution couldn’t be better… At each turn, the play and its form shows us how our reaction to a lie is more a matter of ego than truth.” – Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

​New York Times Critics Pick: “An intricately constructed, unrelentingly destabilizing puzzle of a play about the anatomy of truth and the provocative power of illusion… As perceived realities dissolve, the one thing spectators can be sure of is that they are inside a production that is also a kind of art installation, and that it is messing with them. ​” – Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times

Obie Award for Playwriting, 2017