2022: 🔥The year I actually caught on fire🔥
It’s the time of year where I jerk my ego off all over my own website and hope my supporters feel happy for me and that my haters keep on hating.
I had no idea that so much of what happened this year was even possible. But I also look back on how hard I’ve lived in the precarity of this artist’s life and feel so validated to finally be here. What is “here”? A place where I feel like I really can make a creative life that steers towards equitable social change without wondering if the floor will come out from under me at any moment.
I’m grateful to all of those who had my back along the way. I share these victories with you.
❤️❤️HERE ARE THE 22 HIGHLIGHTS of 2022 in a semi-chronological order!❤️❤️❤️
I caught Covid.
This is not necessarily a HIGHlight. But after almost two years of dodging and weaving this stupid global pandemic, (what was very likely) Omicron got me. I was so pissed off and miserable for over a week with Covid. BUT… I was glad to have been vaccinated and boosted and that my brush with Covid did not leave me with long covid symptoms or hospitalized. I can still taste things! I’m also grateful that it happened in the window of the year where I only had to cancel a vacation, and not a show.
2. I went to Mexico City (twice!)
How to get away from America when you don’t have a lot of money and still have Zoom meetings scheduled? Mexico! I didn’t get further than CDMX and yet there’s still so much more to see. My phone works in Mexico and so does what’s left of my high school Spanish. I can’t wait to see more of this country.
3. I “ran” a 10k with no training and placed FIRST (in a made up category).
My best friend (voted DC’s 1st-5th Best Performance Artist) Brian Feldman spent a lot of time with me in cities that we don’t live in this year— including a little town called Sanger, CA. Brian actually trains for races. I hate running. I still hate running. But as some bizarre inside joke to myself I declared “I’ll run that 10k with you”. I came in last in my age and gender bracket. I came in second to last in the race. But I was given an honorary FIRST PLACE award for having run in a cardigan.
4. I “ran” the LA Marathon… also with no training.
Did I still hate running after that 10k? Yes.
Did I also like the idea of saying I did the LA Marathon? Also, yes.
It took 8.5 hours to traverse 26 miles of Los Angeles. By the time we got to the finish line, there were no port-a-potties or bananas. Brian walked it with me the whole time despite the fact that he’s a runner and could have finished hours earlier. At 3pm (when most people who have trained for this have already crossed the finish line), we were still in Beverly Hills and moved onto the sidewalk with the tourists. My feet looked like medical textbook hell the day after and I ended up losing two toenails.
But hey, I did the LA Marathon.
5. I was honored with the Visionary Award from East West Players along with Michelle Yeoh and Randy Tamura.
About 15 years ago, when I was dreaming up the show that would become Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I joked that maybe it would be the show that would reward me with “those community crystal award thingies.”
It didn’t actually happen then— but it’s happening now. It was such a moment of glory to be in front of the East West Players community, thanking them for recognizing my work. And even crazier to make small talk with Michelle Yeoh and beg her to hold my chin and say “You will never be enough” to me.
6. I started my 3 year residency at ASU Gammage.
What does that mean? It means I am in a 2x a semester commitment to visit the ASU Tempe campus over the next three years, as I develop my new theater work about food insecurity. They’ve been so supportive of this crazy development process which will have me working with a group of Navajo seamstresses to sew a new interior of their market to resemble an old school trading post, as well as with other strategists in food insecure communities.
7. I became the first Asian American woman to be the Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama.
What else to say but HOLY SHIT. After jokingly applying for a Pulitzer six years ago for The Wong Street Journal and losing to some play called “Hamilton"— I actually became a real life Pulitzer Prize Finalist. There is no cash prize for the finalist, but I will say… my ego feels like it won the lottery. Instagram finally gave me a blue checkmark and some people mistakenly congratulate me on winning the Nobel Peace Prize— I’ll take it.
8. I directed “From Number to Name” at East West Players with the formerly incarcerated members of API Rise!
For the second year in a row, I directed a cast of mostly formerly incarcerated Asian Pacific Islanders in “From Number to Name”— a digital theater production presented by East West Players. I’m so damn proud of this cast for sharing the stories of how incarceration impacts our communities. And I believe ours remains the FIRST theater project about APIs and incarceration, created by people directly impacted by it. What makes me really proud is that we recorded the show in such a way that it can have a continued life and be screened publicly as part of API Rise outreach events.
I’ve also increased my commitment to API Rise by joining their Board of Directors. The first time I’ve ever served on a Board!
9. I became the first Asian American to win the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.
They love me, they really love me. I was actually in New York City every other week last Spring picking up awards for Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord. So unreal.
Other cool recognitions I got this year… the “Maverick Award” from the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival and a recognition from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors!
10. I am now repped by CAA.
The same “BIG 3” agency that dumped Kanye (for very good reason), picked up me in their theater division (because I’m awesome)!
11. I received the Kennedy Center Social Practice Residency.
What does this mean? Essentially that I was selected to receive support from the Kennedy Center in Washington DC the next three years to develop my new work #KristinaWongFoodBankInfluencer next year and will be in Washington DC at least once next year to do an activation in their REACH space with the local community.
12. I received the first ever Joan D. Firestone commission from En Garde Arts.
That would be a pic above of David Henry Hwang, Joan D. Firestone and Lynn Nottage at the En Garde Arts Gala recognizing me as the recipient of this award. More about that is here.
13. I did a regional run at La Jolla Playhouse.
Would the Covid-themed show that premiered off-Broadway still hold up one year later? Would my body make it through another month-long run of a 90 minute solo show, 8x a week?
Yep. How I pulled off so many shows at my age, I don’t know. But I did it. And now the story of ASS lives on.
14. I did a 44 show run at Portland Center Stage!
What to say but… 44 shows! I can’t believe I survived this.
15. The Auntie Sewing Squad retired last year but we did some amazing freaking things… even in our retirement.
I’m so incredibly proud of my Aunties. While we aren’t sewing mask furiously, we still did some incredible things with the community we have built. Some include…
Coat drive for Lakota folks! Almost 1000 new and near new coats sent!
Hygiene bags sewn for Solidarity Engineering!
Warm clothing, supplies and masks sent to Team Brownsville to support migrants!
ASS Book events at the Skirball Center, Legion of Honor SF, and more!
Oxy Arts included ASS in their exhibition of Asian American Activism and Art. Our Auntie Sandra’s “Wings” came home from a tour to Aunties around the country and were displayed as part of this.
Supplies and support sent to elders on the Navajo Nation!
Aunties utilizing the network of Aunties to work on their own individual projects to mobilize support for unhoused youth, Ukrainian refugees and their local communities.
More Aunties meeting in person!
The Story of the Aunties shared with audiences of "Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord"
Auntie Valerie Soe did even more documentation for the ASS documentary.
16. I was on billboards in two cities!
I guess there’s this thing where in other cities that aren’t Los Angeles, there are billboards for theater! I only got to see a few of them in person because I was in the theater so much but WHAT A TRIP.
17. I spent only $510.26 in groceries.
And no, this doesn’t include eating out.
But for THREE YEARS in a row, I have managed to spend less than $50/ month on groceries. A lot of this is thanks to Los Angeles’ World Harvest Food Bank and also being in a field where people are constantly putting too much free food out, and I am willing to take it all home.
What is the purpose of all this cheapskatery? Being mindful about one area of spending in my life is helping me think about how much stuff there is everywhere. It’s also something that’s getting me thinking about my new Kristina Wong: #FoodBankInfluencer piece.
18. I was pretty freaking single and fine with it.
I didn’t date all that much this year and consciously made it a more compartmentalized aspect of my life. In fact, I was in this three month pact with Auntie Anne to get off of dating apps. Did you know that if you turn off dating apps and focus inward, you become the Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama? Did this only happen to me?
Turns out I have people in my life called “friends” who I can hang out with and things called “books” to curl up with. And my cat Happy still has a masturbation problem from being fixed so late in life, so he humps my leg when I’m trying to sleep. Who needs a partner? Not I!
19. Good press!
PBS did a wonderful feature story on me and I had a slew of great feature stories in San Diego and Portland.
20. More tours around America!
2022 was the year that we went back to doing things in person. This brought me places like Indiana, Massachusetts (pic above) and San Francisco State. I also did quite a few engagements online!
21. AMAZING THINGS LOCKED IN FOR 2023!!
In January 2023 I have an insane tour that looks like LA➡️ NYC ➡️ BOSTON ➡️ AZ ➡️ LONDON ➡️ MICHIGAN ➡️ LA. Then I jump right into run of my show in Los Angeles at the KIRK DOUGLAS THEATER! I am not quite sure how much time I’ll even be home in 2023. But I’m just running with this.
How am I the same person who used to rent my couch out for $300/month? I feel like a baller now.
22. BIG NEWS TBA!
To screamingly quote Trump Jr’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who FUN FACT went to the same (now closed) high school as me and now we’re both listed as “notable alums” on their Wikipedia page— THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!!!!
A lot of great news I am sitting on that can’t be announced yet. Stay tuned!