An ongoing series of interview-based theater productions featuring local community members telling their own stories of place, identity, and belonging.

‘Undesirable Elements’ exists as an open framework that can be brought to any community, and be tailored to suit the needs and issues facing that community.

"I first met Ping Chong in 2003 when New WORLD Theater, produced Undesirable Elements Pioneer Valley.  I worked with then artistic director Talvin Wilks on community engagement for that production. It was a tremendous opportunity for people of color in this small, somewhat rural, and liberal place to share their truths about living here."

"To be an Undesirable Element was a therapeutic story telling process within myself and it made me open my arms, my ears and my voice to the world and the stories of fellow humans."

Undesirable Elements

“‘Collidescope’ is a work that speaks to an ongoing American tragedy caused by the white supremacist foundation of this country.”

“That on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity for which we need each other and that I am not a ward of America. I am not an object of missionary charity. I am one of the people who built the country–until this moment there is scarcely any hope for the American dream, because the people who are denied participation in it, by their very presence, will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West.”

Collidescope

Two virtual cross-generational collaborations that are part of an initiative to invite new artistic voices to create work inspired by and in conversation with our archival body of work. 

“I feel strongly that limitations are what make great art.”