Mable Kwan is the best grifter who ever lived. And this tough cookie raised her kids to be just like her. Son Francis is the top roper around and H, the number one fixer. When daughter Blue surprises them all by putting together the score of the decade, will the entire family get in on the action or will one of them walk away with it all? Fast, funny dark and dangerous—this skewed look at family and ambition keeps us guessing about who’s on top and who’s getting conned.

Previews: October 6-10, 2013
Opening Night: October 11, 2013
Regular Performances: October 12-27, 2013

Recommendation: This play contains adult language and humor that treats criminal situations lightly and herbal cigarette smoking.

Running Time:  Approximately two hours, including one intermission. 

This play is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award.  To see all the award winners, please visit the TCG website.

Carla Ching is a Los Angeles native whose theatre career started when she stumbled into New York City’s pan-Asian performance collective, Peeling, writing and performing with them for three years—her first theatre training. Since then, she has written TBA (2g, directed by Denyse Owens, published in Out of Time and Place), The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness (Ma-Yi Theatre Company, dir. Daniella Topol), Dirty (finalist for the Cherrylane Mentorship Project), Big Blind/Little Blind and The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up. Other production and/or development includes Ensemble Studio Theatre (First Light 2011 and 2012), The Lark Play Development Center (Meeting of the Minds and Lark Playwright’s Workshop), Partial Comfort, Desipina & Company, The Hegira, Vampire Cowboys and The Women’s Project (2008-10 Lab). She was a 2008 New York Urban Artists Initiative fellow and a 2009-10 Teachers and Writers Collaborative fellow. She’s been in residence at Voice and Vision, The Rockefeller Foundation’s Pocantico Center and New York Stage and Film. She served as artistic director of the Asian American theatre company 2g for three seasons. She’s currently a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, New Dramatists and the 2013-14 CTG Writers’ Workshop. Ching is currently working on a CrossRoads commission for SCR.

Learn more about the production, cast & creative team with a peek into the program. Read full artist bios, in-depth articles and more.

	Jackie Chung, as Blue, is making her SCR debut. Chung’s off-Broadway and regional credits include Macbeth 1969 (Long Wharf Theatre), microcrisis, The Children of Vonderly (Ma-Yi Theater Company), You For Me For You (Woolly Mammoth Theatre/Ma-Yi), Mother Courage and Her Children (The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival) and Trickle, Japanoir (Ensemble Studio Theatre). Her other New York credits include After. (Partial Comfort Productions), The Sporting Life (Studio 42) and The Director (The Flea Theater). Her film, television and web credits include Going Local, 4 Dates, Pretty Precious Unicorns, “Fortune Son” and the upcoming independent film Someone Else. Chung recently workshopped Jiehae Park’s Hannah and the Dread Gazebo at the Ojai Playwrights Conference. She volunteers with the 52nd Street Project.
	Lawrence Kao, as Francis, is making his SCR debut. The Hacienda Heights, Calif.-native grew up as an only child, left to his imagination, which drew him to acting. Playing Lysander in a high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, furthered his interest in pretending. While studying theatre at UCI, he began dancing with Kaba Modern, which led to his participation on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew.” He played Norman Lee in East West Player’s Krunk Fu Battle Battle. His television credits include “Franklin & Bash,” a recurring role as Tim on “The Walking Dead,” “Hawaii Five-0,” and non-union bootleg films he sells out of the back of his trunk.
	Emily Kuroda, as Mable, is thrilled to be back at SCR, where she appeared in Our Town, Ballad of Yachiyo and the Pacific Playwrights Festival reading of Dogeaters. She has performed in more than 25 shows and workshops at East West Players. Other theatres include Kirk Douglas Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, The Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Singapore Rep, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Doolittle Theater, Huntington Theatre Company (Boston), Los Angeles Theatre Center, Zephyr Theatre, LA Women’s Shakespeare and The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. Her television credits include seven years as Mrs. Kim on “Gilmore Girls,” Suho in “Under One Roof” with Flavor Flav, “Drop Dead Diva,” “Medium,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Bloodline.” Her feature films include About Love (Emmy nominated), and the upcoming Justice Angel. She is the recipient of five Drama-Logue awards, a Garland Award for outstanding performance, an L.A. Ovation award nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Play, Playwrights Arena Award, the East West Players Award for Outstanding Contribution to LA Theatre and the Entertainment Today Best Actress Award for Winter People.
	Nelson Lee as “H”, is making his SCR debut. Most recently, he reprised his role of Ryu in Maple and Vine at The City Theatre in Pittsburgh after having completed its West Coast premiere at A.C.T. in San Francisco. Lee’s off-Broadway credits include David in the world premiere of Zayd Dohrn’s Outside People, with Naked Angels at the Vineyard Theatre in New York; his other New York credits include 7 Stories and Hardly with Rocketship Theatre. His film and television credits include Virtuality, “Blade: The Series,” “Oz,” Traffic, “Covert Affairs,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Longmire,” “Bones,” “The Chicago Code,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” and HBO’s Strip Search, directed by Sidney Lumet. Lee trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and earned his degree from the University of Toronto.

• Press Release: Fast Company Opens on SCR's Julianne Argyros Stage
• OC Register: SCR's 'Fast Company' looks at grifting as a family business
• Press Release: Carla Ching's Fast Company Really Knows How to Play the Game

South Coast Plaza Throws a Party for Fast Company
When Carla Ching’s Fast Company opened, the First Night audience gave loud applause. And then mingled with the cast at the After Party at South Coast Plaza. The setting: SCR’s 50th Season display.
see more from opening night

The Fast Company Bond Between Playwright and Director
Playwright Carla Ching and director Bart DeLorenzo have created a tight-knit working style leading up to the premiere of, Fast Company. Read about how they view the working relationship.
read more

May the Best Con Win
Be mindful of how you teach your kids. In Fast Company, Los Angeles-based playwright Carla Ching takes on three kids raised by their grifter mom. Read more about the lessons they learned from Mom Mable.
read more

Merrily They Grift Along: Meet the Cast of "Fast Company"
What happens when four strangers gather in a studio…—no, it’s not “The Real World.” It’s a cast drawn together as a family of grifters in the world premiere of Carla Ching’s Fast Company.
meet the cast

More

• First Night: South Coast Plaza Throws Cast Party for Fast Company
• Peek into the production program