ChuanFest (July 9-12) is an AAPI interdisciplinary performance festival hosted by in-version ensemble, a queer, women, and non-binary theater collective. There are 6 shows, alongside an interactive installation, a poetry workshop, and a community gathering with food making, spanning 4 days across 2 venues in East Village and Astoria, Queens. Taking the image of 夜航船 – early-modern Chinese scholar Zhang Dai's Night Sailing Boat, where travelers from all walks of life gathered in the dark carrying stories across water – ChuanFest unfolds as four consecutive evenings of three parts: an opening gathering centered on an interactive boat installation, a curated sequence of three intimate performances by BIPOC, AAPI artists spanning different genres and disciplines, and a communal closing ritual where audiences experience multilingual poems together.
Audience Role
optional interaction
Ages: 16 +
Content Advisories
Interaction Advisories
Mobility Advisories
4
Events
2
Years on EI
About in-version ensemble
in-version ensemble was founded by a group of theater makers / visual artists / creative writers. They develop theatrical works that redefine center and periphery. in-version ensemble members investigate identity and relationships while embracing the tensions between languages–written, spoken, improvised, digital, and movements. Their recent productions include Fish in the Tank (LA and NYC, 2025) and Vanishing (Edinburgh, 2024). Their summer 2025 season, featuring the theme “memory and entanglement”, is going on at the Tank NYC, including Fish in the Tank, Vanishing 2.0, and Two for One.