Thursday evening’s performance will be followed by a special panel discussion on China Then and Now featuring Moore and his wife Susan Stitely who lived in China 1988-91 along with Ellen David-Friedman and her husband Stuart Friedman who have been teaching in China for the past three years.  Friday evening will be VCFA Night, as Lost Nation hosts a theater party for staff, students and supporters of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where Moore is Academic Dean.  

Burning in China was written by Moore after serving as a Professor of English in Shanghai where he instructed Chinese English teachers, and some central Vermont residents will remember the work’s initial performance at City Center in January, 1990.  A poet and Abraham Lincoln scholar, in 1988 Moore took a hundred reproductions of the Gettysburg address on parchment in his suitcase when he flew to Shanghai, where he found his adult students already inspired by Honest Abe’s vision of a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” and eager for a taste of what freedom has to offer.

As explained in Burning in China, Moore’s adult students asked him to help create a performance for a university arts festival.  The Great Emancipator Meets The Monkey King – Asia’s first hip hop opera – was born.  According to Burning in China’s distinguished director Caleb Deschanel, who put together the performance of Burning in China at the historic John Drew Theater on Eastern Long Island, New York in 1994, “this play brings to life a unique time of rising expectations for liberty and reform in China.  The rap opera that Gary and his students performed for a cheering New Year's Eve audience of 1700 won the praise of the Communist authorities.  But times were changing rapidly, and all across China mass demonstrations soon rose up to call for more freedom as protesters adapted Lincoln-like language in inventing their slogans.”

Following the massacre in Tiananmen Square, circumstances forced Moore and his wife Susan Stitely to leave China.   His students, some themselves fleeing to escape the crackdown by their ironfisted government, begged Moore to tell their story when he reached the outside world.  Burning in China is the result.  Intensely dramatic but also filled with humor and warmth, this deeply personal drama – brilliantly performed by veteran actor and the voice of General Motors and Sprint Nextel, Jeff Lebeau – will give audiences a very fresh look at one of the major ideological struggles of the twentieth century. 

This particular production of Burning in China also introduces elements not seen by audiences of the play’s earlier performances.  Director Caleb Deschanel -- who has been nominated for five Academy Awards for his work as cinematographer on films such as Being There, The Right Stuff, The Passion of the Christ, The Patriot, The Black Stallion, Fly Away Home, and The Natural – has added video components.  The new Burning in China is a multi media experience that integrates never-before-seen footage of urban China that Deschanel himself shot in 1988.

Caleb Deschanel (Director)—After attending Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California film school, American cinematographer Caleb Deschanel was trained at the American Film Institute. He launched his professional career as assistant to veteran photographer Gordon Willis, then handled the second unit photography for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1978). One of his first major cinematography credits was for the Coppola-produced The Black Stallion (1979), undoubtedly one of the most beautifully-lensed films of the 1970s. Deschanel earned Oscar nominations for his work on The Right Stuff (1983) and The Natural (1984); he was instrumental in developing the Steadicam system that assured rock-steady camera movement under any circumstances. He would later refine this into his own "skycam" system for aerial photography. In 1996, Deschanel earned another Oscar nomination for his work on the acclaimed family film Fly Away Home; he continued to work steadily throughout the decade, giving such films as Anna and the King (1999) their lustrous glow. During the start of the next decade Deschanel provided his special touch for undistinguished fare like Timeline, The Patriot and National Treasure, but he helped make The Passion of the Christ the most successful independent film and the most successful R-rated film in history up to that time. He teamed with John Madden for the Elmore Leonard adaptation Killshot, and brought his typical mastery to Robert Towne's Ask the Dust—beautifully evoking depression-era Los Angeles. In addition to his camera credits, Deschanel has directed two films, one of which was the quirky succès d'estime The Escape Artist (1982).

Jeff LeBeau (Actor)—Jeff was raised in Van Nuys, California and is an alumnus of Cal Arts. Leading roles in the theatre include The Last Pitch (American Renegade), Agency (Coast Playhouse), Hurlyburly directed by David Rabe (Geffen Playhouse), Burning in China directed by Caleb Deschanel (John Drew/Guild Hall), Translations (Capital Rep., NY), Harry Black (Ensemble Studio), The Chain and Hot n’ Throbbing directed by Anne Bogart (Circle Rep., NY), Force Majeure (Theatre 808/Actors Circle), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Stella Adler, LA). Jeff was honored to be a member of New York City’s renowned Circle Repertory Company, later known as Circle West, and is proud to be a new member of The Road Theatre Company in LA where, last year, he played the role of Dad in the LA Premiere of Mickey Birnbaum’s Big Death & Little Death directed by Larry Biederman, after covering, then playing, the role of David in the West Cost premiere of Swimming. In addition to his on camera work, film and TV work includes The Mexican Dream, The Big Easy, Moving Pieces, Fraternity Boys directed by Robert Townsend, “The Practice,” Life as a House, “Summerland” and Art School Confidential directed by Terry Zwigoff. Jeff also has lent his voice to a wide range of projects, including narration for A&E, E-Entertainment, CSX, Sprint/Nextel and the animated feature Spirit—Stallion of the Cimmeron (DreamWorks Animation).

Gary Moore (Author) — In addition to Burning in China, Gary is the author of the dramas Beaver Falls; Long Lankin’s Curse; The Tongue of Their Gladness; and The Great Emancipator Meets the Monkey King, a bi-lingual rap opera which was the first performance of rap music in The People’s Republic of China.  He has written and lectured on the life of Abraham Lincoln, and frequently uses Lincoln as a character in his creative works. In addition to his Lincoln-themed plays, Long Lankin’s Curse, The Tongue of Their Gladness, and Burning in China, he has written a number of Lincoln performance poems and the recently-completed novel, Abe Ascending, which is represented by the literary agency of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth.  He has lectured on Abraham Lincoln in the U.S., Canada, Turkey and the People's Republic of China. Gary is Academic Dean at Vermont College of Fine Arts, in Montpelier, Vermont, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.