New Butterfly Lovers: The Butterfly Agreement is a contemporary reimagining of the classic Chinese love story, set between Shanghai and New York City in 2026. Zhu Yingtai, a Shanghai television host, is desperate to escape a future already chosen for her, with a bride price attached. With a fake acceptance to an elite New York university, an F-1 visa, and nowhere stable to land, she arrives in New York and finds an unlikely ally in Liang Shanbo, a disgraced professor from Shanghai living out of his battered Honda. As a business pact turns into something deeper, Zhu and Liang are pushed to their limits by immigration pressure, academic scandal, financial desperation, performance, and the daily work of survival.
- Playwright: Yun Meng
- Translator: Zihe Tian
- Director: Rani O’Brien
- Dramaturg: Zihe Tian
- Producer: Jennifer Nan Dong
Performance Date: September 11, 2026, at 7pm, Martin E. Segal Theatre – CUNY Graduate Center
Rehearsals: Beginning September 1, scheduled around actor and creative team availability, with afternoon availability necessary for September
11th.
Please submit a headshot, resume, and acting reel or equivalent video through this form (submission deadline 8/10/26): https://forms.gle/wxgZowD83RpTyCF2A
Contact Jennifer Nan Dong at ndong@gc.cuny.edu for any questions.
Language Note: The reading will be performed in English. A few phrases may appear in Mandarin and/or Shanghainese; fluency is not required.
Roles:
- HONGNIANG (The Matchmaker): any gender, 20 – 90 years old. A veteran matchmaker from the famous Shanghai People’s Square Matchmaking Corner. The narrator and witness of the entire play. The voice of the institution: half matchmaker, half market bell. Arbiter of contracts, dowries, debts, and desire. Sharp, watchful, unsentimental– Hongniang knows what everyone costs, what they owe, and what they dare to believe they are worth.
- LIANG SHANBO (Lance): Male, 20s – 50s, Chinese/East Asian, including Asian American actors of East Asian descent. A former professor at a prestigious university currently undocumented surviving as an Uber driver and food courier while living out of a battered old Honda. A poet of the heart and a highly intelligent person.
- ZHU YINGTAI (Zoe): Female, 20s, Chinese/East Asian, including Asian American actors of East Asian descent. A performing arts student at a top-tier Chinese conservatory and a host for Shanghai Television. On social media, she is a niche influencer with a few thousand followers. Understands that a mask can be incredibly useful, but struggles to allow it to slip.
- MA WENCAI: Male, 25. A wealthy, privileged young man of non-Chinese ethnicity. His true identity and nationality are a total enigma—an non-realist character who can embody any fantasy projected onto him.
- YINGTAI’S MOTHER/PAROL OFFICER/UNDERSTUDY: All genders, all ages, all races.
