PROJECT: Chinese School
TYPE: Feature Film
GENRE: Coming-of-Age Comedy
WRITER/DIRECTOR: William Kwok
CASTING DIRECTOR: Damian Bao
START DATES: July 21-August 17, 2024 (Each role will shoot 1-5 days in that range)
SHOOT LOCATION: New York City
CONTRACT: SAG Modified Low Budget (open to union and non-union talent)
SYNOPSIS: IT TAKES JESUS CHRIST, KIMCHI HOT DOGS, OLD-SCHOOL CANTONESE POP MUSIC, AND MEETING HIS LITERAL DREAM GIRL FOR A SHIFTLESS TEENAGE CHINESE AMERICAN NEW YORKER TO FINALLY APPRECIATE THE UNFAILING FRIENDSHIP OF HIS LONGTIME CHINESE SCHOOL CLASSMATE.
ABOUT THE PROJECT:
CHINESE SCHOOL is supported by the Sundance’s Feature Film Program. For this project, writer/director William Kwok was the recipient of the 2021 Sundance Institute Asian American Fellowship and was a Screenwriters Intensive Fellow. CHINESE SCHOOL was also a semifinalist for the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship (top 1.8% of scripts considered in 2021) and participated in The Gotham Week Project Market (one of just 24 U.S. fiction feature film projects; one of four showcased at its annual New Voices! SAGindie Reading Series) in 2021.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: Raised in the Asian American enclaves of NYC and San Francisco, William Kwok is a filmmaker, attorney, and restaurateur. His directing and writing credits include the documentary shorts “Grandma” and “The Two Deaths of Los Angeles Chinatown,” and the fiction short “Nocturne, No. 1: A Very Short Film About Family.” His producing credits include the fiction feature I WAS A SIMPLE MAN, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and the fiction shorts “Layover, on the Shore,” “The Broken Heart of Gnocchi Bolognese,” and “Jump.” Kwok’s work has received support from the Sundance Institute, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, and Visual Communications.
CASTING NOTE: Casting is open to actors and non-actors for all roles. Talent does not have to have prior acting experience to apply. Open to union and non-union talent. First time actors are welcome to apply!
CASTING NYC-BASED TALENT FOR THE BELOW ROLES:
OPEN CALL ROLES:
SPEAKING ROLES:
EDDIE – (SUPPORTING FEATURED ROLE / Male, 5-16, Black or Latino)
EDDIE, 5 to 16, is the beloved drummer in his church band. Precocious and quick-witted, he’s a musical prodigy! Must be confident playing the drums and be open to some singing!
For the role of EDDIE, casting is open to male-identifying talent, who are between the ages of 5-16 from the NYC metro area. Bonus points if talent can really play the drums!
PRINCIPAL HUANG – (SUPPORTING FEATURED ROLE / Female, 60s/70s, Chinese)
Stern and relentlessly fair, PRINCIPAL HUANG runs a tight ship at the weekend Chinese language school that she founded more than three decades ago. Her own kids (now adults) are Ivy League-educated lawyers and doctors (but with middling Chinese language skills), but she has a soft spot for her nephew Owen, a still-aspiring actor in his 40s.
For the role of PRINCIPAL HUANG, casting is open to female-identifying talent of East Asian descent who are between the ages of 55-90 from anywhere in the United States. Travel and accommodations will be provided for talent from outside the NYC metro area. Whoever is cast for PRINCIPAL HUANG will need to be able to speak Mandarin fluently. We are also interested in PRINCIPAL HUANG’s ability to speak an additional Chinese dialect, such as Taiwanese Hokkien or Shanghainese.
TEACHER YANG – (SUPPORTING FEATURED ROLE / Female, 70s-80s, Chinese)
A stalwart at the Chinese language school that Jacky attends, MRS. YANG is a firm believer that the best way to learn is through extremely old-school repetition and memorization. This might work if her American pupils applied themselves in her classes even just a little bit. She looks ancient, particularly in a classroom of teenagers, and seems quite frail.
For the role of MRS. YANG, casting is open to female-identifying talent of East Asian descent, who are between the ages of 60-100 and based in the NYC metro area. Whoever is cast for MRS. YANG will need to be able to speak Mandarin fluently.
MR. ZHOU – (SUPPORTING ROLE / Male, 50s, Chinese)
MR. ZHOU is Monica’s overworked father. He has devoted every cent to his name and every ounce of his being to keeping afloat his Flushing grocery store. If you were to look up “fatigued” or “overworked” in the dictionary, you’d find a portrait of Mr. Zhou, who has dark, deep bags under his eyes.
For the role of MR. ZHOU, casting is open to male-identifying talent of East Asian descent, who are between the ages of 50-60 and from the NYC metro area. Whoever is cast for MR. ZHOU will need to be able to speak Mandarin fluently.
DENG – (SUPPORTING ROLE / Male, 14, Chinese American)
Rail-thin and bespectacled, DENG, 14 is Wang’s sidekick. Deng is grateful for any attention from his classmates.
For the role of DENG, casting is open to male-identifying talent of East Asian descent, who are between the ages of 14-25 and from the NYC metro area.
TO BE CONSIDERED FOR A SPEAKING ROLE:
Send an email with your full name, email, phone number, location, and 1-3 photos to “film@damianbao.org” and include “Chinese School – ROLE – YOUR NAME” in the subject. Please note that due to the high volume of emails our office receive daily, we may not be able to reply to your email immediately.
TO BE CONSIDERED FOR AN EXTRA/BACKGROUND ROLES:
CLICK HERE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED AS AN EXTRA OR BACKGROUND TALENT IN NYC. ALL NYC-BASED TALENTS CAN TAPE FOR ANY/ALL SPEAKING ROLES THAT THEY CAN RELATE TO AND ALSO SUBMIT FOR BACKGROUND CONSIDERATION. =)
Feel free to follow our casting director @damianbao and office @damianbaocasting on social media to keep track of the project’s status and learn about other projects we are casting.