From elected official to 'Sweatshop Overlord,' this performer takes on unlikely roles
On stage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, Kristina Wong presents herself as an out-of-work performance artist facing the onslaught of COVID-19 with little more than a bias toward action and some basic sewing skills.
"I have a Hello Kitty sewing machine. I got half a cut-up bed sheet. I got four yards of elastic," says the Pulitzer Prize-nominated creator of the satirical solo show Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, playing through Mar. 12.
But there's another side to Wong's seemingly humble theatrical persona: She is also the swaggering, self-appointed kingpin of the "Auntie Sewing Squad" — an ad-hoc network of volunteer mask-makers the then-unemployed artist galvanized in real life through Facebook during the pandemic.
"This is my ancestral destiny!" Wong yells,
