Little Red Riding Hood: The Chinese Opera retells in English (dialogue) and Chinese (singing) the timeless fable of a young girl’s journey to grandma’s house and transforms it into a cross-cultural journey for audiences of all ages. Using the classic Western story as a window, audiences experience the full range of traditional Chinese Theater including breathtaking stage acrobatics and martial arts, music, dance, pantomime, stylized face painting and elaborate hand-sewn silk costumes.

Little Red brings together a cast of top Beijing and Kun Opera performers who have won Chinese and international awards and acclaim. These include actors from Lincoln Center’s celebrated production of the Kun Opera masterpiece, The Peony Pavilion.

Conceived and directed by Kuang Yu Fong, Little Red draws its inspiration from classical masterpieces such as Wu Sun Fights the Tiger, Picking Up a Bracelet, Fighting in the Dark and Selling Water. Excerpts from these classics are seamlessly integrated into the story with American humor that makes it immediately accessible to a wide audience.

When Little Red premiered at the Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center on January 14, 2001 audiences lined up an hour before the show and many had to be turned away, following live telecasts of excerpts in rehearsal on NBC’s Today Show and World Journal Television, and extensive media coverage.

Since then, Little Red has drawn crowds at other venues, including the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, Queens Museum of Art, Liberty State Park, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Chinese Garden in Staten Island, Long Island Museum, Ramapo College in New Jersey, South Hampton Public School, Wesleyan University and the Provincetown Playhouse. Little Red was invited to return to the Queens Museum of Art and Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Art Center for 2 encore performances.