SEATTLE -- Home: Places Between Asia and America, the fascinating result of a three-year international collaboration among five artists, debuts 8 PM Feb. 12, as the main attraction of Northwest Asian-American Theatre's Winterfest '98.

Home, written by Los Angeles-based playwright Chay Yew is an exploration of their emotional and intellectual responses to a true-life Seattle drama, in which pregnant Filipino picture bride Susanna Blackwell was killed, along with two of her friends, by her estranged spouse Timothy. Among the tales inspired by this American dream turned nightmare are the tale of a Malaysian boy who comes to America and ends up as a drag queen, an examination of being an Asian-American woman in a white male world, the life of a woman in modern-day Asia and an Indonesian man who can't escape the feeling of being a minority.

The artists involved in the creation of the work, besides Yew, writer-vocalist Deirdre delaCruz, dancer/choreographer/lighting designer Loke Soh Kim, sound composer/performer Susie Kozawa and Malay performance/installation artist Zai Kuning. Their collaboration is the product of a five week residency in winter '97, five more weeks last summer, and a six-week residency, culminating in this production.

Home plays at 8 PM Thursdays-Saturdays, 4 PM. Sundays, Feb. 12-22 at Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Ave. S in the International district. For more information about the rest of Winterfest (which run the gamut from a non-traditional casting of David Ives' All In The Timing by Repertory Actors Theatre, to Asian sketch comedy, and dance works by Korean, Japanese and Filipino troupes) and for tickets ($6-$12) to all the events, call (206) 340-1049.

-- By David-Edward Hughes
Seattle Correspondent