Meet Frances Chang | Marketing and Public Relations VP & Writer and Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Frances Chang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Frances, where are you from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?

“Where are you from?” is such a loaded question for a person of color. Instead of the beginnings of mere small talk, to us, it is an implication of not belonging, which in a sense has made a great impact of who I am today.

Factually, I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but I lived on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina from when I was seven months old until I was 21 – so I consider myself from Hilton Head. Usually, when people ask me, “Where are you from?” they are really trying to dig into my ethnicity, so by the third “Where are you REALLY from?” – and if I am so inclined I tell them that my parents were born in China and my sister was born in Taiwan.

I suppose growing up with immigrant parents in a tourism town in the south has impacted who I am today. It certainly has shaped my point of view and how I write stories. When I think about race relations, I observe beyond the Black and White. When I think about family, I yearn for and am envious of the affection and closeness that was missing from mine. And these are the perspectives I incorporate into my stories.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

My path to filmmaking is a bit unique in a Jeremy Bearimy sort of way (that’s a Good Place reference), which began with puppetry that led to indie wrestling, then from the circus to improv, and from sketch writing to filmmaking. It’s a perfectly logical progression!

I love the art of storytelling and I love comedy, so it’s only natural that I’m drawn to writing sketches. Like I mentioned before, inspiration usually comes from what’s happening, so a lot of times, I infuse a bit of social commentary into my sketches like racism, human trafficking and mental health.

I have worked on several meaningful projects. Actually, I try to insert a bit of social commentary or activism into most of my work, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll focus on three major ones.

I have been affiliated with the Center for Puppetry Arts since 2008 and have participated in Xperimental Puppetry Theatre (XPT) since 2009 as an individual contributor. I directed my own project for the first time in 2018 with a live stage piece called, “Mean Spirited.” At first, I was looking to create a comical “Statler and Waldorf” type piece with puppeteered portraits on a wall commentating on the lives of their living relatives. But in conversations with friends about their life experiences, I realized that made for compelling content, which then transformed my original concept into a trans/LGBTQ+ support piece that was both comical and meaningful. I still get comments from people about how that piece, which was a story told with shadow puppets and a puppeteered wall, moved them.

Another meaningful project I worked on was a collaborative experimental film short called, “Torn Together.” I was a co-writer/co-producer /co-star with my friends Melissa Kunnap and Ava Davis. This horror short explored each of our personal traumas as we were literally torn apart by our demons only to be reborn into our authentic selves. Melissa Kunnap was the creator and director who brought us together to tell our stories as a form of both art and therapy. Melissa is a biracial woman being torn between identifying as White or Black. Ava is transgendered and torn between identifying as a man or a woman. I am an American-born Chinese and torn between identifying as an American or an Asian. In the end we each had our own lifelines and found comfort in our own skins.

My most recent meaningful project was on the directing team of Synchronicity Theatre’s family series play, “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon,” as assistant director to Justin Anderson. The play is based on a novel by Grace Lin, which was inspired by Chinese fairytales (the stage play was adapted by Jeannine Coulombe). Justin directed the theatre’s original production in 2014 with a predominantly White cast, crew and designers. The past season’s production  was made up of nearly entire AAPI cast and designers. The show opened on January 26 to an amazingly receptive audience, and ran through the Lunar New Year (February 10) and closed on February 18, with the book’s author attending from New York. With the entire cast being made up of immigrants or children of immigrants, we all bonded by the story’s theme of leaving home to seek fortune and how some parents express their love by projecting their fears and worries onto their children. Being in a room full of talented AAPI artists and performers has been a fantastic experience. It has been incredibly meaningful to be a part of a piece that exemplifies diversity and inclusivity. Being a family production, we are showing children that people who look like them are also telling stories about and for them.

Balancing work and an intensive creative hobby isn’t easy. Filmmaking takes up a lot of time and resources. You’re also bound to the creative ideas and inspirations that hit you at the time. Being creatively blocked is such a bitch! (Can I say that here?) Nothing is worse than wanting to tell a story and just not knowing where to start.

What I’ve found to help me is to relax and just do things – watching tv, going to the movies, hanging out with friends, going to shows, or just being outside in nature. Oftentimes my “best” ideas don’t come when I’m trying to force it, they just come to me inspired by something I’ve seen, heard or from a conversation.

Experiencing life and being open to inspiration is the best way to get the creative juices flowing, for sure.

I would say that my brand would be writing relatable characters and relationships. My hope is that I weave them into unique situations or twists. I’m proud of all of the work that I put out, in either their earnestness or even as a learning experience to build upon. I mean, not everything I do can ALL be perfect, right? Every misstep or failure is a chance to grow and become better.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend were to visit me, I would take them to Manuel’s Tavern to eat first. It’s the perfect relaxing place to eat that really embodies Atlanta’s atmosphere. Once we’re all settled, we would have to visit the Center for Puppetry Arts to visit the museum and catch a puppet show, then we’d hit an improv show at Dad’s Garage. While she’s here, we’d also have to explore Doll’s Head Trail so that she could really experience Atlanta’s weirdness while enjoying nature. The big cultural hotspots would be the High Museum, the National Center for Human and Civil Rights and Oakland Cemetery. We’d also hit the Beltline to get to Piedmont Park, stopping at Krog Street Market and Ponce City Market along the way to shop and eat. I’d take her to DelBar for the last meal out on the town for one of the best Mediterranean meals in Atlanta.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to shoutout to the sketch classes, sketch groups and writers groups that have supported me and passed on valuable feedback during the creative writing process.

Website: mediatigre.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franceschang/

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@mediatigre

Image Credits
Frances Chang, Gina Rowland, Melanie Doultan