Audience Falls for ‘Falling Leaves’

Author Adeline Yen Mah signs copies of her memoir, Falling Leaves, Tuesday night at South Coast Repertory

Yen Mah has turned her memoir into a play, which had its first staged reading at SCR Tuesday as part of the Ancient Paths, Modern Voices festival presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Mah, a retired anesthesiologist who lives in Huntington Beach, first published the story of her unhappy childhood in a wealthy, backstabbing Chinese family in 1998. It sold more than a million copies. The staged reading – which was sold out – starred Jeanne Sakata as Adeline and Dom Magwili, Donald Li, Emily Kuroda and Alberto Isaac as her untrustworthy siblings. Oanh Nguyen directed. Also on hand was a film crew from Voice of America, which will broadcast a story about Adeline and her play in countries across Asia.