Asking 'Why Dream in Inglewood?' playwright Henry Ong presented his adaption of Dream of the Red Chamber, the 1791 novel by Cao Xueqin in Inglewood's Edward Vincent Jr. Park. Mr. Ong wrote a four-act play drawn from the story lines and social specifics of the romance novel including multi-generational families, supernatural beings and magical realism.

Published in 1791, Dream is considered one of China's great classical novels, similar to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Ong's diverse cast of 14 stage actors portrayed 70 roles from the novel's 30 main characters and 400 minor ones. Live music accompanied the ten open rehearsals. A marathon six-hour performance on Saturday May 27, 2017 capped the performed public art exploring love, family, duty and destiny, and our shared humanity.