L all right here we go all right good morning
Could you tell me a little bit about your inspiration for writing prep play
Yea i think it’s a question that I’ve always been thinking about, that i personally have been
grappling with. Which is finding my own place, finding my place, what is my role as a queer
immigrant artist in this country. Especially how i place myself in American queer movement and
history because, i think we briefly talked about this last time, when i was in middle school i
started learning English which opened a window for me into learning about queer culture which
isn’t something that was very present in Chinese media or the books i could find so i turned to
the internet and turned to the search engines i could find back then and i learned a lot about, it
started small very personal, it started with something more salacious, okay what is this about
why am i having these feelings and desires why am i being pulled to the male form. And thought
those searches and discoveries one thing led to another it led me to the stonewall riots and to
hiv, the last pandemic, the aids pandemic. It really struck me as if i was reading my own history,
i felt a really strong and weird connection even though i wasn’t here and i wasn’t in the us, it was
a shared trauma that has been living through me and i felt a hunger in me to know and find out
more. I read a lot of hiv plays from that time and ever since i came here, after i came to the us i
started to explore the queer side and to get connected to the pride that i have about my
sexuality
Around 2015 i started to know and take prep and after a year and half after that i felt that i was
going through side effects, very real dreams the touch feeling sense the smell it feels very not
like a dream, but like reality i talked to my doctor and she mentioned that the dreams are a
really common side effect after you start taking prep. Also at that time i had been thinking about
prep because i had been having conversations with some of my older queer mentors or friends
and i got a strong feeling
Cause for me it’s liberating, cause as someone who grew up in china sex and hiv is something
that is heavily stigmatized for the first twenty years of my life. I used to get really paranoid after
encounters and intimacy and i feel like prep was able to remove that to a certain level
But at the same time it felt like there is a deep sense of concern and distrust from some of the
older folks. So i started thinking about that and i think that on one hand prep frees us from our
fears from our stigma but at the same time I wonder if it is creating a divide and making what
happened in the 80s more like a forgotten history, something we can only read, not something
that feels real and if it’s disconnecting us from a part of queer history that we should know and
be aware about.
And then there was one, i think i dreamed about it or i had a daydream but i had a vision that i
was
Cause the prep dreams are so fascinating like sometimes i would literally be in the past, in my
childhood, kinda like time traveling. Sometimes if i read a fiction short story, i would dream about
that book or i would see myself as an avatar in a game world. But the premise of time traveling
through dreams started to emerge and i started to explore that and i had this vision that i was
descending into the 80s, like a very turbulent time, with the help of prep, kinda like a parachute.
I think i wrote something for the national queer theatre workshop - i have the language, i don’t
have it right now. Let me see if i can read it to you.
Okay this is what i wrote “i had this vision of someone descending on a parachute into a dark
unknown place so in a paint party several months later i painted that vision. I think that’s related
to how i feel about prep - it keeps us safe while allowing us to be in touch with a dark history. In
a way the younger generation are descending into HE HAS THE QUOTE AND SENT IT TO
YOU
I got here in 2012 so I’m getting into my ninth year of my time in the us and i feel like iv’e
learned a lot and I’m constantly thinking about what intimacy means to me and what being an
immigrant queer person of color living in this country means to me and everything sort of comes
together to make me want to write this play
And something else, it’s so funny that i was actually able to relate and see myself in a lot of the
aids play in 80s and 90s but i feel like less likely to do that for the past few years for some
reason i don’t know or can’t articulate yet.
I feel like i want to write a story that I’m actually in there that actually reflected my experience or
friends or people like me. It ends up being very personal and intimate but also very large
project. I feel like it’s very personal to me, but that it has a gravity to it that i feel a responsibility
to in how i tell the story.
Thank you for that, it was wonderful. You said something last time that really stuck with
me. When we were talking about your learning about stonewall and the aids crisis and
that journey and then flashing forward to now, you said something like, “ i always like I’m
occupying this luminal space between generations and …
Oh yes, thank you for reminding me of that, but yes. I don’t remember exactly what i said but i
remember the sentiment.
Which is because of my background and upbringing, cause i grew up in china but at the age of
fifteen i went to boarding school and at eighteen i went to university in Beijing which is a three
hour flight from my parents and after that i went to Hawaii. It’s just like every step i was going
further and further away from my parents from my hometown from where i grew up, i kept
feeling that because of that experience and because of my cultural background and because of
the fact the gay movement feels thirty or fourty years behind, that i think like the older
generation sometimes because i grew up in the nineties in china, which is maybe like NY in the
60s and 7os. So it’s like I’m occupying my own body as a younger person but i’m thinking like
that older generation sometimes. I always feel like i’m living in that liminal space. I think in the
first few years, my writing was trying to make sense of that, cause i know a lot of multicultural
background writers like to write about that. But i feel recently i am starting to feel comfortable
there, i feel like i am finding joy and pride in that in between space as well because that’s what
makes me me and what makes me so unique and special and write what i write, like prep play. I
think it’s reflecting our reality and the reality of our world, I’m not trying to write from an
American perspective per say. I’m not writing this play from a Chinese perspective either. You
know it’s so weird I feel I like I’m writing it from the perspective of someone who is really new to
this space and trying to place himself or trying to figure out trying to be that connection cause he
knows where the past is or has a feeling of where the past is and he knows what kind of future
he wants and he knows he wants to be the connective tissue and sometimes that feels like the
in between space.
I don’t know what I’m talking about any more, i just am trying to picture that space or feeling and
how this world is going to be, one play at a time. Pandemic aside, the world was going to be a
more open place with people less confined to where they are from and their origins.
Thank you for that, that was wonderful.
Thank you, i don’t know I’m upset at myself
You’re upset with yourself? Why? You are just talking away it’s wonderful
I keep feeling like i wish i could talk like how i write. I wish i could rewrite things i say
We’ll fix it in post, but you are also doing a beautiful wonderful job. Don’t think too hard
about what you’re doing. You’re doing great you’re doing wonderful
Thank you
And we already have one draft of this behind us, this is draft two, you’re doing wonderful.
I’m gonna jump a little bit, when we talked last time you said that you started writing this
play in 2018, that the first scene was born in 2018 and then it kinda sat for a little bit.
What inspired you to pick this back up now in 2020?
When i wrote okay, I’m going to give you a very long and unasked for answer. You asked me
about my process as a writer in the email. I thought about that too, i thought it might be related
to the story, to the answer
As a writer how i work is once I’ve got inspired or i have a story or i know what i want to write, i
keep that in my head and meditate on it. It’s like a seed that i plant in the soil. I can’t write a
story right away usually unless it’s a short play. It has to go through a few months of
unintentional research here and there, talking to people, a very casual process, like after a few
months when i feel like i have enough material for me to dive into the story idea and then i write.
So when i wrote this story in 2018, it was actually a short play, it was a ten minute play, it was
the first scene, it was the scene where we find out in the park that the younger queer person
has given his boyfriend an std which inspired a whole conversation about you know prep and
what the 80s are like and be careful what you wish for. So that’s the start of the play, so i have
that scene for a few months and i know i want to expand that, i know this is a story i want to
write. As a writer i always know where my story wants to end. It’s kinda funny, i think of writing
as a road trip. I know where i want to go but i don’t know how i want to get there yet. That’s
something i start thinking about until a half a year later, I’m part of Youngblood
i’m also a writer that needs a deadline. Yea like we have the reading series coming up and i sign
up and have a slot so okay i have to write something here. That gave me the urgency that i had
to write that draft
That led the ten minute play to be a full length draft, a rough draft
The reason i started working on this again this year. Partly it’s because Adam was the first
person i shared this play with. I was actually, it’s so funny, i finished this play at the end of June
and in the beginning of July we were doing the criminal queerness festival and i remember
distinctly we were backstage at irt theater and we were doing joker and i just randomly asked
him, i just finished a new play, do you want to read it
It felt very national queer theatre - cause i actually sent it to him and after that, he wanted to be
an advocate for this play
I thinks that’s the logistic of why we are doing this in 2020
Something else that makes this play feel more urgent right now, this past year, i feel like it’s
addressing a pandemic while we are in another pandemic. There’s just something about okay
so this is a new question so I’m havin new thoughts
Because how the aids pandemic was responded my artists or the public back in 80s and 90s is
very different from how the public is responding right now
Part of me is wondering how people in the future will look back at our time and talk about the
things we did or did not do. Or rather i remember having this conversation with my creative team
and Adam and adin, cause the play was set in 2018 or 2019 we talked about if i wanted to
update the play to address the pandemic we are in right now because it’s the elephant in the
room
Then we had this conversation in the summer and then it’s a few months for me to explore and i
did nothing, i couldn’t write. For me i think the stress was too much because we are very much
still in the pandemic. Part of me as an artist doesn’t want to directly engage with anything like a
pandemic play at this moment. But surprisingly, once in the workshop, it just feel like i didn’t like
that elephant in the room was addressed but not by directly talking about the pandemic.
The time we are in has affected the play a lot, but we are not directly talking about the
coronavirus. I think feel and touch and intimacy becomes something stronger, the presence of
something that we are not able to do, becomes stronger in this new draft in the sense of loss
and the gravity of this new loss becomes more present in this new draft. And for me personally, i
think it’s my new reality in 2020 allowed me to be really vulnerable and truthful. I feel like this
opens another box.
I think in the past maybe i have been very afflicted or troubled or conflicted about my role in
American theater when I’m writing. And part of that is because i am conflicted about my role like
for a long time sometimes i thought myself at a bridge of some sort. Like always trying to think of
my art as not providing a fun and contemporary perspective into contemporary Chinese thinking
but also vice versa in a way.
Then it just hit me, because the pandemic hit china earlier, and for the two months before the
people here were even discussing it, i was just having this intense existential crisis because i
was like “what are you doing yilong” and in march when a couple of my shows were cancelled
and everything was shut down, i just felt like okay where you came from is on fire and where
you are or where you want to be is opening gate to hell, you know it was like what’s the point of
this bridge
It’s just the time last year, makes me question my reality as an artist making art here in another
country or trying to or bringing people together when the world is falling apart.
A lot of that, i couldn’t write it for a couple months. Yea then i think
Sorry i’m just having intense ptsd moments for some reason
But i do want to say working on this play gave me a sense of clarity because i do think the play
ends on a very hopeful note. And so going back to the question
I think the question is asking me why do i think this play is relevant today
I am very, first of all, i am super welcome and okay with however you think this play is relevant
to if you want to just describe that. I feel a little incapable of covering that conversation.
I don’t think you should feel pressured to answer the question. I asked why did you pick
it up now, not why is this the play for the moment. I would never expect a playwright to
answer that question about their own play, so please don’t feel obligated to answer that.
But i think the way that you describe it, of being a play about a pandemic within another
pandemic is probably how i would describe it.
Thank you. I’m sorry to interrupt, am i interrupting you?
Go this isn’t my interview
Something you said just reminded me that this is very somehow is very healing for all of us,
working on this play. I feel like if i decide to engage in this other way and actually talk about this
pandemic, cause there are opportunities to talk about that - Eric is actually Chinese. It doesn’t
feel right to compare those two things because they are very different in terms of how life is
impacted. But i do feel like, working on the thing, working on the play, which is addressing or
talking about the after effects - because this play isn’t talking about the aids pandemic itself - it’s
talking about prep. Which is like a thing, something close to a cure or a drug that rises out of
that pandemic, but some may fear that it may be too late or what it’s doing to that time. There is
something about reflecting on that, feels very healing to everyone involved, in terms of thinking
about the time we are in right now.
It’s just i think, if i might be so bold to offer this, it’s just it’s refusing to give an easy answer. It’s
really solidifying the drug and i think the time of the play, which you have stuck with, 2018, it’s
just liminal spaces you have stuck with gosh i don’t know I’m a little tired this morning. But it’s
the play is in so many liminal spaces that weren’t necessarily written in, that’s a really
fascinating way to think about this piece of work
I hear what you are saying, you are saying: like you know the play itself is sort of caught in that
liminal space too in the pandemic while trying to engage with another. I see that. I guess that’s
something i couldn’t articulate. I feel like the way it wants to address the time we are in right now
is sort of embedded in the play itself. Somehow that people, like a couple friends afterwards,
just yea that’s their feeling too. They can feel the pandemic we are in right now, while not
directly addressed, is providing insights or relevance to the time right now. Or it’s affecting the
way people are engaged with it. Cause i remember i describing touch and feel and the way
people touch each other. And i feel like that sort of lense, differently for our sort of audience right
now, when we are in the state of mind that is deprived from that sort of interaction with physical
touch, that might be the reason too. I’m wondering it that’s the case
Can you say a little bit more, if there’s anything, more about the audience reaction. Was
there anything that surprised you the feedback that you’ve gotten from audiences or
even from within the workshop.
Um yes, i have many thoughts. I don’t know if it’s helpful but i
I think in the workshop itself like i said it feels very healing. I don’t want to use the word again,
but it’s a very healing experience not only because the entire team was queer and or bipod
artists, there is this level of trust in the room. So many things are understood, shared knowledge
and shared understanding that you don’t have to explain.
And yes something surprised me this past week is when i was talking to an older theater artistic
director, he was like i was surprised cause i was experiencing this play through Eric. In that
theatre they sent a different, younger queer woman of color to this play, who I’m sure is
engaging with this play differently than the artistic director was reading it, who was an older gay
man. Like i am so super surprised, because usually i feel like a queer play, especially a
contemporary one, especially one about prep, may land or sits differently with the older queer
generation. And i am actually super happy and proud because i am writing this play trying to
build a connection trying to have a conversation, trying to reach out. And i think it did that.
Before the workshop, part of me was afraid that i would offend or misrepresent in the way that i
feel like the older generation, especially those who have lived through that, that it wouldn’t feel
right.
But this artistic director told me he felt really touched. In his words he said, oh they understand,
after reading this play, which i thought was really beautiful. It’s like, of course we understand,
what do you think. I loved that response. That’s from ed decker from SOMEWHERE,
And another response KAAYONG HERSEY? Why this experience was healing for him, because
this entire year, 2020, was really fucked up especially after June. And he feels like, as a queer
black artist, he has to put his blackness front and center and not so much his queerness. I feel
like working on this play, he is healing the way that, it made it possible because this is a play
that centers on the experience of like that, the immigrant experience or the black queer
experience. That caught me off guard too. I was glad to hear that this play was able to do that
for you.
This is also something that’s actually another thing surprising is the previous AD FROM OSF
somehow came to see this play. And he reached out to Adam and to me, separately, to tell us
how much he enjoyed the reading and the workshop. To put it into more intellectual words, i was
surprised by how this piece inspired an inter generational or cross generational connection, or
joy, or understanding. That made me really proud.
I think that’s what i can offer as of right now because we didn’t really have a feedback session
right afterwards. I actually have no idea what other people think, like most audiences, i have no
idea. Adam told me they really loved it, which like okay i wish i could have that conversation but
that time’s passed.
But based on the few people that reached out to me, I’m glad it was able to touch the part of the
audience I intended to touch. Because i do think the inter generational conversation is a big part
of what this play is trying to do
That’s really beautiful thank you for that. A few minutes ago you were saying that like
part of the reason this process was so healing was getting to make art with a queer room
that was primarily artists of color. I want to pivot and zoom out a little bit, because i don’t
think we can talk about theatre right now without mentioning the huge pushes for
equality happening the past year. But um despite the calls from large groups like we see
you white American theater, the field remains pretty stubbornly white, gay not queer,
male both on stage and in leadership. I was wondering what you think about this moment
we are in and if these conversations are productive. If you could speak to that more. Are
you feeling like things are changing?
I feel conversations are being had, i don’t necessarily know if changes are coming.
You know
Yea i hear ya
It’s promising and frusturating at the same time because now we are in the position of we made
ourselves clear, we made our voice heard, this is our plan and so what
It’s like for me personally i if we may speak really personally
I want to zoom out to speak as yilong, in this moment, i personally i think some things
It doesn’t even have to be
Things can totally start small, you know, personal
For me, yes, i want major institutions to include more bipoc artists work, but at the same time, i
want to see how you are reached out to individuals or how this movement or this demand for
change is affecting individual artists.
I got a little upset last week because i was looking into a fellowship and they asked for a letter of
recommendation. This sounds so small and silly to think about, but i just feel like
Lemme see if i can make myself clear
I am curious if simple action, like asking for a letter of recommendation, is keeping a majority of
queer or bipoc artists out of the way. Logistically asking for a recommendation probably requires
them to, one, either have a good education or went to Mfa or theatre school to do that, or two,
has been to an internship, highly likely unpaid internship that only those in privileged positions
can afford to take, to be able to produce a letter like that, and three, and as artists of color, i
myself is less likely, i always think twice before i have to make an ask. Cause i feel like artists of
color are allowed less mistakes, are allowed less. I don’t know if that makes sense, but i feel like
a lot of the time artists of color are not as entitled as some white artists might be in terms of
asking stuff. The simple action of asking a recommendation letter, i can tell you that after i first
graduated, i didn’t apply to a lot of things, not because i didn’t want to but because i didn’t feel
like i could ask for a recommendation letter.
It’s things like that that can really frustrate me because i feel like no one has been there to tell
me how i can have a career. And i just remember i was like if you the organization after reading
our plays after reading our reading our artist statement after reading our plan and goals, after all
these, after the resume, you still feel like you have to have a letter of recommendation to vouch
for us, or if you are still unsure if this is an artist you want to select. Then maybe i just feel like
you are not in a position or you haven’t taken a look at yourself before you ask for that. Does
that make sense.
Yea
I don’t know what I’m getting at but the simple things like that makes me think about something
has to change fundamentally. I’m not even asking big asks, not even okay big institutions you
have to okay playwrights horizon you have to program this much bipoc plays, I’m saying think
about your daily function, think about your programs, is it paid, because right now it’s such a
burnout culture, especially for bipoc artists. We are living on our passion and dreams, and for an
industry that actually keeps burning us out to be honest.
I guess my wish is for theaters across the country to not think about their artist front, the things
they are doing, but also those really basic or foundational things. I think this makes me want to
talk about something, which is i think we talked a lot about this last time, which is my education.
That was such a good talk, i keep wanting to email you and tell you how much i was inspired by
that talk. Cause i was never able to look at my education that way. I think i mentioned this
A lot of bipoc artists have been hurt by their program because they are so white centric. I feel
like i’m actually luck enough, fortunate enough, to not have that be my experience. Cause i think
i mentioned three artists, my three playwrighting mentors. Like i thought
I looked more into that and thought more into that. I thought my education, my playwriting
journey, is actually so queer, so nontraditional and so multicultural and so not white. Because
my first playwriting mentor was TOMMY BAKER, who is native Hawaiian and her work is a lot
about empowerment of our cultural roots and indigenous, and anti colonial. And my second
mentor IS SOMEONE ELSE who is a queer Thai American writer whose also has a multicultural
perspective. And my last mentor who is SOMEONE her work is very female centric and also
very experimental. (47/48 MINS)
And i look at that and that’s my education. And okay between you and me truly between you
and me, i haven’t been exposed to many western canon plays. I read some Shakespeare but
totally not as someone should
Feels bad for saying this
There’s no amount of Shakespeare that someone should read. So just let go of that
Shakespeare or what’s considered the American canon, i was not trained in that. I was actually
trained in something []. And that makes me think about mfa programs. I’m gonna skip this whole
part which i was talking about last time, let’s not talk about that.
But what i do want to talk about is what our educators are doing cause what
I think this relates to what kind of people are going to be working in, or being in charge in theater
in the future. That makes me question or wonder, what does a queer, bipoc canon for theater
look like?
Are these plays being taught in school, in grad school, because if not, if things are not changing
in that educational level
I think I’m saying, things should start changing in theater educational institutions as well, or
curriculums, to include more queer bipoc work. More contemporary. To really review their
curriculum, like what is needed for the future generation of theater artists
And does and is your faculty does your faculty represent or reflect the field or at least do they
have the connection to even introduce or bring in artists, bipoc queer artists to talk to their
students. Are they even aware of the work, the new work that’s being created
I want things to start changing on that level.
What else I’m thinking about
And what’s
Going back to artists
What’s the support system that’s in place i don’t know if there’s something here
Between you and me a lot of times
Okay
I don’t know how you feel about artistic statements
Sometimes i feel like i have to really
I don’t begin to write an artistic statement until I’m sure that afterwards i have someone to talk to
this about
Because I’m unpacking my personal trauma and past and fears for someone i completely don’t
know to see to read and to judge. Is that healthy? That’s one thing
It’s those things that i tell my therapist about that I’m sharing in written form with you
And how are you responding to that and to me
It has to be a mutual
I feel like you know. I actually don’t know what I’m talking about
I guess what I’m saying is i sometimes feel so emotionally drained and exhausted by the level of
honesty and intimacy and the way we require artists to be to get
But we are not getting that level of care in return
So in addition to that i feel there are certain expectations on bipoc artists to
It’s so conflicting
Cause it’s like on two extremes
Either it’s like sometimes you get a comment that’s like okay why are we writing about this, stay
in your lane
Or another time its like okay you are a bipoc artist, you have to be so different, you have to be
so interesting, you have to
Yea you were, sorry i don’t mean to hop in, you were talking about this last time. Where
you were like saying that there’s this expectation for, see if i can find it in my little note
here, there’s this expectation for like a lot of preconceived notions for what queer PoC or
immigrant artists can write. People kind of balk at POC queer kitchen dramas because
there’s this expectation that you should be writing
Oh yes, challenging, yes thank you for reminding me of that
I feel like
I don’t know if that’s really healthy cause you are telling bipoc
So it’s such a complicated mentality to think about you know because when you are telling those
artists you have to be bold or subverting some stereotype or saying
Then that becomes so narrow and you’re also positioning those artists where they are in
competition with each other and not necessarily being community
I read a quote last week, i was super inspired, i think it’s actually an American theater
contributor DEB TRON, i think they said, i think it’s actually pinned on their twitter: ask white
artists about representation and ask bipoc artists about art. And many people retweet that which
i read that because it’s so true
We as bipoc artists are asked about representation, like why don’t you ask us about our art
And that makes me want to go back to the education thing. Teach bipoc artists how to have a
career and teach non bipoc artists morea bout art outside of their traditional canon.
Cause yes. Wait, i lost my train of thought i was going somewhere, i totally forgot
I think i was saying because i think chances are bipoc artists already have very interesting
stories to tell. You know what i mean and so help them get there and help them get a career.
That’s something school doesn’t teach
And i do think historically and traditionally bipoc artists or students are in a less privileged
positions financially or traditionally or maybe heir family expectations
I don’t know where I’m getting but i just feel i want institutions to acknowledge a need for the
curriculum that this new generation of theater artists especially need are going to be very
different and they need to spend major time and efforts in figuring out what they need and what
that looks like and they should be listening to the students themselves for advice
I agree. I’m also very grateful for you because i feel like we are on the same wavelength.
Because you’re answering, i have this list of questions open here, and you are following
it point by point and I’m sitting here not saying a word. I’m going to have to insert myself
into our conversation. But and this might be a frusturatingly like obvious question to ask
and an unanswerable question to ask, but I’m gonna ask it anyway because you have
beautiful things to say about every dumb question i ask. Do you have a vision for what
theater looks like post pandemic or is looking that far ahead even possible
Thank you for asking, it’s not dumb at all. It’s so necessary
I think we can look back at this past year for inspiration, instead of like trying to move away from
it as you know as soon as possible or don’t want to think about the zoom age at all.
I think i shared this with you last time to, i actually enjoyed my workshop on zoom online. Part of
it is because logistically i don’t have the stress of running around, traveling, page printing all the
things. Cause you know if your cast has like ten people, you are saving ten people at a time of
traveling, the stress of going around, or train fare taxi fare, bus fare. Those things are not small
for artists. I also think
I also said about
I think zoom, at least for me, provided me a surprising level of intimacy that surprised me. That i
didn’t think i was going to be so comfortable working in this media, but i was and i think that’s
because as a queer and international artists I’m very used to significant relationships online and
having difficult conversations over webcam and having to bare our selves and heart having to
talk about intimate things having to share our vulnerabilities at least for me, it was something i
had to do for a long time, it was not a choice for me.
I believe that’s true for a lot of queer and international artists
There’s something about that and being in your own space. I’m literally talking to you in my own
bedroom right now. I feel comfortable in sharing in telling you things and a level of honesty
which i might not in workshop, in a coffee shop, in like Times Square
I may not be able to be so very honest and vulnerable but i can do that because I’m feeling
protected in my own home
All of those things combined together makes me feel like i think we should there actually should
be inspiration for what theater look like for when we are allowed to gather in person. I think
there’s no reason why workshops cannot continue, like developmental workshops, cannot
continue to take place on line. I also think there’s no reason why the first few weeks of rehearsal
can’t take place online either. Like if we’re just dong table work, why ask everyone to travel, you
know
I just remember the last time we had physical rehearsals someone had to travel from prospect
park to 11th ave est it takes them an hour and thirty minutes on a sunday to get here for table
work.
I feel like once we are getting to working in the space, we can go back to being in the space, but
i do think we can incorporate part of zoom theater and what zoom can do into the future of
theater
I am also curious. Huh what am i curious about
Never mind
I mean I’ll just say as someone who hates the train and commuting as much as possible,
I’m here for the zoom revolution, i’m here with ya
I also hope it will inspire international collaboration or cause what’s so beautiful about this past
year is i think people were able
Even for criminal queerness festival they were saying people were able to tune in from different
countries. And some of my friends, like when we were doing prep play, i think Easton, who plays
Eric, was in canada
And a lot of friends especially like, cause I’m Chinese, i have some other Chinese friends
playwrights, i think their work because [GARBLED 1:04:48?] they were actually able to use
artists from Hong Kong and Singapore
I think that’s something that zoom is allowing us to do, i think it's freeing us from the confines of
our location. I think it opens up possibilities too.
I agree. I think it’s um it’s a really necessary change that’s been a long time coming i
remember i was applying to some or i saw some technology and theater festival and i
was like oh why hasn’t that happened yet. That was like two or three years ago, but I do
think it’s a really necessary forced change that’s going to be positive in lot of ways that i,
i may be speaking personally here, i don’t think i could have really imagined what
possibilities is could have opened up even two years ago
I do, having said that, i do really miss live theater
Oh yea me too
I don’t know if i told you this, but i did saw the outdoor show at Miami new drama, i don’t know if
you know that, they are doing seven deadly sins. An outdoor did we talk about that
I didn’t know that
Okay sure, Miami new drama is doing an outdoor theater festival. It’s short plays set in an empty
storefront so actors are acting in this little glass box. It’s only like one to two people and it’s
equity approved so guidelines are in place. We don’t have to go into this
I saw this in December and my and cause it’s like seven plays and it’s like seven groups and
they travel in different groups and see them in a different order. It’s kinda like fefoo and her
friends we kinda like travel in the house.
The first show i saw happened to have a very dramatic entrance, one of the characters and that
storefront was actually a restaurant so there was a long hallway from the kitchen to the dining
area and that’s the entrance for the actor. I’m just sitting there slowly entering and no words
have been said and first twenty seconds gave me so much chills of what live theater can do
Omg it makes me feel more alive than anything I’ve seen on zoom last year just the moment of
someone entering into view
Walking yea
I really miss that
Me too. One of the last productions i saw was a community theater production of Harvey.
Which is a talk about old too well loved American play
When was it march
It was in January or early feb so a year ago. I saw it a year ago and i would give almost
anything to see it again at this point. Almost anything
Do you know broadway hd
Yes
I don’t know if you tried them yet i was hesitant but i tried it. It was actually better much better
than i had expected it’s so clear
It’s so good
Yea. I was doing research, i was watching the king and i on broadway had. I actually saw the
actual performance, the same production at Lincoln center. After watching broadway hd, i felt
like i had never seen the production. .seriously. Cause you know i was sitting in the balcony
kinda far, i couldn’t appreciate the details of the blocking of the dance of the costume even the
set
It was such a different experience
Yea i enjoyed that
Maybe this will inspire future theater productions to well document their reduction in the future
too just in case
Yea just in case just in case
Oh man here’s hoping
I feel the same way watching theater online, we should have been doing this fifteen years
ago
This feels like a good stopping place to me. Any final thoughts or anything you’d like to
share or reiterate
Not at the moment i don’t think so but if i think of something i hope i can just email you this is
some new thought I’m having.