Shy and I started working on transforming Ruwaxi's origin story
into a live performance for our show at Highways in August. We're
thinking that Shy will play Urvashi, Ruwaxi's former incarnation, who
narrates the story. The footage doesn't show Shy, but in the
performance she would be seen onstage facing a live feed camera.
EXCERPT: (for full rehearsal footage, see https://vimeo.com/45816206 password: ruwaxi)
EXCERPT: (for full rehearsal footage, see https://vimeo.com/45816206 password: ruwaxi)
password: once upon a time
SCRIPT:
Once upon a time in the urban sprawl of the City of Angels (La Ciudad de Los Angeles) there was a gated community (reeee) named the Middle Kingdom (That’s an ancient name for Chi-na!) where there lived a girl, Wu Ruwaxi (a made-up name meaning Western Confucian Doll!). The only child of a hard-working immigrant family, Ruwaxi was loving, dutiful, and the embodiment of the Asian-American dream.
By day she studied assiduously in her elite prep school, mastering calculus derivatives (gi gi go go go, eeeeeeee) formulating political theories to explain current Sino-US relations (ahem! mmm (throaty, protesting) growl, bam! zap! pow!), and writing impeccable eight legged essays analyzing the English literary canon. (The eight-legged essay, baguwen, was a writing style used for the imperial examinations in ancient China. Its rigid structure used heavy parallelism and redundancy, rhetorical features that survive in modern Chinese expository writing.)
FEEDBACK QUESTIONS:
(1) What moments draw you in? Where do you lose interest?
(2) How might you imagine the piece evolve visually and physically from here? (Next in the story, Ruwaxi dresses up in her combat-butch outfit and goes to the club.)
(3) How might you see this integrate with other material developed (chakradar, trailer, etc)?
(4) Thoughts about sound/music?
SCRIPT:
Once upon a time in the urban sprawl of the City of Angels (La Ciudad de Los Angeles) there was a gated community (reeee) named the Middle Kingdom (That’s an ancient name for Chi-na!) where there lived a girl, Wu Ruwaxi (a made-up name meaning Western Confucian Doll!). The only child of a hard-working immigrant family, Ruwaxi was loving, dutiful, and the embodiment of the Asian-American dream.
By day she studied assiduously in her elite prep school, mastering calculus derivatives (gi gi go go go, eeeeeeee) formulating political theories to explain current Sino-US relations (ahem! mmm (throaty, protesting) growl, bam! zap! pow!), and writing impeccable eight legged essays analyzing the English literary canon. (The eight-legged essay, baguwen, was a writing style used for the imperial examinations in ancient China. Its rigid structure used heavy parallelism and redundancy, rhetorical features that survive in modern Chinese expository writing.)
FEEDBACK QUESTIONS:
(1) What moments draw you in? Where do you lose interest?
(2) How might you imagine the piece evolve visually and physically from here? (Next in the story, Ruwaxi dresses up in her combat-butch outfit and goes to the club.)
(3) How might you see this integrate with other material developed (chakradar, trailer, etc)?
(4) Thoughts about sound/music?
Zhan had trouble posting a comment, so I am testing right now.
ReplyDelete(It looks like the blog commenting still doesn't work in Safari for me but it works OK in Chrome)
ReplyDeleteHere's what I remember from my lost comment, in shortened form. I hope it's helpful; these are just my know-nothing peanut gallery suggestions. As ever, I'm impressed by by both your creativity and movement skills.
1) I love the use of the project hands on the backwall. Perhaps the big hands could have the unified meaning of parental forces - not just the parents, but all the forces (culture, schooling, community, nationhood, etc. ) which shape Ruwaxi
2) "gated community" - this comes across as a high socio-economic class marker, is that OK? (more so than prep school, since that leaves open the possibility of being a scholarship kid)
3) "Middle Kingdom (That’s an ancient name for Chi-na!)" - it is an ancient name for China, though it's also the modern name too (Zhongguo in Mandarin = literally "the central nation", "the state at the centre" [of the world], "middle kingdom" etc.)
4) I'm looking forward to Ruwaxi's transformation into a "combat-butch clubber" and the dramatic triggers which cause/explain that transformation. The butch aspect of this transformation might be heightened if the current Ruwaxi had more femme characteristics. For instance, all the her school activities - calculus, political theory, imperial exam essay writing, are traditionally masculine-gendered activities. And besides the "doll" label, there's no other cultural marker of femininity in this version of Ruwaxi. That's fine, of course, but it sets up a transformation of one kind of tomboy into another kind of tomboy rather than playing with gender as such.
5) *Why* is Ruwaxi the way she is in this scene? Explaining this might also be a way of explaining why the Asian-American Dream is distinct from the American Dream in general ? ( It's an interesting construction; very broadly speaking, I see "Asian (Confucian) values" as incompatible with American Dream individualism and would tend to see Ruwaxi's transformation as an escape into individual freedom, but that shows my own biases and preferences of course)
6) Familial love, filial duty, cultural heritage, hard work, studiousness, community, intellect, the understanding of success and what future you morally should be aiming for ---- all these and other sacred values can be subverted, challenged, and even overturned in the maelstrom of teenage (not just teenage, but especially) growing pains --- a lot of potential for dramatic tension sources there. What the ambivalent moral judgement calls she has to make about her identity development as a teenager? and how does that hurt? and how does she seek out alternative rites of passage to address that hurt? What do her friends think of her? Does she have to seek out a new set of friends (often a main catalyst for transformation), possibly even in a new social scene - even though that causes awkwardness/problems with her old friends and her family / community?
Dear Zhan,
DeleteThanks so much for your thoughtful comments! I'm not sure that I addressed them completely in the first draft we just performed at Highways, but here are my thoughts:
I did intentionally choose the gated community as a marker of high socioeconomic status - I think Ruwaxi has a certain class and educational privilege which complicates her appropriation of the "street" in her clubbing life.
It's true that 中國/Zhong Guo means Middle Kingdom, but I associate that particular English translation (vs. something along the lines of "central nation") with an older era. Perhaps I should find a better word than "ancient" though.
I love that you point out that Ruwaxi, the good little Confucian girl, occupies a masculine-gendered role in her nerdy calculus prep school way. In the original version of the story, I specify that her elder brother dies in childbirth - a device to increase the pressure on the child to fulfill ALL of her parents' hopes and expectations, including that of "number one son" and dutiful daughter. The comic book shows her serving tea to her mother, which is not indicated here - perhaps I should add something about her prowess at cooking or sewing or something.
I'm quite taken with your distinction between the Asian-American dream and the American dream - between family/community and individualism...something I must think about more! In some ways it sets out Ruwaxi's internal conflict - the incommensurability of the two sides of her personality
- urvashi’s live feed dance looks a little webcam seedy when we see her body.
ReplyDelete- live feed of mudras has a comic book feel -- contrast with club and audience interaction is nice.
-confusing when the hands are not interacting with me, but are just behind me/lighting me. play with size/distance from projector (house is small, blackboard is really big).
- why does Cyn sleep on the ground if she has a chair -- where is bed?
- petting head is confusing before going into “shh” -- maybe make it bigger rather than only my head (which is too small). or can the hand be a blanket?
- background should change for the body odor/smell (yellowish green, sulphur?) in the club!
- At the end, before “You were put on this earth...” there should be visual shift (maybe not see Shy's face anymore?) b/c this is no longer about the relationship but about Ruwaxi and her mission (similar to how we shifted from mudras to face, so that the face disappears -- into rainbow flag background? something that frames me like a circle? ta da! this is your super self!)
Yay, thanks Babli! We integrated some of your feedback into our Highways performance :)
Delete