OCTOBER 2024 in NYC
I settled into a three-bedroom apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, picking up furniture from random people on Facebook Marketplace and 小红书. Before I came here, I genuinely doubted my ability to live alone and to take care of myslef. During the first half of the month, I felt rootless. I was intimidated by the insane talent of everybody else in this city, and it seemed like the city was screaming at me that I shouldn’t be here. It’s starting all over again—leaving my work, the community and family in Seattle.
My social anxiety hits hardest in group settings. I don’t know what to say or how to contribute (yes, that’s how I measure my worth) or am I being annoying or too much. But as my apartment started coming together, as I began to recognize the neighborhood I live in—or the NYTW neighborhood on 4th in the East Village—as I found more restaurants I like, got comfortable with taking the subway and even riding the citibike and getting yelled at by various pedestrians or other bikers, grew familiar with the NYTW building, and started cooking meals at home, I felt a renewal of energy from that courageous part of me. I look forward to more discoveries in me and what the city has to offer.
Month highlights:
- Our NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow cohort met with Anna Deavere Smith.
- I met with my friends Caleb, Edward, Van, Renzi, Yunyun and LZZ here in New York!
- I went to a contact improv class and a dance class… Speaking of trying something new 🙂 Also organizing a Zoom writing workshop with Ed and the Yun community and starting to write!!
- Making new friends and seeing work that inspired me for new projects. (DRUM ROLLS!! COMING SOON)
- I saw A LOT of shows.. every show is like a new world. Listed below 🙂
October 1, 2024
‘Til Sunday
Playwright: Nairoby Otero
Director: Nathaniel P. Claridad
Type: Staged Reading
October 2, 2024
Safety Not Guaranteed
Playwright: Ryan Miller
Director: Lee Sunday Evans
Venue: BAM
Type: Performances
October 3, 2024
Matawan
Playwright: Dan Caffrey
Venue: Atlantic Acting School
Type: Performances
October 4, 2024
One Song
Creator: Miet Warlop
Venue: Skirball
Type: Performances
It’s like a visual art piece on stage. I have never seen this form before. As audience, we feel so intensely of the existence of the performers’ bodies. I was very intrigued the first part of the show, but grew to be very exhausted watching the performers getting exhausted. It seems to me that they are creating what they think Fascism/Populism is on stage. There’re symbols like the huge flags, the form of athletic competition, national anthem at the end, the oppression from the spectators on the maenianum and the command of the commentator. At the end of the show, everyone exhausted their bodies, but still got up and sing.
It was interesting but it also made me feel kinda nihilistic because this oppression is not real? They have never tried revolting against the commentator in a real way and we as the audiences don’t see the consequences. I was wondering, do we need to see sufferings of the body to deliver this message?
I chatted with a friend who saw this show in France and told me the audience behaved very differently from the American audiences. Context is also very interesting in this case. The American audience is mostly quiet but he told me the European audience reacts a lot, just like the spectators on the stage. That must be a different experience! This is something to keep in mind when watching a touring show.
October 5, 2024
University Settlement Fellowship Presentation
Creator:
Venue: Universiity Settlement
Type: Performances
October 8, 2024
Caught by the Tides
Director: Jia Zhangke
Venue: Lincoln Center Movie Theatre
Type: Film
三个时间段贾樟柯的影片，看中国的时代变化。很多很美的三峡影片。
Universal Language
Director: Matthew Rankin
Writer: Ila Firouzabadi, Pirouz Nemati, Matthew Rankin
Venue: Lincoln Center Movie Theatre
Type: Film
这个电影很有风格，非常可爱，独特，我又能感到很强的孤独感。最后我在想，我这么多年没回过家，我要是被取代了是会怎么样？如果取代我的那个人过得比我好怎么办？
October 9, 2024
Dirty Laundry
Playwright: Mathilde Dratwa
Director: Rebecca Martinez
Venue: WP Theatre
Type: Performances
October 10, 2024
Our Class
Playwright: Tadeusz Słobodzianek
Director: Igor Golyak
Venue: Classic Stage Theatre
Type: Performances
Very interesting and ambitious directing and ensemble building. Covers the history from 1941 all the way to the 21th century. It cleverly uses chalk as a thread for storytelling. I loved the usage of balloon symbology too.
October 13, 2024
In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot
Playwright: Sarah Mantell
Director: Sivan Battat
Venue: Breaking the Binary, Playwrights Horizons
Type: Performances
Ta’ang 德昂
Director: Wang Bing 王兵
Venue: Union Doc
Type: Documentary
喜欢王兵的影片。Even when the war is here, people’s lives still go on. They hear the bombing in the back and get used to ignore it. There’re a million things to do. To pack, to flee, to take care of children… 没有着落的生活状态。王兵创作的方式不喜欢打断别人的日常生活节奏，不以拍片为目的来思考如果接近被拍的人。他说的还有一点我觉得有趣的是他喜欢和岁数比较大的剪辑师合作，因为他们更大胆，更不在乎常规，会尝试更新的东西。我觉得在做戏剧里也有这个感受，刚开始做的时候容易去紧紧抓住之前学过的东西，只有经历越来越多才能越来越放手，宽容度，胆子也越来越大。
October 14, 2024
The Mulberry Tree
Playwrights: Ed Mast and Hanna Eady
Director: Alexandra Aron
Venue: La Mama, Loose Change Productions
Type: Performances
October 15, 2024
The Ford / Hill Project
Creators: Lee Sunday Evans and Elizabeth Marvel
Director: Lee Sunday Evans
Venue: Public Theatre
Type: Performances
Immigrants with crime record can’t even come into America legally. But American citizens with sexual assault allegations can become supreme court judges and decide millions of women’s lives?
Cowboy Bob
Playwrights: Molly Beach Murphy, Jeanna Phillips & Annie Tippe
Director: Annie Tippe
Venue: Two River Theater
Type: Staged Reading
October 17, 2024
If Dogs Talk
Playwrights: James Caverly and Andrew Morrill
Director: James Caverly and Andrew Morrill
Venue: NYTW Mondays @ 3
Type: Staged Reading
October 18, 2024
Threepenny Opera
Playwright: Bertolt Brecht
Director: Benjamin Viertel
Venue: Columbia MFA Directing Thesis
Type: Performances
LOVED IT!!! It makes me laugh and realize how fucked up that laugh is. Around 12 people in the cast. Having never read this play before, I went in with fresh eyes. It was also the first Brecht production I’ve seen in America. Brecht always offers directors great creative freedom, and this production was no exception—it was a lot of fun. I haven’t laughed this much at a play in a while, but it was that dark, unsettling laughter that makes you realize just how twisted I am. Since the play is in the public domain, the adaptation took full creative liberties, and it felt incredibly relevant to our current state of late capitalism and economic stagnation.
The play raises big questions: Is it about doing the right thing to succeed in society? When power, money, and status come into play, who actually gets punished for crimes? I loved the contradictions it made me wrestle with—yes, the character committed crimes, but do they deserve to be killed by the state?
This adaptation also addressed contemporary issues, like elections and voting, and featured a lot of audience engagement. In one scene, the Peachum family asks the audience to vote: do you choose forgiveness or justice? A vote for forgiveness meant clapping, and people clapped. Then a vote for justice meant silence—but by the time anyone processed it, we had already moved on and the sentence had been given. Another moment had Mac asking the audience for money to bail him out. This production demanded the audience’s engagement, constantly making us crave the right thing, leaning in to see what is going to happen. While the dark aspects could have been pushed further, I already appreciated this bold, interactive version.
October 19, 2024
Portraits of the Moon
Creator: Jiemin Yang
Director: Jiemin Yang
Type: Dance Performances
LOVED IT!!!!!! I always love a 嫦娥奔月 mythology and how this dance theatre builds layers of that surrounding the subject of home and culture touches me deeply. I was so emotional
October 21, 2024
Zionista Rising
Playwright: Alexa Derman
Director: Will Steinberger
Venue: NYTW
Type: Staged Reading
The Beastiary
Playwrights: Christopher Ford & Dakota Rose
Director: Dakota Rose
Venue: Ars Nova
Type: Performances
October 23, 2024
We Live in Cairo
Creators: The Lazours
Director: Taibi Magar
Venue: New York Theatre Workshop
Type: Performances (Preview)
I have never seen the behind the scene operations of a two weeks and a half preview and it was incredible learning opportunity for me. I saw Cairo twice! First time was on October 12th. I missed a little bit of the show and was confused with the plot in ACT 2. In our of the artistic meetings where we talked about the dramaturgy of the show, I talked about the confusion of the timeline and the brotherhood. Then we I see it on October 23, a lot of it was cleared up for me! There were changes in projections, in how the team expressed the passage of time, in the delivery, in some blockings… It was amazing to feel like maybe I have contributed to the creative process of this show.
October 25, 2024
A Rare Bird: 2024 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival
Creator: Zaza Diana Oh
Director: Zaza Diana Oh
Venue: Breaking the Binary, Playwrights Horizons
Type: Staged Reading
October 26, 2024
Whore’s Eye View
Creator: Kaytlin Bailey
Director: Katherine Wilkinson
Venue: HERE Arts Center
Type: Solo Performance
October 27, 2024
Atlas Drugged
Playwright: James Gibbs
Director: Marianne Weems
Venue: Builder’s Association, Skirball
Type: Performances
Very engaging, interactive piece! Uses multimedia and technology.
October 29, 2024
Degenerates
Playwright: Else Went
Director: Emma Went
Venue: Public Theatre
Type: Staged Reading
I have never seen a theatre piece with this subject matter. It was bold, humorous, vulnerable, painful, relatable. Amazing cast, audience was so engaged, gasping, leaning in. I had some personal connection to the script and that hits me real hard.
October 30, 2024
The Blood Quilt
Playwright: Katori Hall
Director: Lileana Blain-Cruz
Venue: Lincoln Center Theatre
Type: Performances (Preview)
October 31, 2024
Still/Here
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company
Conceived, choreographed and directed: Bill T. Jones
Venue: BAM
Type: Dance Performances
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