Devising Journal #8

We were asked to discuss casting as soon as we stepped into the class. At this stage, we have already determined that there would be four lead characters: Bai Suzhen, Xiao Qing, Xu Mengjiao and Xu Xian. During the class, I was cast as Xiao Qing.

From the beginning, I have told myself that there are no small roles, only small actors, but it was nice to It was an absolute joy to know who I am in this original devised performance after 8 weeks of research and conceptualization, and I was eager to deliver a brand new spin on the well-known green snake. In this show, I imagined her to be a calm and serious person, capable of being the rock to others and a force to be reckoned with, and with this characterization I therefore created her arc as a protective lover who finally learns to listen to her heart and to accept her rightful place in a family she once felt excluded from.

We first continued on the I Found You scene which we imagined last week. After experimenting with an ensemble walking around with umbrellas, we agreed that the aesthetic of the umbrellas against the cyclorama lights would be a memorable highlight of the show. As such, the song I Found You was integrated into this scene where tentatively, Xiao Qing and Bai Suzhen would meet in the middle. Personally, walking among so many of my friends with umbrellas was an immersive, and dare I say magnificent experience. It felt almost like a dream to weave between those umbrellas, crashing into corners and dodging the spikes of the umbrella edges, in search of my onstage romantic partner Bai Suzhen. The moment I met her eyes sparked a kind of euphoria in me and I rode on that wave to grasp her hands, and even as an asexual, I understood the given circumstances enough to know that this was the love my character was feeling within the play.

At this stage, Rift and Lost were starting to take shape as individual scenes. Having penned Rift as well as part of Lost, I took my fellow creatives' reservations about the overtly childish behavior of Xu Mengjiao into consideration, and rewrote the first section for a more mature Mengjiao. I originally imagined her as a young genius who graduated from university early, which allowed her to progress through an academic career at an incredible speed. As a result, it made sense that she would feel highly indignant about any suggestion that she ought to get married instead of focusing on her career. That was therefore the cornerstone of Rift, in which I wanted to bring out the youthful determination of Mengjiao as well as her defiance against Xu Xian trying to pressure her into a life she does not want or care for. I had some material for Lost, but it was a monologue for Xu Xian and not final. We would work on this scene later today. As we were still thinking about how to shape the various acts, I was told not to number the scenes because everything is still fluid.

For the next week, we were told to prepare the full script, or at least most of it, and to work on our character embodiment for a hot seat. I also began thinking about the soundscape as well as what the costume might look like. Out of pure excitement to get started, I texted Zaw with a series of concepts so that I could better visualize how our theatrical style might look like, and here are some of my early ideas:

I know I'm a night owl.

Of course, the costume would likely go through many more iterations before it is ready for the stage, but for now, with an early concept, Zaw and I agreed on the general mood and stylistic elements which would complement our story in terms of characterization.

For now, I planned out the rest of the script including Reidentification, to tie up any loose ends. This week was a particularly busy one with quite a few deadlines from my translation modules and a midterm too, so I had to clear my outstanding assignments before working on the script in the early hours of the morning when I can work undistracted.