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Utilizing the body, voice, and soul
as the primary force in performance,
this workshop will explore the experience
of people caught between worlds through
the development of first voice stories
and performance pieces. Basic technique
will include elements of Japanese classic
theatre and Chinese fighting fan. Performance
work culminates in an open lab presentation
and a final performance. Artist Brenda
Wong Aoki will lead this workshop as
part of the Cartographies of Race course.
Brenda
Wong Aoki, Writer/Performer
has broken barriers and established
a new genre as a contemporary American
storyteller. A two time National Endowment
for the Arts Fellow, she has received
commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation,
the U.S. Congress, the State of California
and the City of San Francisco. She is
featured in Extreme Exposure: Solo voices
of the 20th Century (Theatre Communications
Group 2000). Brenda Wong Aoki's work
is a unique synthesis of Japanese Noh
and Kyogen theater, Commedia Dell'Arte,
modern dance, and storytelling of everyday
life experiences. Her full-length, one-woman
plays include Random Acts of Kindness
(1994), The Queen's Garden (1992), and
Tales of the Pacific Rim (1990). The
Queen's Garden won four Dramalogue Awards
and a San Diego Critics' Circle Award,
and has been published as a CD by Routledge
Press (1996). Brenda recently premiered
Mermaid, a savage, symphonic folk-style
legend she wrote herself, with the Berkeley
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro
Kent Nagano, to a score composed by
Mark Izu.
Mermaid was commissioned by the city
of San Francisco, the National Endowment
for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Brenda Wong Aoki will perform her latest
piece, Uncle
Gunjiro's Girlfriend, February
16th at Stanford's Dinkelspiel Auditorium.
Wong Aoki's story of Uncle
Gunjiro's Girlfriend is the
true story of a forbidden love --the
first Japanese Caucasian marriage in
California. It is told with original
music composed and performed by Mark
Izu. The show is sponsored by
Stanford
Lively Arts and the Institute
for Diversity in the Arts. Buy
Tickets
Links
Asian
Improv Arts
Firstvoice.org:
Brenda Wong Aoki
"The
Queen's Garden" (Audio
CD) by Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu
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