Co-Created by Anju Singh, Derek Chan, Valerie Sing Turner

Anju Singh | Lead Artist (Video Art + Sculpture), Co-Director
Derek Chan | Co-Director, Dramaturg
Valerie Sing Turner | Co-Director, Dramaturg

A Hydra Journal of the Plague Year is a multi-channel audio-visual media arts sculptural theatre installation based on the 2021 premiere online production, A Journal of the Plague Year, conceived and directed by Colleen Lanki (1965 - 2023). A Journal of the Plague Year is an English-language translation of the play, Ekibyō ryūkōki (疫病流行記,1975), written by Terayama Shūji (1935 - 1983) in collaboration with Kishida Rio (1946 - 2003), co-translated by Tsuneda Keiko and Colleen Lanki.

Acknowledgements/Credits

Exhibition co-created by Anju Singh, Derek Chan, and Valerie Sing Turner. Original 2021 English-language premiere online production conceived and directed by Colleen Lanki (1965 - 2023), founder and Artistic Director of Tomoe Arts Society. 

Original play, Ekibyō ryūkōki (疫病流行記, 1975) written by Terayama Shūji (1935 - 1983) in collaboration with Kishida Rio (1946 - 2003), and translated by Tsuneda Keiko and Colleen Lanki.

Produced by Visceral Visions and presented by Powell Street Festival Society and Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, in association with Tomoe Arts Society and Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and City of Vancouver Communities and Artists Shifting Culture grant.

Crew

Jae Woo Kang | Video Assistant
Mariessa McLeod | Audio Assistant
Reylinn McGrath | Installation Technician
Simon (Sai) Grefiel | Sculpture Build Assistant

Featuring archival footage from the 2021 online premiere production of A Journal of the Plague Year, a translation by Tsuneda Keiko and Colleen Lanki based on Ekibyō ryūkōki (1975), written by Terayama Shūji (1935 - 1983) in collaboration with Kishida Rio (1946 - 2003). 

Cast

Alisa Lindley Choe, Forgotten Woman, Slide Projector Vendor’s Wife
Anthony F. Ingram* Manager, Southern Slide Projector Vendor, Dentist, Disinfector, Mr. Dodgson
Aryo Khakpour Komeo
Brent Hirose* Taxidermist, Burmese Turtle, Master, Enema Man
Chu-Lynne Ng German Measles Mayo, Taxidermist’s Wife, Disinfector
David Bloom* Puppeteer, Police Detective
Howard Dai Ratcatcher Son, Man in High Boots, Self-Confined Man
Jesse Del Fierro Mugio
Montserrat Videla Samper Young Woman
Panta Mosleh* Kaimi, Fly-Swatting Woman, Dentist’s Patient
Raïna von Waldenburg Gaga, Ratcatcher Mother, Servant
Valerie Sing Turner* Mariko (owner of the cabaret “Trading Vessel Pago Pago”)

*members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association

Breathe: An audio-visual installation in Development by Anju Singh and Sammy Chien.
Co-produced with Chimerik 似不像.

Dare to Dream aria from Did I Just Say That?, featuring mezzo soprano Emma Parkinson, soprano Sodam Lee, and pianist Perri Lo. Music video produced by re:Naissance Opera.

 

L-R: Soprano Eva Tavares as Cecilia, and Canadian-Asian Mezzo-Soprano Emma Parkinson as Gabriella in
Did I Just Say That?

 

Written by Valerie Sing Turner

Christopher Hitchens, the celebrated author and journalist, devoted more than 140 pages of arguments, references and sources in The Trial of Henry Kissinger to support his belief that Kissinger should be prosecuted “for war crimes, for crimes against humanity and for offences against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap and torture.” 

Synopsis: It’s 1988. Three generations of a family gather to discuss what to do about Esther, a Chinese-Canadian WWII veteran, as they can no longer ignore her growing dementia. She keeps talking to Victor, her beloved brother, whose death she blames on the Japanese when he served in the Pacific arena during World War II. Her husband George, an Indigenous WWII veteran, was Victor’s best friend; they had all joined up full of dreams and adventure. Their son, Gary, arrives with his white wife and their daughter Lucy. Things are already tense when estranged eldest daughter Nancy shows up with husband Ken and their two daughters – who have never met Esther and George because Ken is Japanese-Canadian and Esther refuses to acknowledge his existence. But the real fireworks begin when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announces his plan to apologize to the Japanese Canadians who were interned during WWII. In the Shadow of the Mountains ponders the true meaning of reconciliation when the weight of Canadian history threatens to tear us apart.

2024 Development Workshop + Staged Reading

Back row, L-R: Cande Andrade, Donna Yamamoto, Ronin Wong, Sarah Kelley, David Geary, Justin Neal, Ray Koh, Daryl Cloran | Front row, L-R: April Starr Land, Yumi Ogawa, Lissa Neptuno, Valerie Sing Turner, Kim Villagante, Sunny Chen, Chengyan Boon, Anju Singh

Headlined by a fabulous and entirely BIPOC cast – David Geary, Donna Yamamoto*, Justin Neal, Kim Villagante, Lissa Neptuno*, Ray Koh, Ronin Wong*, Sarah Kelley*, Sunny (Daydream) Chen*, Yumi Ogawa* – Visceral Visions presented a staged reading of Valerie's latest draft at Progress Lab on July 28, 2024, following a workshop process that included a series of Design Jam explorations with Anju Singh (composer/sound design), Cande Andrade (projection design), and Chengyan Boon (set/lighting design). We also want to acknowledge Ray Thunderchild* for his contributions as actor to the first few days of our workshop process, as well as:

Valerie Sing Turner* - Playwright/Director
April Starr Land* - Stage Manager
Jessica Schacht - Dramaturg
Paige Louter - Producer
Daryl Cloran - Directing Mentor
Xwechtaal (Dennis Joseph) - Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Elder/Cultural Consultant
Catherine Clement - Community Historian (Chinese Canadians during WWII)
Sherri Kajiwara - Director | Curator, Nikkei National Museum
Maiko Behr - Japanese Cultural Consultant

We are grateful to Jessica Mann Gutteridge and Holly Karpuik, who generously hosted the design work in residency at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre; and to Janice Beley for taking such good care of us during the text workshopping sessions at SFU Woodward's. We also want to thank the Canada Council and BC Arts Council, without whose funding support this workshop would not have been possible, as well as acknowledge Théâtre la Seizième for providing some gear and materials.

* The participation of these Artists is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance Opera Theatre Policy (DOT).