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

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?

 

From 2006 - 2018, Visceral Visions offered workshops and mini-intensives with master voice teacher, David Smukler, for Vancouver-area performers, directors, teachers, business leaders, and other professionals. Participants in our most recent mini-intensives in April 2018 commented on their experiences:

David’s workshop was fantastic. In just five evenings I walked away not only with specific and immediately applicable tools for any actor (film, TV, stage, voice over, radio) but also with a better understanding of how to explore further on my own. I’m particularly excited about the discovery of new ways to figure out the right questions to ask of a text or scene, and my relationship to it through breath. - TN

David's passion for the voice and body is infectious. I value every opportunity to work with him. A master teacher, he is able to meet the actors where they are in their journey, and to personalize his teachings, so that you walk away feeling empowered, curious, and better connected to your voice. Most importantly, he plants the seeds of curiosity, a supportive foundation for an actor to begin exploration of authentic voice, or to come back for fine-tuning and further growth. - QN

A political satire written by Valerie Sing Turner
(in development)

Synopsis: December 12, 2002. In a nod to Dickens, a Scrooge-like Henry Kissinger is 16 days into the prestigious chairmanship of the commission to investigate the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States – but with the families of the 9/11 victims demanding Kissinger release a list of his consultancy clients to prove no conflicts of interest, he’s in a quandary. Returning to his office following a meeting with a delegation of 9/11 widows, the 79-year-old Kissinger falls asleep, only to dream of a middle-aged Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under JFK and Lyndon B. Johnson, who warns of the imminent visitation of three spirits of the past, present, and future: an old man whose village in Laos was annihilated by a secret American bombing campaign; a female Chinese-American nuclear physicist who worked with Robert Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb; and a Vietnamese girl, one of countless civilian victims of the Vietnam War. Kissinger was National Security Advisor when he assured President Nixon, “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

Update: March 2026

L-R: Anthony F. Ingram, Donna Yamamoto, David Bloom, Kameron Louangxay

A big thank-you to everyone who joined us for the first sneak-peek staged reading of Valerie's latest work on March 9, 2026 at The Post at 750. Her one-act political satire about power and geopolitics featured the acting talents of Anthony F. Ingram, David Bloom, Donna Yamamoto, and Kameron Louangxay, with dramaturgy by Stephanie Wong, and stage management by Xin Xuan Song. We're also grateful to the lively and enthusiastic crowd who stayed for the talk-back session following the reading to offer their thoughtful comments and questions!

Artists, L-R: Anthony F. Ingram, Donna Yamamoto, Valerie Sing Turner, Stephanie Wong, Kameron Louangxay, David Bloom

Written by Valerie Sing Turner

…for experimental theatre and dance lovers, this independent show is not to be missed…Turner’s debut as a playwright [is] an incredible feat considering the complexity of the show’s topic and her atypical approach in dealing with such a controversial theme…brilliantly explored… - 11 Stations Blog

Written by Deborah Gkashugi Asiimwe

Visceral Visions was proud to be one of 14 local companies presenting short plays about climate change as part of Climate Change Theatrical Action Vancouver (CCTA Vancouver). 

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).

Created and directed by Marie Clements

...three magnificent divas--[Jennifer] Kreisberg, Cheri Maracle, and Michelle St. John...combined fierceness and vocal power [to] quite literally "take [our] words away" (to paraphrase the song...)...a powerful experience... 
Peter Dickinson - Performance, Place and Politics

Written by Laurie Fyffe

"...fascinating little one-act work...a nuanced descent into all kinds of dark corners...simply brilliant..." - Vancouver Sun

"...searing, almost embarrassingly fascinating...unprecedented collaboration with the CBC..."- The Courier

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ABOUT CULTUREBREW.ART

CultureBrew.Art (CBA) is a digital platform that promotes and fosters intersectional interculturalism throughout the literary, media, performing, and visual arts sectors – and beyond! A powerful tool for building a more inclusive arts sector that more authentically reflects Canada by promoting Indigenous and racialized artists, CBA aims to increase hiring opportunities for BIPOC artists, while fostering intercultural connection, community, and artistic collaboration. 

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