Julian Hsu, May 2014
DREW’s DRAMA
By Julian Hsu (from Stage Time and Juice)
Andrew is a nice guy: he is really passionate in his work and loves to help people in any way he can.
I am really glad that I was his student because he gave me the courage to do anything. For example, after a few weeks of drama lessons, our school’s choir was picking a main actor. If I had not been having drama lessons with him, I would not have had the courage to sign up for it and get a chance to express myself. And after I got the role, because of Andrew, I was able to do any crazy move that my teachers wanted. So my success in the school choir is all because of him.
Well, back to the lessons: Andrew makes the class really interesting, like we do physical exercises (we do lion faces and sour mouse faces J ), rhymes ( with silly moves ), and expressions (flick, float) in order to improve our acting skills.
The best thing about the class is that it is a kind of relaxing. In most classes, you always have to listen to the teacher and sit still in your seat, but in this class, you only have to listen to the teacher and you can move around freely.
R4 Updates, May 2014
An historic piece of 20th century Modern poetry was heard as never before at ASIDE @ The Red Room on March 29, 2014.
Four readers, accompanied by a sound effects operator presented TS Eliot’s The Waste Land for an audience of appreciative listeners.
TS Eliot wrote this opus using a wide variety of voices and each R4 reader developed several for the occasion.
The Waste’Land was read by: Marc Anthony, Andi Smela, Charlie Storrar and Pat Woods. They were accompanied by Trevor Tortomasi on Sound Effects. Videographer William OPENSHAW was on-hand to record the event and has subsequently met with the readers to shoot close-ups for use in future editing.
R4 revived their adaptation of TREASURE ISLAND for a public audience at the new branch of the public library near ShiLin Summer Residence on Sunday, April 26. The show was well-attended by persons of all ages.
R4 readers Marc Anthony, Sarah Brooks, Jenny and Conrad Green, Mark Lipsey, Nate Murray and Naden Rowe brought the story to life. Accompanying sound effects were ably provided by Pat Woods, who also voiced several characters.
Plans are underway for future R4 presentations at the library.
May 18, 2014
R4 Reader Rick Brundage and Ruth Giordano Director spent a few satisfying hours last Saturday in the ICRT studio. Rick teaches in the History Department and coaches the public speaking program at Taipei American School. R4 followers might remember Rick for his rendering of the title character in DRACULA last fall. On Saturday he read Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of horror and madness, “The Black Cat”.
Then, Ruth took a turn at the studio mic, reading Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery”. This story was first published in the New Yorker magazine in June of 1948. In addition to numerous reprints in magazines, analogies and textbooks, it has been adapted for radio, live television, a ballet, two films, a TV movie, an opera and a one-act play.
The Short Story Project is scheduled for two more days in the ICRT recording studio this month. Our head writer and dramaturg, Ignatz Ratzkywatzky carefully considered the unique qualities of our most dependable readers and chose a story for each from the wealth of Western short story literature. Murray Richardson was assigned a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of The Scarlet Letter, The Marble Faun & numerous others) and Mark Lipsey will read a selection from the collection of Damon Runyon stories, (it was Runyon whose stories inspired the creation of the musical “Guys and Dolls”). Next week R4 is scheduled to record “A Scandal in Bohemia”, one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, with Pat Woods and Charlie Storrar reading.
The R4 creative team will be out of the country for the months of June and July, preparing sound cues to enhance the voice tracks of the above mentioned recordings and planning their third season.
Ruth Giordano
Aside 5, a magical evening, March 2014
As I sat here contemplating about Aside 5, I realized that the definition of the title changed for me this time around. The last Aside event was simply to set “aside” the more free-spirited people and magnify my hopes in becoming one of them in the future. But in Aside 5, I felt as if the purpose of the event was, for me, to push “aside” all my expectations and stereotypes I had developed in my mind and be exposed, once more, to the necessary facets of life. It was as if I was to experience a rebirth and see the world for the first time again.
The mini-capsule of renaissance started with Josh Drye, a musician from North Carolina. When Drye came on to the stage, he simply took out his guitar and spoke a bit about the fundamentals of his music. He said that in his home region, they like to use one basic chord as the background chord. After this brief introduction, he quickly began to perform. He sang songs he composed and songs by other people—all of them were the songs of the Appalachians, best known as bluegrass. But even though they were all very pleasing to the ear, I still craved the sound of the banjo. In my mind, bluegrass just did not make sense without the sound of the banjo. It is no wonder why babies cry when they are pulled out of their mommy’s belly; the frustration at the unfamiliarity of their surroundings is so overwhelming that the only rational response is to lash out and cry.
I was already screaming like a maniac inside (“Where the heck is the banjo?!”) when comedian/storyteller, Charlie Storrar, confided in the audience, “I went through a process of rebirth myself.” It was as if Storrar’s message was directed at me. For a second, I saw a halo light up above Storrar’s head. But then, he said, “I am a Reborn Sinner.” And poof, there goes the halo. Before Storrar became the man he is today, he was Celibate Charlie. Storrar was trying to woo a girl with a box of cheap chocolates at fifteen. And to please her even more, he followed her into her Christian faith—but the moment he stepped foot inside the church, he decided to fall in love with Jesus instead.
Storrar loved being a Christian, but he also admitted that dedicating himself to God did not help him get over his need to “fill that void” and he constantly needed to patch it up “with his right hand.” And so at around the age of thirty, he decided to leave the Christian faith and finally will himself to sin again. Storrar’s story sounded too much like a bad joke to be true—“a British walks into a church with a box of cheap chocolates in attempt to seduce a girl, but was, instead, seduced by Jesus the man Himself.” All that is missing here is a rabbi.
I was having difficulty wrapping my head around the concept of being seduced by something abstract and conservative when Tina Ma, the Red Room Muse, walked in gracefully with a gu zheng and helped to demonstrate this seduction right away. The beginning of Ma’s music was very meditative. But as she began to pepper in a narrative about spring—“the mating season,” all one could think about was “sex.” It was as if Ma had grinded up all the Viagra she could find in the drug stores and just decided to sprinkle all the love dust onto the Red Roomers while casually playing her gu zheng.
Tina Ma’s performance was very creative, but I would have to say nothing could be more creative than what the Radio Redux group had to bring us that night at Aside 5. The Red Room Radio Redux group (R4) had always presented spectacular dramas in the past. But this time, the writer of R4 transformed T. S. Eliot’s poem “Wasteland” into drama form. Four actors—Marc Anthony, Adrianna Smela, Charlie Storrar, and Pat Woods—whispered, and shouted, and danced, and raged throughout the entire poem. R4’s mission is to introduce Western canon to its audience; not only have they done a great job this time, they have changed my perception about how a poem should be read. By having four people act out “Wasteland,” the R4 group had successfully portrayed the diverse themes of confusion and personas in the poem.
R4, Tina Ma, Charlie Storrar, and Josh Drye—seeing these four amazing artists at Aside 5 was like seeing a big yellow submarine in a bottle. And after this thought came to my head, I had one final revelation. I am very thankful that I had discovered the Red Room; because of the Red Room, I would not have to travel very far to see the world, the world would all be there with me in this one cozy space.
Wendy Wan Yi Chen
Class of 2014
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature National Taiwan University
(c) Copyright 2014 Red Room. Material on this site is the property of contributing members of the Red Room Community. Please do not copy any part of this publication. Thank you.
From: Red Room Radio Redux, March 2014
R4 ROCKS THE WASTE LAND!
TS Eliot’s WASTE LAND like you never imagined it! R4 company members Marc Anthony, Andrianna Smela, Charlie Storrar & Pat Woods, accompanied on noisemakers by Trevor Tortomasi entertained the ASIDE V @Red Room audience on March 29 with a unique rendition of this historic piece of Modernist Poetry.
FROM THE DESK OF Ignatz Ratzkywatzky, dramaturge, writer, and originator:
T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land: A Radio Drama probes the mystery of existence, the angst of the human heart and the marvelous irony that our dread of death celebrates our elation and passion to live.
UP NEXT:
R4 has been honored with an invitation to perform at a new branch of the Taipei Public Library, in Fulin Park near the Shilin Summer Residence. We have chosen our adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s TREASURE ISLAND for this venue. This script has plenty of action and colorful characters.
The library is located at:
No.15 Zhongzheng Rd. Shilin. (The main entrance is on Fulin Road.)
11143臺北市中正路15號〔福林公園內，正門請走福林路進出本館〕
Car parking is available under the library.
https://www.google.com.tw/maps/@25.097107,121.532786,17z?hl=en
Sunday April 26 at 1:30 PM. Admission free. Performance in English. Running time: approx. one hour
COMING SOON:
THE SHORT STORY PROJECT. Several company members are already preparing to record short stories chosen specifically for them from the canon of Western literature. Authors such as Ray Bradbury, Earnest Hemingway, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Shirley Jackson will be represented. Music will be selected from the time period of the piece and, of course, noises will be generated. These recordings will go into post-production (adding music and sounds) at the ICRT-FM100 studio in August.
The Company takes a break for the summer months, while our Head Writer composes a new script. Under consideration: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, and much more!
In October, we’ll hear R4’s recording of DRACULA over the airwaves.
Stay Tuned!
Wendy Chen’s Reflections of Stage Time and Wine LI, February 2014
Wendy Chen’s Reflections of Stage Time and Wine LI
The sound of the heartbeat comes in different forms at the Red Room. With every performer, comes a new form of self-expression. At times, it is in the guise of the condensed words of a poet; at other times, it is simply the melody of a Kate Nash’s song titled “D**khead.” In any case, I am always ready to listen because I understand that this heartbeat is the passion within the performers. Every third Saturday of the month, artists of all sorts–musicians, poets, writers, and painters–and cultural aficionados from every possible corner of the world gather at the Red Room for one purpose only: to share and support each other’s art.
Poet Outis is an African American poet from Indiana who strongly resembles an Ancient Greek orator–he utilizes the technique of memorization and theatre training to bring his words to life.In an online interview, he reveals that he was first recommended to the Red Room by Kung Fu enthusiast, David Gentile, “but also several musicians and actors referred me to Red Room as well.” The Red Room is, indeed, very well hidden; we are almost like a myth, except we exist and for those who find us, they deem us as a shelter from the daily cacophonies of the city. Outis also adds that, “Red Room is attractive [because it] allows actors and artists to have a place to count on.”
“I love Red Room’s atmosphere,” says music student Anya Chau. “People are ready to listen and be respectful to others.” Anya has the voice of a nymph and steady fingers of Jimi Hendrix–the combination of the two turned me into an instant fan craving for more.To appease the shouts of “encore,” Anya plays a song off the top of her head called “D**khead” by Kate Nash. Anya is, at first, hesitant about voicing a mixture of soft melody and offensive words. But with Manav the MC and his drums at Anya’s side, the impromptu performance quickly evolves into a fun and quirky segment.”I’ve performed at Red Room a few times before, it’s fun,” says Anya Chau, “I had missed the last few Red Rooms when I was in America [for school, but] since I was back I didn’t want to miss [the latest one].” Anya and her brother, Andrew, have been with Red Room since the beginning. Andrew is Red Room’s drama instructor for kids and young adults, and he is at almost every Stage Time and Wine–just sitting in the audience and listening to the inner soul of every performer.
At Stage Time and Wine, I can’t emphasize the culture of listening enough because listening is truly an amazing process. If I did not stop to listen today, I wouldn’t have recognized the Brazilian diplomat by the name of Jean R. M. Taruhn to resemble the charm of Enrique Iglesias; and I would not have understood how a painter somehow miraculously merged her art with her friend’s classical music.The Stage Time and Wine experience is new every time, thanks to the individuals that attend. As a Red Room intern, it is most meaningful to notice performers willing to amplify their most inner selves and let go of all the boundaries and simply trust the community. I believe that is what makes Stage Time and Wine something truly special each and every time.
Wendy Chen is a Red Room intern and a student at National Taiwan University.
Wendy is a Taiwanese diplobrat who’s spent more than ten years abroad. She’s followed her father to Singapore, Brunei, New York, Miami, and New Zealand. Wendy is an aspiring writer who has had no interest in reading or writing until her parents had made the decision for her to become an English major at National Taiwan University four years ago. She started to develop a strong passion for writing after she has contributed several articles to the newsletters in her department and her school; since then, she has found her calling and never stopped working to achieve her goal. (c) Copyright 2014 Red Room. Material on this site is the property of contributing members of the Red Room Community. Please do not copy any part of this publication. Thank you.R4 Update, February 2014
From the Desk of Ruth, R4 Update:
DRACULA, WRAPPED! our recording of Bram Stoker’s classic is ready for release and anxiously awaiting a slot on the ICRT program calendar. Featuring the howling talents of (in alpha-order): Marc Anthony, Thomas Bellmore, Sarah Brooks, Rick Brundage, Marina Burana, Nate Murray & Nic Sando. It will also be posted on the RedRoomTaipei website.
For Aside @The Red Room on March 29, 2014
R 4 has been commissioned to present a reading of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land in celebration of the poem’s approaching centenary. Widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central text in Modernist poetry , The Waste Land will be set for four voices , live sound effects accompanied by recorded music by influential contemporaries of the poet: Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berlin, Ravel, and especially the music hall tunes popular in London at the time. While the poetry can be quite dense , the text is rich with dramatic situations and, in fact, there is a long tradition of dramatic settings of the poem. Scholars refer to its “many voices” and Eliot himself explored the dramatic potential of his poetry with works like Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party.
This will surely be a unique approach to this historic piece
More news
Our Educational Outreach Department is in communication with two organizations to schedule performances of our TREASURE ISLAND: a new branch of the public library in the Shilin district and the Zhong Cheng public high school (where we presented our Christmas Carol, 2013). Casting for TREASURE ISLAND will begin as soon as dates are confirmed for shows in late April/early May.
A Short Story Project is in a very early stage of development: our Dramaturg has chosen nine stories from well-known Western writers with specific R4 readers in mind. We have approached ICRT re: recording dates in May. Stay tuned, Dear Listeners!
R4 ~~Kindling the power of the spoken word and populating the theatre of your imagination ~~
(c) Copyright 2014 Red Room. Material on this site is the property of contributing members of the Red Room Community. Please do not copy any part of this publication. Thank you.
Year of the Snake, February 2014
“This 2013 Year of the Snake is meant for steady progress and attention to detail. Focus and discipline will be necessary for you to achieve what you set out to create.”
The year of the snake has certainly been a year of challenges, and I dare say we as the Red Room community have triumphed!
The movement towards open ears, open hearts, and opened channels has been the core of what 2013 has presented for us. With rapid growth in members to our monthly ST&W events, we have co-created a Stage Time event suitable for the younger generation. Stage Time & Juice is now in its fifth session and going strong, thanks in large part to the involvement of many enthusiastic parents from the Taipei Awesome Playgroup.
Red Room Radio Redux has taken a large step up to Edu-tainment as Ruth Giordano, Director Red Room Radio Redux, would say, as they enter the first Local Taiwanese high school performance venue for the adapted drama of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Red Room Played for Change as we have annually in September, and celebrated our 48th event in November , reaching the 4 year mark. Among the longest standing bi-lingual spoken word events to receive steady contribution and support here in Taipei City.
A humble hub to mingle for both expats & locals alike, I implore you to join, scream, shout, dance, stretch, o just listen. Participate and support the movement towards making Taipei a more culturally enriched city in 2014!
Happy Year of the Horse!
Manav Mehta, Coordinator Red Room
(c) Copyright 2014 Red Room. Material on this site is the property of contributing members of the Red Room Community. Please do not copy any part of this publication. Thank you.
Red Room Four-Year Anniversary
Photos from the November 2013 Stage Time and Wine
“In order to listen, we have to be quiet inside first” –Ping Chu, co-founder of Red Room
“If thousands of us do small things with big heart, perhaps, just perhaps, then we [could] shift the pendulum back to the direction of kindness [and] love.” This is why the big pot of communal soup is always boiling in the Red Room. Ping Chu revealed in his speech that when he started Red Room four years ago with Ayesha Mehta, his goal was to enrich people’s experience with a community overflowing with love and compassion.
Ping Chu stands on stage four years later today and he is proud to say that he is witnessing his and Ayesha’s vision come true at Stage Time and Wine. Strangers come from all parts of the world to the Red Room and immediately become friends not because the venue is a tiny place, it is because they have contributed a part of themselves and others have received their warmth.
By all means, wine and soup are not the only things we share in the Red Room community; the most important reason why Red Roomers gather here is because we all share a strong passion for art—some want to simply listen and observe, and some want to have an outlet for their creativity. In the Red Room, there is no boundary between the performer and the audience; this is why there is no stage in the venue.
Everything has a meaning in the Red Room. “The meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give away that gift.” At the forty-third event of Stage Time and Wine, it is as if Ping Chu had set an example of finding that gift and passing it on, because the speeches and performances that followed are almost as inspirational and powerful as his own.
Jean-Loup Fayolle, a personal communication coach for women in leadership position, begins his speech with an amusing account of how he and his friends would display a lot of greed when they used to play Monopoly. But then Jean-Loup continues on to say that when he grew up, he was playing Monopoly in real life. “And it is not fun,” Jean-Loup says of capitalism after he has seen enough of it. Even though he is making money and becoming successful, he is conscious of the other players being manipulated or left out in the capitalist system. There are thousands among thousands starving while the rich are becoming richer every day—a lot like the game “Monopoly.”
“So we have to stop playing ‘Monopoly’ [for real],” Jean-Loup addresses everyone looking up at him from the oriental rugs in the Red Room, “and that each of us has to play who we are equally and share what we have.”
Andrew Chau, mentor to our young Red Roomers at Drew’s Drama Session, also resonates Jean-Loup’s message. “Kids,” he says of the children at his workshop, “have this zeal for life; they want to be there—wherever it is they are!”
Andrew then turns around and shows us the three paintings in the background that are the background pieces for the night. They are done by his kids at Drew’s Drama Session and their titles are “Floating,” “Pressing, and “Gliding.” Two kids worked together on one painting—each pair was given one word and they were to portray that word to the best of their ability—and the finished products were fantastic.
The paintings have an abstract feel and an alluring appeal to them; and they become more attractive as Andrew reveals the background and the innocent thought process that went into each painting. “These kids are amazing,” Andrew speaks with enthusiasm and with love, “the first painting is called ‘Floating’…and the kids just started tracing and they just came up with this!”
As Andrew shares the innocent moments during the creation process of each painting, the audience is slowly reminded of who they once were as a child. “Kids are where come from, and we shouldn’t forget that energy, that purity.” And with the three paintings done by his kids to underscore his message, Andrew concludes his speech by encouraging the audience to remember our inner child and “cheer others up if we saw someone that was unhappy.”
After these inspirational speeches to start off the celebration of Red Room’s fourth year anniversary, the usual stage time performances finally begin.
“Childhood and innocence” seem to be the theme for the night because our first performance that followed immediately was a reading of a short story of a little girl who was pondering about the confusing wonders of braces. And then there is another short story about two young boys who made one of their schoolmates drink their pee.
“T-Ma” Tina—a bilingual who embraces her Chinese heritage very much—takes us her back into her childhood through the songs that her grandmother used to sing to her. The songs are in Chinese, and they are sung in a very Chinese theatrical form; but all of them are frivolous and their purpose is to make a child laugh. The laughter that resonates once in a while in the Red Room is certainly a sign that the Chinese Red Roomers have had their innocent spirit rekindled.
Chung Chong Cheng performed a spectacular verse poem about his name—it is a great shame that summarizing it would not be the same (hopefully this encourages readers to come to every ST&W). But basically it’s about his name sounding a lot like “Ching-Chung-Chong.”
The November Stage Time and Wine is a night of music, comedy, and poetry–a bit like any other Stage Time and Wine. But there is a special twist to it. First, there is Ping Chu’s godlike presence, welcoming us with open arms to share our creativity on stage; and then there is the butterfly effect of inspirational moments and speeches. There is no doubt that Stage Time and Wine is a powerful event–and it is not just because of the wine (well, maybe), it is also the passion and compassion inside all of us that has evolved into a community full of love and warmth.
There is a jingle from a commercial more than ten years ago that goes—“sharing is caring, it can be fun.” I did not know that “sharing” can actually be fun until I experienced my first Red Room event.
The next Stage Time and Wine is on December 21st . Hope to see many new faces!
Wendy Wan Yi Chen
Class of 2014
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Taiwan University
wendocheno@gmail.com
(c) Copyright 2013 Red Room. Material on this site is the property of contributing members of the Red Room Community. Please do not copy any part of this publication. Thank you.
Dracula LIVE – Press release Red Room Radio Redux
Red Room Radio Redux (R4) opens its second season with the story of DRACULA.
Born of Red Room, a culture of listening*, Radio Redux is a company of voice actors and noisemakers who collaborate to dramatize stories from the canon of classic Western literature.
Red Room Presents Radio Redux
Dracula LIVE
Radio-Dramatized by I. Ratzkywatzky from the Novel by Bram Stoker
You are all welcome to be part of this gothic heart-wrenching tale to experience the excitement and power of the spoken word! Get ready to sit tight and open your ears, because this journey of horror and passion, romance and pain will get your heart pounding!
Warning: After the show, you may feel compelled to sharpen your teeth!
Performances Sat, Oct. 26 at 4:30 & 7:30 pm
Sunday, Oct 27 at 2:30 pm
Suitable for ages 12 & up (sexual innuendo, tearing of imaginary flesh)
At Aveda’s Learning Kitchen
2F No. 117, Section 1, Da’an Rd, Daan District, Taipei, Taiwan
Tickets NT300 sold at the door.
Buy 5, get one free.
For Reservations & questions, find us on Facebook : Red Room Radio Redux