Red Room Reflections: Stage Time & Wine

Red Roomers trickled in early for the 74th consecutive Stage Time & Wine and settled around the food table. The usual ease that accompanies Red Roomers to most events quickly settled over the crowd as they intermingled.

Some were well rehearsed, others were off the cuff. One group had spent weeks before Stage Time & Wine practicing their cues, harmonies and musical arrangement. While this group performed renditions of others’ work, many Red Roomers took to the stage to present their original pieces. Anthony, a returning performer, explained why he returned to Red Room to present a new composition. “People really listen here,” he said while tuning up his guitar.

Anthony jamming with other Red Roomers after Stage Time & Wine

Outside, people thronged the streets celebrating Taiwan’s recent election; inside, a very different political expression took place.  Early in the night a young woman with ribbons wound around her wrists, stood silently in front of the crowd for several minutes. Over her mouth she had placed a Taiwanese flag. A hush fell over the room as the audience watched her stare ahead. It was the kind of silence that surrounds you and stretches time. When she removed her flag she revealed she had protested in reaction to Chou Tzu-yu’s forced, humiliating apology and denial of her heritage.

Her protest was not the only element of salient societal and political issues, Adam McMillan, the director of The Community Services Center (The Center) in Taipei also spoke. In sharing the tragic story that lead to The Center’s founding, McMillan revealed the importance of providing accessible mental health services for any person in Taiwan who needs it.

As per usual, the night was filled with a great variety of performances ranging from personal to political, and sometimes encompassing both. On stage, people shared, sometimes for the first time, their prose, poetry and harmony.  Yet, thanks to that ever-present ease, it didn’t matter how many times any person had shared. It didn’t matter which topic they chose to cover or which medium they chose for their performance. We listened all the same. Perhaps Rose Goossen said it best when she prefaced her performance: It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve performed, “there’s not a stage that quite affects [you] as this one does.”

Leah List
Scribe, Red Room