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Words from the editor, October 2016

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Scribe’s Musings: Welcome one and all to this month’s issue of Red Room E-news. We have had a busy fall so far, as well as some unexpected surprises from Mother Nature. We can’t wait to share the stories of what we’ve been up to!

For the first time in our seven-year history, September’s installment of Stage Time and Wine was cancelled, due to Typhoon Malakas. In addition, the small, but spirited, gathering of R4’s monthly ReadAloud was advised quite gently by a TAF security guard to pack up and head out before the storm hit.

I found myself thinking about the way we look at disasters. How they galvanize a community, and sometimes the world, cannot be denied. Sometimes, I wish that we can have such generous and loving spirits all the time. In some ways, disaster can build a community. So can art. Look at what we’ve done here at the Red Room!

In the spirit of building community, I encourage all contributions from anyone who has experienced Red Room. Original artwork, poetry, prose, musings, and reflections are more than welcome. Just contact me at editor.redroom@gmail.com, or look at our submission guidelines on our website.

We have so much to share with each other! And hang on tight, there’s more to come! Come out on November 19 to see what the 7th Anniversary holds!

Joyfully yours,
Whitney Zahar
RR Scribe

Words from the editor – September 2016

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Scribe’s Musings: Greeting, salutations, and hello! Welcome all to this issue of the RR ENews. We are here for you, through first days back at school, crazy days in the office, and the cool days of fall and winter ahead. We are happy to see you again, and we are happy to meet you for the first time.

The purpose of RR ENews is to share what happened at RR events over the past month, as well as give you the news of what’s coming up. Along the way, we can have fun here. This is your newsletter. So, if you’ve been a performer at our events, if you saw or heard something at our events that really impressed you, or if you have original poetry, lyrics, words, or artwork you would like to share in the e-newsletter and blog, contact me at editor.redroom@gmail.com.

The rest of the RR crew have things to share with you, so it’s time to turn the show over to them. Happy Fall, and have a blessed Mid-Autumn Festival.

Joyfully yours,
Whitney Zahar
Scribe/Editor RR

Reflections: Stage Time and Wine 81 – August 2016

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At last, I entered the Red Room for the first time in over a year! After a year of great pressures, obligations, and pain, I breathed a sigh of relief. Even though I haven’t been a part of Red Room for very long, I feel like I’m always coming home when I walk through those doors. I feel like I’m with my tribe.

I think many of us feel the same way when we come to Red Room. We feel it’s a place that no matter how long we’ve been away, or how far we’ve roamed, we can always return and find a warm welcome.

Stage Time & Wine 81

Some of us bring beautiful traditional Balinese dance, such Inggrid Wardani. Others, like Rajat Subhra Karmakar, bear beautiful songs from India, with the flavor of Taiwan. Someone brought us their talents for the first time, such as Sean Wang with his amazing violin, CiCi with her hip-hopping “Hamilton” virtuosity, and our own intern Willie Chung with storytelling skills. Max Powers regaled us with his sharp, delightful poetry, while Vicky Sun returned as our wondrous songstress. Andrew Salamanca also showed us more of what he was discovering in his explorations of Taiwanese music.

Here at Red Room, at Stage Time and Wine, or at any event, what you have to bring to the community will always be embraced. Songs, stories, poetry, dance, laughter, tears: bring it all! So long as “thee shall obeyeth the rules!”

For me, Stage Time and Wine 81 marked the beginning of a new year. It’s a year of new friends and new relationships with old friends. I see a bright new horizon where I get more of a chance to give back to the community, and where I get to cultivate my skills as a writer and a storyteller.

Thanks for welcoming me back, Red Room!

by Whitney Zahar, Red Room Scribe

Reflections on Aside 8

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Impressions from Aside 8 – Sound

For me, it was all about sound. The hum of conversation between old and new friends amongst the mutterings of setting up and technical concerns. The pluck of a moon lute. The clearing of a throat before plunging into the poetic landscape of someone’s mind. The laughter and music of a tea party that is by turns joyful and mad. Strums of a guitar and the thrum of electronica, painting a soundscape of story and voice. With all of those sounds, I felt us all come together at Aside 8.

Music is a unifying force, and we all resonated with our feelings and experiences that certain music brings. One of Tina Ma’s songs reminded me of my young son, a lullaby-like melody that brought tears to my eyes. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, almost meditative, during Sophie’s song in Sanskrit and Chinese. There was the sense of camaraderie that I built with my companions in R4, and there were the stories of a journey through the body, the mind, and the soul from our wonderful musicians.

At a time in my life, where I just wanted to touch and come together, where I needed something more than ever to feed my soul, the night at Aside 8 was a godsend. It was a place where sound became touch, became nourishing food for the soul. It gave me a moment where I wasn’t alone.

Whiney Zahar
whitney.zahar@gmail.com

 

andrew chau rr45Aside
There was a hum as bodies began entering the room. Slowly the odd voice or two on the carpets became an eager patience standing in all corners, each one awaiting the questions from new faces before them and cheekily answering to familiar eyes. I saw the cheeks of the room become rosy again, and it was not just the wine warming us that evening.

Performers took us into their little nooks of secrets and stories, and swung us into their world with an unparalleled trust. The audience trusted them back. There were tears that night, particularly as Tina Ma recounted her experience with and her blessing from her mentor. It was a story of the tradition of Tradition, really. I learned to embrace the new with a reverence of the old. A lesson that will not allow me to waste the wisdom of our elders.

It’s impressive what the power of the voice, voices, vibrating strings, and a room full of warm bodies can do to a person. I left that evening tired but not spent, I slept very calmly, and I am pretty sure we all did that night, having spent a night around a metaphorical campfire, sharing the warmth that radiated from our souls as we saw each other not in the light of what we try to be, but what we really are.

Andrew Chau
drewdas@gmail.com

For a full list of performers at Aside 8 and their respective bios with contact details, please go to this link.

12 April 2015, The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

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A Red Room Radio Redux*** event in two-parts:

PART ONE:
A round-table read-aloud where guests will be welcome to read from a collection of poems and short prose on food. Everyone is encouraged to bring short pieces of poetry or prose, original or otherwise, on the theme of food. A variety of recorded music will accompany the readings.
We will be joined by special guest readers from the performing arts community of Taipei and environs.

Works by DH. Lawrence, Mark Strand, William Carlos Williams, Maya Angelou, MFK Fisher, Roald Dahl, Tennessee Williams and others.

PART TWO :
A MAD TEA-PARTY faithfully adapted for radio drama by Red Room Radio Redux* from Lewis Carroll’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

Cast of MAD TEA PARTY in alphabetical order:
Sarah Brooks will narrate the story
Taili Huang as the Dormouse
Emmanuel Felix Lespron as the Cheshire Cat
Alton Thompson as the March Hare
Pat Woods as the Hatter
Whitney Zahar as Alice

Produced and directed by Ruth Giordano
***Red Room Radio Redux is part of the Red Room Community  “dedicated to listening”. The Red Room is an ever-expanding community, exploring and extending the boundaries between audience and performer; a not-for-profit platform for events developing a culture of learning to listen to each other, what is around us and our selves.
Our sponsor is the Ripplemaker Foundation, enabling people to realize their dreams by supporting entrepreneurial, social, cultural and environmental projects. Ripples change lives.

Sunday, April 12 2015
from 2:00pm – 5:00pm

Tickets: NT500
Ticket price includes a selection of raw canapes and wine.
Naked Food
1F, No. 22-1, Lane 160, Xinsheng South Road, Section 1, Zhongzheng District Taipei


Proceeds to Christian Salvation Service (CSS)
www.csstaipei.com

Soaking In, December 2014

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My first exposure with Red Room was at the 5th anniversary event. I had been waiting to get involved in theatre, storytelling and performance for the last four years of living in Taiwan, and I’m so psyched to join in! I adore my new community of friends and I can’t wait to be involved more over the years, especially in R4 and Stage Time & Wine.

I took away a lot with me after the 5th Anniversary. I feel like I found my voice again, in a community where I feel I truly belong. I feel like I’m getting back a piece of myself that has been put away on the shelf for a while because of motherhood, work, and marriage. Now it’s time to get reacquainted with the storyteller/actress/writer that I am. I feel like I can get back to my calling of sharing stories and voices with the world.

However the most important treasure I took away with me actually didn’t belong to me. It belonged to my young son Preston. I watched him absorb his surroundings in his own unique way. I watched him choose to enjoy the performances he liked at Stage Time Juice, and choose to ignore what he wished. I watched him make new friends and share his toys. And when he reached out his little hand to take my camera and start taking pictures of his own, I realized more than ever that art and voices belong to everyone, and everyone responds to it in their own way. In his own way, Preston was soaking it in.

By: Whitney Zahar