Saturday, June 1st at 7PM and Saturday, June 2nd at 4PM
Soul of The City follows a storyteller who has no more stories to tell. Her husband is sick, her boy has moved away, and nobody is buying the stories she's trying to tell. Pursued by demons and haunted by ghosts, the storyteller embarks on a journey to find the soul of San Francisco. This multimedia music drama is a ritual performance. Rooted in traditional Japanese theater and music and infused with contemporary spoken word and Asian American Jazz, Soul of The City reveals the divine in us all.
The audience is invited to dress in celebratory attire and will gather in the garden to put prayers, photographs or talisman on the Soul of The City sacred tree. A Buddhist priest will bless us with a purification ceremony and willing participants will be given temple bells to call the ancestors. We will then go inside the theater. The audience will witness a ritual performance of jazz, storytelling, and poetry that is accompanied by photographs and images of Brenda's family in San Francisco since the 1800's. At the conclusion of the performance we will return to the garden for refreshments, renewed, recharged and inspired to carry on.
Performers: Brenda Wong Aoki (story), devorah major (poetry), Mark Izu (bass & sho), Mas Koga (saxophone, flutes, keyboard), Shoko Hikage (vocals & koto) Kenneth Nash (vocals & percussion), Jimi Nakagawa (taiko & traps), Sara Sithi-Amnuai (trumpet & electronics), Raychel Hatch (dancer), Ki'Shae Qetlah (dancer), KK Aoki Izu (dancer)
Creative Team
Brenda Wong Aoki, Artistic Director
Mas Koga, Music Director
Lydia Tanji, Costume Design
Kate Boyd, Lighting Design
Wendy Slick, Multimedia Direction
Emiko Omori, Filmmaker/dramaturg
Andi Wong, Digital Collage & Images
Olivia Ting and Mark Shigenaga, Multimedia Contributors
Hiroko Tsunetsuga, Ikebana Installation Artist
Jocelyn Fabello, Production Management
60.00.