TAN ZEEN
A Wonderful Day (One Fine Day)
December 2013, New Youth Group
Director: Li Jianjun
Writer: Zhuang Jiayun
Performance designer: Tan Zeen
Lighting designer: Chen Xiaji
Costume designer: Wang Mao
This performance creates a unique spectator experience by using audio transmitting devices and headphones:
On stage, 19 performers simultaneously are telling their own stories, creating19 hubbubs of voices. Each story was broadcasted on a particular frequency shortwave channel. This means that onlookers can freely change channels through the radio. It can be switched to any channel at any time, thus, each spectator’s encounter is different.
There is a working ladder that was borrowed from the lighting department to lift a salvo of 12 guns, which were set to fire by the high-pressure gas. Every twenty minutes, an unexpected blare from the guns interrupts all the storytelling, like a sudden scolding, also a compliment and a celebration.
Gradually, the boiling kettle bellowed the ladder makes a jarring whistle.
A sound field is formed by the opening of the rear door, through which backstage staffs expose to the spectator when passing by occasionally. At the beginning of the creative process, there is no script whatsoever, the challenge was - how to make 19 ordinary people talking about their stories for an hour onstage.