music by Byron Au Yong, libretto by Aaron Jafferis
Stuck Elevator is an operatic solo performance about a trapped man. Our hero is Kuang, prompted by Ming Kuang Chen, the real-life Chinese restaurant deliveryman who survived 81 hours in a Bronx elevator in April 2005. Our character Kuang experiences a solitude and awakening that is super-heroic, yet stationary and hidden. Trapped in the elevator, he relives memories of himself with his wife and son in China, gets mugged by a rapping bladder, encounters General Tso of Homeland Security, and dreams himself into a sexy morsel of Orange Beef. Suspended between the upward mobility of the American dream and the downward plunge into an empty abyss, Stuck Elevator travels between Refuge/Prison, Freedom/Safety, and Voice/Silence for our unknown hero.
Listen to songs from Stuck Elevator in the player below or by clicking this link.
Composer Byron Au Yong and librettist Aaron Jafferis are 2009-2010 Artists-in-Residence at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, which has presented developmental readings of Stuck Elevator at the Museum of Chinese in America and Pearl Studios. Excerpts have also been presented at Theatre Off Jackson in Seattle, in Hand2Mouth’s Risk/Reward New Performance Festival and On the Boards’ NW New Works Festival.
Stuck Elevator is a project of Creative Capital, which currently receives support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The TOBY Fund, The James Irvine Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and more than 150 other individuals and institutional donors. In addition, the development of Stuck Elevator has received an Award for Innovation from 4Culture, an Artist Trust GAP Grant, and support from the Asian & Pacific Islander/Artist Presenting Initiative (API/2) at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC), supported by the James Irvine Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
Stuck Elevator
Stuck Elevator is an operatic solo performance about a trapped man. Our hero is Kuang, prompted by Ming Kuang Chen, the real-life Chinese restaurant deliveryman who survived 81 hours in a Bronx elevator in April 2005. Our character Kuang experiences a solitude and awakening that is super-heroic, yet stationary and hidden. Trapped in the elevator, he relives memories of himself with his wife and son in China, gets mugged by a rapping bladder, encounters General Tso of Homeland Security, and dreams himself into a sexy morsel of Orange Beef. Suspended between the upward mobility of the American dream and the downward plunge into an empty abyss, Stuck Elevator travels between Refuge/Prison, Freedom/Safety, and Voice/Silence for our unknown hero.
Listen to songs from Stuck Elevator in the player below or by clicking this link.
Composer Byron Au Yong and librettist Aaron Jafferis are 2009-2010 Artists-in-Residence at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, which has presented developmental readings of Stuck Elevator at the Museum of Chinese in America and Pearl Studios. Excerpts have also been presented at Theatre Off Jackson in Seattle, in Hand2Mouth’s Risk/Reward New Performance Festival and On the Boards’ NW New Works Festival.
Stuck Elevator is a project of Creative Capital, which currently receives support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The TOBY Fund, The James Irvine Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and more than 150 other individuals and institutional donors. In addition, the development of Stuck Elevator has received an Award for Innovation from 4Culture, an Artist Trust GAP Grant, and support from the Asian & Pacific Islander/Artist Presenting Initiative (API/2) at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC), supported by the James Irvine Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
Press:
“Stuck In Elevator, No Way Out”
Northwest Asian Weekly
“Stuck Elevator Opera”
Seattle Weekly
Theatre Off Jackson Press Release
To request a script or demo CD, email aaronjafferis@gmail.com.