We have “known” gwangung here at BJ for a very long time. I think of him as one of our two playwrights here on Balloon Juice, and I know he’s involved in Asian American theatre. But until now, that’s about all I knew.
On Friday afternoon I happened upon a comment of his, where gwangung mentioned that there would be a Zoom reading of his play, She Devil of the China Seas this Saturday at 10 pm ET.
I thought it would be interesting to get to know gwangung a little better and find out more about his play, so I asked if he would be willing to whip up a little something for this post. And he did, even though he had rehearsals on Friday night!
Take it away, gwangung!
Hi, there. This is very much a last minute thing…but, then again, that describes so much of my artistic life. My name is Roger Tang….I’ve been involved in theatre for a long time …but I’ve only considered myself a theatre artist for the past fifteen years. I’ve mostly organized and been a producer and I’ve dabbled in other areas…and I’ve managed to write a full length play, She Devil of the China Seas…but more about that later.
I’ve mentioned my background in bits and pieces over the years around here. I was a dual major in college – Journalism/Geology – and there was a tradition of dorms at my school producing plays in the lounge. Generally, these were Broadway musicals (WITH orchestra, singers AND dancers from the dorm). My final year at school, though, a dorm-mate said he wrote a play, and it struck all of us that it’d be fun to produce that play to make us stand out from the other productions.
That dorm-mate was David Henry Hwang (who won a Tony for M. Butterfly), that play was F.O.B. (which won an Obie for best Off Broadway play later) and that started a four decade career in Asian American theatre that’s covered being on the board of directors for various groups, helming my own group (Pork Filled Productions) and starting a website that’s the foremost authority on Asian American Theatre (the Asian American Theatre Revue), which earned me the nickname of “Godfather of Asian American Theatre.” (oh, and the iconic line from F.O.B. is ” Gwangung, god of warriors, writers and prostitutes!”, hence my nym).
Now I don’t have any hard and fast artistic philosophies, except, maybe, to write what isn’t there. So in the 90s, me and my group wrote sketch comedy. That changed in recent years, so we moved to genre fiction, about larger than life Asian American figures, like James T. Kirk, Peter Parker, Indiana Jones and so forth. That launched a decade of shows about families of Chinese American con artists, Thai American ghosts and, most successfully, a trilogy of steampunk plays.
Enter She-Devil. I’ve written sketches and full plays in the past. I had always been intrigued by the real life story of Ching Shih, a Chinese prostitute in the early 1800s who rose to command the largest pirate fleet in history, defeating both Chinese and European fleets. There were rumors of a Maggie Q-led miniseries a few years back, but nothing ever came of it. I got tired of waiting. And wondered…what if I added a bit of Marvel’s Conan…a bit of Lois McMasters Bujold….and that evolved into She Devil of the China Seas…an origin story of sorts.
It was originally set to be a full and proper production by another company…but the pandemic took care of that. So I took the same gang who would have been the company and had them do the reading, as a taste of what might have been (and might still be when we get past it). We’ll be presenting the play live on the 18th (tickets on Eventbrite). If we figure out what we’re doing, we’ll get a recording up for folks who can’t make it then…
Thanks for letting me ramble.
*****
Now we get to see one of gwangung’s plays being performed, from the comfort of our own homes! As gwangung put it, folks can rustle up a ticket here. ~WaterGirl
gwangung
Thanks to folks letting me take up space around here.
Happy to answer any questions or make snarky, curmudgeonly comments (this IS Balloon Juice, after all…).
WaterGirl
@gwangung: Have you guys figured out the details for recording the reading for later viewing?
I sent a quick note to Mustang Bobby since he is our other BJ playwright. :-) He has another commitment tonight, but he is hoping it will be available later.
Baud
@gwangung:
Would you say this production is done in gwangung style?
Baud
Only.
gwangung
@WaterGirl: We THINK so….this is the first time doing Zoom-based theatre, so there’s ample room for screw-ups, but we plan to get it up on our YouTube channel (porkfilled) and the Northwest Arts Streaming Hub (https://nwartstream.org).
Exact URLs to come.
Yutsano
You had me at Cheng I Shao, which is the name I have always known her as. Doing just a straight retelling of her life is adventure enough. Making her a superhero/supervillain? I am so in!
Baud
What superpower does Shih have?
gwangung
@Baud: Half-assed? Well, yeah….
(I think I spent MANY years as an administrator and fundraiser and didn’t do a lot of creating….but, of course, that’s pretty valuable in and of itself…
It wasn’t until I realized my small group was the oldest Asian American theatre in the Pacific Northwest that I started considering myself an artist….)
Baud
@gwangung:
I thought that was a porn channel.
Alison
Alison Carey from Oregon Shakespeare Festival and long term lurker here. I can’t zoom tonight but I look forward to catching it later. Have a great time and may the gods of zoom keep the sound distortion to a minimum…
WaterGirl
@gwangung: Great! When you get the actual URL let me know, and I’ll update this thread and spread the word.
gwangung
@Yutsano: There’s not a lot known about her, so there’s room to add stuff. But the more I wrote, the more the story started to conform to historical events….didn’t have to add too much to it.
Baud
I never realized they were Asian. Hollywood whitewashing at its worst.
gwangung
@Baud: We are ALWAYS into food porn.
Baud
FWIW, never invite Juicers to partake in snarky, curmudgeonly comments.
Baud
Seriously, best of luck with the production.
gwangung
@Alison:
Thanks…I was looking forward to this season until everything went haywire….friends with a few of the actors….here’s to OSF bouncing back….
@WaterGirl: Will do.
gwangung
@Baud: ‘Tis why this blog is a second home…
Alison
@gwangung: Thanks for the kind words. This is no time to be in the mass gathering business but we’ll come back. Good luck with all your work, too…
CaseyL
This sounds like FUN! Got my ticket!
Yutsano
@gwangung: I thought about listing all the ways she was incredible but then from what you wrote that would be spoilers. :P But she was a really remarkable woman especially for her time. I think (but I am not entirely certain, she her crews also kept records that could have survived to the modern era to be studied) a lot of what was written about her was by her adversaries. But to say she had a fascinating life is an understatement!
gwangung
@Yutsano: From what I could research, one of her great talents was accounting and fiscal management; she made pirating VERY profitable for her fleet. For a woman to do that back then is pretty impressive.
However, since She-Devil CPA would not make for the kind of theatre I like to produce, I decided not to pursue that avenue here….
Ninedragonspot
Got my tickie! Looking forward to it.
Amir Khalid
Sadly, I may have an issue with consuming a pork-filled production,
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: hahahahaha
Not that kind of pork. :-)
gwangung
@Amir Khalid: Well, we aim to provide non-pork snacks for all our gatherings, ranging from junk food potato chips to trail mix to fruits and veggies, so….
Han
Why not? It worked for The Crimson Permanent Assurance Company.
gwangung
@Han: OK. Maybe there’s something there; the storytelling machine got nudged there. (Especially since I have a story element in a sequel called “Splitting the Household Chores.”)
Lynn Dee
@gwangung:
On the ticket-ordering screen, what is the significance of the different “levels”? Thanks.
gwangung
@Lynn Dee:
Basically, it’s a way for people to give what they want. No difference between them, really…it’s a way to do Pay-What-You-Can, which is common in the theatre world.
Lynn Dee
@gwangung:
I was hoping so! Wonderful.
Miss Bianca
Damn, I haven’t been able to get Zoom to work properly on my laptop or any other system in my possession. Otherwise I would *love* to be in on this – not only to support gwangung and because the play sounds awesome, but to see how this would work for my theater
ETA: Oh, wait – there’s a chance to watch this on Youtube? What the hell, I’ll sign up anyway, whether I can see it or not! Support live(ish) theater!
Mustang Bobby
@gwangung: Great! I want to see it. Also, name-dropping alert: I had the pleasure to meet David Henry Hwang when he was the guest of honor at the William Inge Theatre Festival in 2012. He was funny, charming, and he came to my scholars conference paper presentation (talk about making me nervous…). I can’t wait to see your play when it’s available.
gwangung
@Mustang Bobby: Dave (I knew him when he didn’t have a pretentious middle name) is a great guy; his super power is that he’s a kind and gregarious person, always ready to help others up to his level.
@Miss Bianca: Much obliged…hopefully, we won’t screw this up!
Emma
Wow, that’s so amazing! The moment I saw “Roger Tang” I had to search you up on Angry Asian Man, and sure enough, there’s a profile of you! (For anyone interested.) Also the fact that David Henry Hwang was your roommate, extremely cool.
Please tell me that there’s a way to simulate naval battles between her fleet and the Qing fleet.
gwangung
@Emma: Well, not in this one (just a lot of sword fights), but maybe in the sequel(s)….
Elizabelle
Will try to join you for the Zoom reading.
Ching Shih. Wow. Had a “piratical career” (love that word from wiki entry); after all that died at home in bed at age 69. Incredible woman. I would def read a novel about her. So now a play! Even more economical of time.
Good luck! And thank you for telling us about this; what riches.
Emma
@gwangung: something to funnel all the sweet Eventbrite $$$ into :D
Joy in FL
I got my ticket : )
See you on Zoom.
Miss Bianca
Don’t know if I can make it work on Zoom, gwangung, but I bought a ticket and we will see! Did you say there was a possibility of streaming it through Youtube or some other source later?
gwangung
@Miss Bianca: If everything works out, yes!
Emma
I can’t stay for the whole performance, but you all did a great job making Zoom work for the show! (Only criticism is to make the “aiyah”s sound less fake 😬😆) This is making me think of so many possible Asian American-focused plays. Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal died on July 8th, and her NYT has soooo much stuff you could write about. Or an adaptation of Xia Da’s Changge Xing (although sadly still incomplete because of legal issues with her publisher. English name is “Song of the Long March” or “Chang Ge’s Journey,” depending on fan translators.) Or to do something out of the Chinese box, there’s a podcast I recently started listening to called “HERstory: Southeast Asia.” Lots of extremely interesting women to put in plays!
Anyway, thanks, Roger (or gwangung, now I’m confused how I should refer to you), great job to you and all the actors!!!
Lynn Dee
It was electrifying from beginning to end. I loved being a part of it. More, please!
gwangung
@Emma:
I am a terrible Chinese boy….you can blame the “ai-yahs” on me….
I’ve an idle notion of turning Hazel Ying Lee into the Rocketeer, and teaming her up with an absolutely fascinating Chinese American physicist (the equivalent of Clark Savage Jr.)….now all I need is a Shadow analogue to form a sorta real life JSA….
But thank you for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed it……
gwangung
Youtube video is up at
https://youtu.be/qaz6DA33WU
And thank you to the folks who left a little something in the tip jar!
gwangung
@Lynn Dee: Thank you!