DESCRIPTION
A Chinese restaurant deliveryman gets trapped in an elevator after delivering an order of shrimp fried rice.
Working
at Happy Dragon Restaurant, he pays off his $60,000 debt to smugglers
for his passage from China to the United States; from a country touted
as the next global economic superpower to a country founded on the
ideals of democracy and freedom.
After three days, he emerges dehydrated and terrified into a New York media blitz.
Stuck
Elevator is an operatic solo performance prompted by this real-life
experience of an undocumented immigrant/indentured slave in 21st
century America.
IN DEVELOPMENT
Stuck
Elevator is being developed by Byron Au Yong and Aaron Jafferis as part of a 2009-2010 NYU A/P/A Intitute Artists-in-Residence Program.
Stuck Elevator
is a project of Creative Capital with additional support from API/2,
Artist Trust, and 4Culture. Workshop performances have been supported
by Hand2Mouth, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the Museum of Chinese in America, NYU A/P/A Institute, On the Boards, the Theatre Off Jackson, and the Yale Institute for Music Theatre.
Articles about Fujianese immigration, Chinese take-out and related news at stuckelevator.wordpress.com