64 Libretti

Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas
Sound/Light Installation now showing through November 21, 2008

Jack Straw New Media Gallery
4261 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle WA 98105 USA
Phone 1 (206) 634-0919
Email jsp @ jackstraw.org

Creative Team

Sound Byron Au Yong
Light Randy Moss
Video Jean-Stephane

Audio Engineers Tom Stiles, CJ Lazenby

Librettists Eugenie Chan, Bret Fetzer, Aaron Jafferis, Archana Kumar, Carola Luther, Caroline Murphy, Vivian Umino, Edisa Weeks

Singers Josie Davis, Emily Greenleaf, Jeremiah Oliver, David Stutz

Percussionists Stuart McLeod, Dean Moore, Benjamin Morrow, James Whetzel

Project Manager Pike Pin
Costume Designer Emily Carlsen
Videographer Eric Rockey
Research Erica Howard
Logo Wing Fong

Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas is thankful for support from Creative Capital's Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; 4Culture's King County Site-Specific Performance Network; Bumbershoot Festival of the Arts; and Jack Straw Productions

36 Plish

明夷 Míng Yí ¦¦¦|¦|

My neighbor’s sprinkler head goes
plish plish plish plish…
The voice on the radio warns me:
they will rise up and destroy us.
The voice on the radio reveals:
they poison our water with more water.
The voice on the radio speaks clearly:
we can’t wait any longer.
Can’t wait any longer.
Can’t wait.
We can’t.
Can’t.

I come out of the garage.
He’s ripping through the soft dark brown
of his flower garden
with a gleaming trowel.
He squints up at me and
wants to ask why I’m holding
a lawn mower blade in my gloved hands.

This won’t get any easier
so I won’t wait: ah.
We can’t wait any longer.
Can’t wait any longer.
Can’t wait.
We can’t.
Can’t.
My arm is numb, my hands stiff.
I can’t open my fingers.
Gloves are wet and sticky.
I shouldn’t have worn a white shirt.
I shouldn’t have worn these blue pants.
And the sprinkler head goes
plish plish plish red
plish plish white shirt
plish plish plish blue pants
plish plish plish plish plish plish red…


Libretto by Bret Fetzer