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

31 Open Ocean Ahead

咸 Xián ¦|||¦¦

Like a pregnant woman
the canoe is heavy with supplies.

Ferang revs the engine.
The acrid scent of petrol fills the air.

Heart in my mouth.
Bite down fast so it won’t escape.
I’m not ready to die.
I’m not ready to.
I’m not ready.

Open ocean ahead.

Massive waves rise like skyscrapers.
We climb, balancing at the top,
then plummet down down.

Heart in my mouth.
Bite down fast so it won’t escape.
I’m not ready to die.
I’m not ready to.
I’m not ready.

Each wave bobbing,
swerving,
flooding,
crusing,
crying,
Ferang yells
with tin cans and cupped hands
we frantically bail water.
Holding on by the edges.
Bones and wood join.

I will live.
I will.
I…

Open ocean ahead.

The setting sun.
My fingers dangle
through the phosphorous
that sparkles like pixie dust.


Libretto by Edisa Weeks