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

19 Bottle Upon Bottle

臨 Lín ¦¦¦¦||

I saw my village
as we rounded the bend.
Me and the driver
in the Mercedes.

Small and care-worn,
dusted over with age.
Only the old women and
children remain
sifting rice separating
rock from grain.

Old grannies
cough and spit.
Have a bottle.
Have some pure, clean water.

Bottle upon bottle.
I bring bottle upon bottle.

We’ll clear the smell of dung.
We’ll clear the smell of ashes.

Bottle upon bottle
stacked atop the earth
to the laughter of young ones.
Bottle upon bottle.
Chortles of ancients.
Bottle upon bottle.
Gurgles of new borns.

Bottle upon bottle.
Bottle upon bottle.
Bottle upon bottle.
Pyramid of hope

Bottle upon bottle.
Terrace of soft plastic.
Bottle upon bottle
higher than any village wall.

Fields will grow green.
Rice pots will overflow.
Bellies would fill
Pockets jingle with change.

Bottle upon bottle.
Bottle upon bottle.
Bottle upon bottle.
We stack bottle upon bottle higher
until the last one reaches the sky.

Rest now
in the cooling shade.
Look at our tower of bottles.
I dare not touch.

Libretto by Eugenie Chan