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

16 Wishing Well

豫 Yù ¦¦|¦¦¦

Wishing well.
Wishing well.
Wishing well.
It’s tempting to expect
a push, a shove,
people thrown to the ground
when it’s heard that someone has found
the soon-to-be tragic
wishing well.

Wishing well.
Wishing well.
Wishing well.
It’s a wonder there’s no running,
no race, no sprint,
no rushing to be the first
when we know of mankind and his thirst
for the genie at the bottom
of the wishing well.

Wishing well.
Wishing well.
Wishing well.
I know what you are thinking,
Hurry up and get there.
Make your wish before that man makes his.
There’s not enough for everyone.
Forget the child who fell.
Push him down.
Hold him back.
That’s the call of the well.

For behold the miracle,
no screams, no cries,
there is hardly a sound
from the people gathered around
the soon-to-be empty
wishing well.


Libretto by Caroline Murphy