Archived entries for Uncategorized
Featured H.A.L. Artist: Leah Emura
Photos by Leah Emura of Portland, Oregon — from her series “Dan Orange of Shanghai”
Good Girls Do Not Marry Men Who Owe Money
by Effie Pow
Murky clouds drew in slowly and a wind stirred the shedding trees on Shaanxi South Road. The vehicles were stuck in their lanes. Lights blinked vigorously and horns wailed impatiently, while drivers tried to edge ahead.
Without any sense of calm under the full canopy, they were like hot, metal bugs that had crawled onto a gummy trail. A glossy BMW kept company with Bus 24 as it crept past narrow store fronts, flower shops, a store filled with Greek canned goods, and an Italian gelato place with shiny counters.
Standing on the crowded No. 24, Xiao Yang scrutinized the fuchsia shirt woman riding in a carbon black BMW750Li. The look was either pulled from Vogue or a retro outfit from the racks of Zara. At the intersection, Xiao Yang watched her reach into a handbag and pull out a white iPhone. The gesture reminded her of a part-time employer Mrs. Laurent. Continue reading…
David Foote’s Exit 2nd Banana
by Nicole Stanton
When was the last time your cheek muscles hurt from smiling? From beginning to end, Exit 2nd Banana is a riot. The plot follows Constable Jack Valentine as he tries to sift through the murky waters of murders while the audience chooses who lives and who dies. True to its tagline, “Meet the Unusual Suspects,” this interactive murder mystery resurrects the noir murder mystery in which everyone is a suspect and your favorite 1920‘s circus characters without the dead clichés. The audience suspends their disbelief of the absurdity to laugh at the lobster-clawed boy married to one of the two heads of a Siamese twin.
Exit 2nd Banana transcends every metatheatrical realm as the audience becomes both murderer and spectator to the murders. With six possible murders, six victims, and eight different endings, each performance is unique. Robin Silver, head one of the Siamese twin sisters, jokes, “I haven’t got to do my murder yet and it is hilarious, thus far the audience keeps picking us as the next victim so I haven’t got to be a murderer yet.” While the actors are at the mercy of the audience decision, the audience members run the risk of playing a lion in Miss Ginger Bünderburg’s feline act, or singing along with the Clairvoyant’s ‘meditational’ hymn. “There is very little, if any, of this type of entertainment in Shanghai,“says H.A.L. founder Björn Wahlström, who was in the audience,“It’s not every day you get to see a cross dressing bearded lady doing a burlesque dance. It’s just good old fun.” Continue reading…
The Motive for Metaphor
by Tim Tomlinson
What happened that day in his therapist’s office still surprised him years later, years after he’d left therapy, years after his therapist had died.
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Jing Wu
by Effie Pow
Mrs. Su Xue adjusted an oil painting that hung above the bed. It was her own copy of Monet – a woman in a field under the shade of a parasol with a red bloom at her waist. She admired the way she painted the grass and saw herself in the same dress with a sunny breeze behind her.
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