For tickets call 315-443-3275 or visit www.syracusestage.org
This fall Syracuse Stage presents a world premiere conceived and directed by the legendary theatre innovator Ping Chong. Entitled Tales from the Salt City in reference to the salt mining history of Syracuse, the work will feature seven local residents who will voice each others rich and complex histories, extraordinary experiences and cultural identities. Tales from the Salt City runs October 14 - November 4, 2008 at Syracuse Stage.
Tales from the Salt City is part of Chong's Undesirable Elements series, first produced during a residency at Artist Space in New York City. Since 1992, Ping Chong has created over three dozen productions in the series, in communities around the United States and abroad. Most recently, he created a piece at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts called Inside/Out featuring voices from the disability community. Following Tales, Chongs next project will be in Philadelphia with suburban and urban kids talking about the effects of violence in their lives.
Though hard to define, the term documentary theatre is perhaps the best way to describe Undesirable Elements, which uses real people, not actors, telling their own stories from a script based on interviews with the writers. Its about what it means to be different, something we have all experienced at one time or another. Its about giving voice to people whose voices are not heard, said Chong at a recent presentation for students in the Department of Drama in The College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Its an unusual theatre piece because its not about creating an illusion on stage. What happens is what actually happened.
True to the traditional format for an Undesirable Elements production, the participants will be sitting in a semi-circle on a basin filled with one and a quarter tons of salt. The production will include special moments of dance or song, and large-scale video projections (20 feet by 40 feet) will chronicle both the history of Syracuse and personal narratives of the cast.
The Syracuse cast will feature seven local residents—both recent arrivals and longstanding residents—who are in some way living between cultures. They are from Cambodia, Cuba, Macedonia, Mexico, Onondaga Nation, Sudan and Syracuse, representing a broad range of ages.
