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October 15, 2020

Suitcase Stories : Playwright’s Notes

Below are playwright and performer Maki Yi’s program notes from Suitcase Stories, the first show of our 2020-21 season. We share Maki’s words with you in gratitude and hope for the shows and the year ahead.

For 2013/14 season, the 30th anniversary season of Pacific Theatre, I proposed the idea of ‘Lobby Project’, which would be a 10-minute pre-show in the lobby. Ron Reed, the Artistic Director, not only welcomed the proposal, but also encouraged me to further develop these stories into a full play. I had so much fun to meet the audience in the lobby, sharing my suitcase stories. When the season ended, I had 8 stories in my hand. For the rest of the summer, I interweaved them into a whole play. Writing is a lonesome process, but I was not alone. I was fortunate to work with D.D. Kugler, probably one of the best dramaturgs in North America. He was with me from the beginning to end in the process, from the very first word of the lobby project to the last period of the full play. Without him, Suitcase Stories couldn’t have existed.

Transforming the play from the page to the stage, I couldn’t be happier to have Colleen Lanki as the director. Her creative and resourceful ideas were endless, and her insight into the play was exceptional. She animated the play to the fullness.

Pacific Theatre programmed the full-length version in its 2016/2017 season, which generated more remounts for other theatres, festivals, and conferences. I have been grateful for the initiation of PT and the opportunities created by it. But then, COVID came. Theatre died.

And here I am, once again, returning to the birth place of the play, on the very stage where my artistic self calls ‘home’, despite of the imminent threat of the pandemic. I cannot thank enough to the new Artistic Director, Kaitlin Williams, and the staff and the board of Pacific Theatre, for taking the risk and pioneering for the rebirth of Theatre. I am honoured and thrilled to be part of it.

Coping with COVID must have been one of the most traumatic experiences for us. It has forced us to re-learn and un-learn more than ever, breaking common sense and assumption. In Theatre, we never doubted that the show must go on. In the post-COVID world, the show may not go on, or may go on without the audience. However, life must go on, however strange and however uncertain.

Life took me to a path unusual, and me and my suitcase saw rare sceneries that we had never imagined. We want to share them with you. The storytelling has been done many times, yet I sense something different with the storytelling this time, in this absurd and surreal reality. I have always hoped that the story of our journey can generate courage and hope for someone else’s journey. Now, my heart is with anyone who struggles to adapt and adjust to the fundamental changes. Please hang in there. We are here now.

Enormous thank you for joining in the pioneer force, not afraid to take a risk. Your presence in the audience is oxygen for my soul on stage.

Sincerely
Maki

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