PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Staged theatre production
Walker Art Center, Cinema Stage
March 19, 2022 / Single performance / approx. 45 minutes
Co-produced by FD13 Residency for the Arts and Walker Art Center
Casting by FD13 Residency for the Arts
This is acclaimed Thai filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong’s first-ever theatre production – a live staged performance of a film in progress – as part of her experimental FD13 residency in Minneapolis in March 2022 in collaboration with and performed at Walker Art Center.
SYNOPSIS
Muk, a woman in her mid-twenties, transcends centuries living in Thai Kingdoms, including the periods of Ayutthaya (1351-1767), Sukhothai (1238-1438) and Rattanakosin (1782-present). Has she been alive the entire time, bearing witness to the relentless violence of history? Or is she being reincarnated over and over, stuck in the perpetually patriarchal grasp of culture?
The segment of the film-in-progress to be staged is set during a political period of official Thai history known as Rattanakosin (1782-present).
SCENE 1: DESK EDITING STATION
Muk is dressed up in 1930s costume. There is another woman, May, sitting at a desk editing station, viewing a film she’s editing. The film is related to the Siamese Revolution of 1932. Muk sits with May. May shows Muk more edited sequences and tells her about how the film is progressing.
TRANSITION
They walk out of the building. We are in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Muk and May walk past The Charles Hotel. May points out to Muk the plaque at the intersection of Eliot and Bennett Street, the so-called “King Bhumibol Adulyadej Square”. King Bhumibol Adulyadej Square is named after King Bhumibol of Thailand, the only monarch to be born in the U.S.
SCENE 2: DINNER
May and Muk are cooking Thai food in a home kitchen. It is Muk’s last night in Boston before she heads back to Thailand the next morning. The conversation drifts from their work to personal life. May tells Muk that she is now pregnant and looks forward to becoming a single mother. Muk seeks advice from May about egg freezing. May suggests to Muk that she should consider doing it in the U.S. May is working on a project related to her pregnancy, which started a year ago when she went to New York for oocyte cryopreservation. While dining, they hear the news about the passing of a Thai political activist who has been in exile in France since the coup d'état in 2014. They continue drinking and talking late into the night.
REHEARSAL SCHEDULE
* is a set date, otherwise exact times and dates to be decided collectively and subject to change
January 20-31
1 Casting Process Meeting with Creative Team, ZOOM (1 hour)
February 1-28
1 Meeting, ZOOM (2 hours)
2-3 Rehearsals, ZOOM (2 hours each)
March 7-13
1 Rehearsal, In-person @Walker Cinema Stage (no technical) (3 hours)
3 Rehearsals, In-person @ Dreamsong Cinema NE Mpls (3 hours each)
March 17*
1 Rehearsal @ In-person @ Walker Cinema (2 hours)
March 18*
1 Rehearsal (Full technical) In-person @ Walker Cinema (2 hours each)
March 19*
1 Rehearsal (Full technical) In-person @ Walker Cinema, Afternoon (1 hour)
1 Live Production @ Walker Cinema, Evening (1 hour) + Dinner
Role descriptions
Two Roles:
-Asian or Multiracial Asian
-Female presenting
-Age 20-45
-Stage experience required
-Improvisational experience required
-Fluent Thai Speaking* (Please submit even if you are not fluent Thai speaking. Ideally the production will be in Thai, thus ideal candidates will speak fluent Thai, however we are open to non-Thai speakers if we cannot find two fluent Thai speaking roles.)
Compensation
Non-union
16$/hour
Paid by FD13 Residency
Submission instructions
1 - Headshot
2 - Resume
3 - Reel
4 - Recorded monologue of your choice. If you are fluent Thai speaking, please record in Thai. If you are not, please record in English. (2 minutes)
By January 10, 2020 to Erinmgleeson@gmail.com
CREATIVE TEAM
Anocha Suwichakornpong a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and producer. She is currently a DAAD resident, Berlin (2021) and was Visiting Lecturer on Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University (2018-2020). Her films have been the subject of retrospectives at the Museum of the Moving Image, New York; TIFF Cinematheque, Toronto, Cinema Moderne, Montreal, and Olhar De Cinema, Brazil, among others. Her work, informed by the socio-political history of Thailand, has received much international critical acclaim and numerous awards. She is the recipient of the 2019 Prince Claus Award for "pioneering a mode of intellectual feminist filmmaking, courageously and convincingly challenging hegemonic practices and established conventions, both in filmmaking and in society". In 2020, she was a recipient of the Silpathorn Award. She is the director of three feature films, Come Here (2020), Mundane history (2009), and By The Time It Gets Dark (2016), the latter of which won Best Picture and Best Director from Thailand National Film Association, making her the first woman to be awarded, and was selected as the Thai entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. She has directed over a dozen shorts and video installations and is the co-director of Krabi, 2562 (2019) with Ben Rivers. In 2017, she co-founded Purin Pictures, a film fund that supports independent cinema in Southeast Asia, offering much needed assistance in a region that lacks adequate governmental support. In 2007, she founded the independent film production company, Electric Eel Films, which has been recognized for its contribution toward supporting works by emerging talents from Thailand and abroad.
Pablo de Ocampo i Pablo de Ocampo is Director and Curator of Moving Image at Walker Art Center. Previous positions include Exhibitions Curator at the artist-run center Western Front (Vancouver, Canada), Artistic Director of the Images Festival (Toronto, Canada), and co-founder/collective member of Cinema Project (Portland, Oregon).
Erin Gleeson is a curator and writer. They are Director of FD13, a residency program that invites national and international artists to Mni Sota Makoce to create new work and present it live. Erin is adjunct faculty in Curatorial Studies and Contemporary Art Theory in the Interdisciplinary Art and Social Practice program of the Art Department at the University of Minnesota. From 2010-2018, they were co-founding Director of SA SA BASSAC in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a non-profit exhibition space, reading room and resource center that prioritized production of new work and artist-led programming.
Kelsey Bosch is the Moving Image Department Coordinator at the Walker Art Center, and teaches media art and filmmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is an interdisciplinary artist primarily using media and installation to work between the boundary of constructed knowledge and wild unknowns. Kelsey was an Art(ists) on the Verge 8 fellow, a NES artist in residence, and has exhibited nationally and internationally.