Quick Trip Home

Got flown to Los Angeles for a job interview and gosh if I wasn't the luckiest gal in the world, getting put up at a hotel right across from the first thing that I dreamed about when I heard I was going home.  Of course I was excited to see my sis Su, and her pals Juju and Patrick, and to bring my folks some of the latest Chinese movies.  But the first thing that literally popped into my mind was the Double Double and Mexican food, particularly the Super Special Burrito at Gilbert's El Indio.
The interview was one of those rare events that made me feel particularly valued as an artist.  Right before I was picked up for all-day talks, I stared out at the clear air of LA (c'mon, as compared to Shanghai) and felt the sway of the palm trees and the desert hues.  
I was 'home'!
And I got to see the Jujumeyer take a nap with his scottie Spike...
My cousin Leon and his wife Stephanie came over with their three kids--here are two of them with the Juj, Darcy and Johnny.
That Darcy was so cute--always jumping!  Like  a Mexican jumping bean or something, except she always had the sweetest smile on her face and she doesn't have a lil bug inside making her jump.
Here are Darcy and Juj with Quentin, a vivacious and cheery chap.  
Got to visit with my buddy Moises at the Rosses...here we are last summer, same venue...maybe I was a lil more excited cuz we used to laugh day in and day out for many a season, and now, with the distance of China, the laughfests don't translate via satellite.  But we got good grill at La parilla--particularly crisp were the tripitas.  Then we went to Steph and Greg's--they've been sending me goodies to China like Inca Corn and the latest tabs, you  know the important stuff from home.  We got to sit around and shoot the shit like before television was invented.  It revived me.
Got to go to the park with Rousseau Tuan.  Got to see how sportif the Jujmeister has become.  First he was batter up and then he pitched some.
Then I got to see some football skills, both American and soccer-style.  It was a gorgeous LA day.  I inhaled every minute.
Lucky Patrick had a late call so a big chunk of the morning could be had hanging in the park.  Juju loved it!
Rousseau Tuan in good form!

Did not even have a chance to snap a quick pic of my folks in the valley, because I was too busy salivating over the medium-rare steaks my pops grilled up and catching up with me mum.  Yes, China has steaks for hundreds of yuan, but I just keep it bite-sized off the cafeteria menu.  So when I got to the U.S.--eat meat!   

Had a great quick trip home.  Just as I was getting used to not completely nodding off between 4 and 7pm west coast time, I had to hop on a plane and finish up in Shanghai.  Yeah, this week, I had to make up classes--with lag!-- to the tune of 32 class hours.  But it was so worth it.  No place like home.

International Play Bakeoff

It's midnight in Shanghai, November 23.  It's also 8am in Los Angeles, November 22. I've been invited to join a gaggle of LA playwrights in yet another Great American Play Bakeoff, as invented by ubermentor Paula Vogel. This time, though, it stretches across the time zones.

It's simple. For the next 48 hours, write a play.

The ingredients to be baked into this session's play:

mother

a song

chalk

a fall

something that is impossible to stage.

I've synchronize the Shanghai-Los Angeles times, so that I can be writing during the same 48 hours as my playwright hosts: Ken Narasaki, Sujata Bhatt, Jason Fong, Soo-jin Lee, Andrea Apuy, Howard Ho and Sharon Omi. Ken has a friend in Ashland that may be writing along, and my friend Chen Gu in New Orleans might make a bake, too.

So midnight, November 25, I will have a 'play' or a dramatic fragment, or at least something written, where 2 days before, there was nothing. That is the beauty of the bakeoff: it can be as long or as short a piece of work as you like. And, it is both pressure and no pressure, because you feel the heat to write something within the 2 days, but how 'bad' could it be? It was done in such a short time. And that recipe is what allows flashes of ingenuity to emerge: the subconscious rising to the top, revealing itself in a kindly agitated state.

So join on in!

Anyone in this world can be a part of the Great International Play Bakeoff.