[CASTING] Solo Performer for "Happy Birthday to L" — A Multi-Sensory Theater of Memory, Familial Trauma and Vulnerable Kids' Experience

Looking for Chinese/Chinese-American actors of a 70 minute solo performence for Theater Festivals

Project Description:

“What does memory taste like?”
For L, it is the repetitive nausea of fried waterbamboo, the hollow hope of sweet and sour pork, the sting of burnt scallop and the frustration of bamboo shoot soup without bamboo shoot. Born and raised in the void left by her incarcerated parents, L shares her journey from a bewildered child to a resilient young woman in China not just with words, but through the primal, aromatic ritual of cooking.

Happy Birthday to L transforms the theater into a visceral sensory landscape. As L prepares her favorite birthday meal, the audience is pulled into the fragmented episodic reality of her growth, where vulnerability and strength, anger and comfort, frustration and optimism all intertwine in rising steam. This project is an unsettling yet defiant celebration of a life often rendered invisible, by manifesting the struggles of “vulnerable kids” into a concrete, breathing experience of recognition and healing.

Keywords
Solo performance; theater; live cooking; childhood trauma; family loss; vulnerable kids; puppet; interactive; mental illness

Run time
70-90 min (est)

Language
English

Theater Festivals Aimed at:
The Tank Summer Fest (Limefest, application submitted)
Tank Production;
Other theater festivals based in NY

Potential Payment and Compensation:
They unfortunately cannot make promise for a set payment as they are still in developmental stage. They are also actively applying for institutional grants and foundation funding; the potential payment will be dependent on box-office split and grants; public tranfortation stipend for rehearsal and performance is included

Requirements

-Visual Age: 20-28
-Gender /ethnicity: woman; Chinese/Chinese-American (no requirements on Mandarin fluency; the emotional truth of the character is the priority);
-Performance Range: seeking an actor with exceptional emotional depth. Must be comfortable navigating a journey from profound vulnerability to high-intensity explosive climax. (for specific content disclosures please see below, or email us for further explanation)
-Solo performance skills: strong presence; fluent in English; capable of sustaining a 60 minute narrative and commanding the space alone
-Culinary element: familiarity with Chinese cooking techniques is a plus but not required. The director/playwright will provide hands-on coaching

Application Instructions

DDL: April. 30 (production time May-June)
MATERIAL: bio; a consecutive 3-minute monologue recording, email to andicui2002@gmail.com

For more info regarding the project (sample script, detailed proj description, timeline etc.) please see: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zOIE3BKJIyl86jLkqDc0Z9REKEOQvbC1?usp=drive_link