The Storybook that Dreamt of Becoming a Play…
For the past two months I have been deep in dreaming and writing the second draft ‘Dani and the Age of Wonder’. But this is no ordinary play script. Oh no. It is an illustrated short story which. And in a few weeks, I’ll use it as a springboard to devise the stage adaptation in the first of two development workshops. So I thought, now might be a good time to reflect on the 2-year journey so far.
Oryza Playwriting Lab 2022
I first came up with the idea in 2021 during Ahi Karunaharan’s Intermediate Playwriting Class run by Proudly Asian Theatre. At the time, I was deep into directing ‘Pork and Poll Taxes’, which wasn’t the best environment for coming up with a new idea. But generate I did, as it was compulsory, ha! This very first 10 page script was vastly different to what it is now. It was more about staying true to who you are, and was unintentionally spooky. I thought it was a beautiful metaphor having a character with no reflection work in a hall of mirrors, but go figure. But the bones of the story were there, just waiting to come to life:
'Dani and the Age of Wonder' is a modern day fable about a young girl born into exile who longs to return to her homeland. But when Mum's wedding bangle disappears, Dani embarks on a mission to help Mum find hope. On her journey, she meets a magical Messenger who holds the promise of returning home. It’s gonna be Studio Ghibli meets Red Leap Theatre. A story about finding hope.
What better way to do that than to get a bit of funding? After our success rate for funding applications for ‘Pork and Poll Taxes’, I thought this was going to be easy as. But turns out, we were just lucky. It wasn’t until our 5th attempt, we finally struck gold and I got into Capital E’s Creative Residency in Wellington, 2022.
Now, disclaimer: I didn’t (and still don’t) see Wonder as a children’s play. BUT due to the genre, style and the age of the heroine, I see Wonder appealing to young and old alike. Capital E reminded me how important children audiences are. We often downplay their intelligence. But kids still experience BIG feelings, even if they don’t know how to articulate it.
It was there, at Capital E, I sketched the first ‘storybook’ version of the first chapter to Wonder. I never intended that this would be the form of the script. But the beauty in the simplicity of the storytelling captured the voice of Dani and the world of the play.
My first storybook version of Wonder from Capital E, 2022
Fast forward to Oryza’s playwriting lab in December 2022. To apply, you needed to submit a 10 page sample of your writing. All I had was my illustrated story book. So I submitted that, and pitched that I wanted to explore a new way of playwriting that involved devising. And they bought it! Margaret-Mary Hollins stepped in as my director/dramaturge extraordinaire! We used the week-long intensive to explore the worlds of the play: homeland v.s. exile land v.s. story world. I left the lab with my brain bursting with new ideas and a clear direction. The play was becoming more about finding hope.
Since then, I wrote another short story draft, and we got funding from Foundation North to develop the script further. We will be taking a part-solo-part-devised approach which I am so excited about. At Oryza, It was so enriching to be able to work with actors and creatives as part of the writing process. And I get to engage the design and performance part of my brain. Yippee!
Compared to writing ‘Pork and Poll Taxes’, this'll be way less lonely. I won't have to bang my head against the laptop by myself. But there will be a clear direction, compared to when I devised 'Heart Go Boom' with Massive Theatre Company. I kid you not, we only discovered what the show was about on opening. This is my first time taking this approach, so I'll keep you posted with how it goes!
