Red Thread
An Adventure of Ancient
China
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Conceived and Directed by Stephen LegawiecAssistant Director/Movement Coach: Dana Wieluns
Costumes by Robert Velasquez
Lighting by Leif Gantvoort
Fight Masters: Tim Storms, Matt Emery
Stage Manager: Anne Belle Gilbert
Musical Director: Mary Kate Karr
Set Design by Stephen Legawiec
Original music by Susan Christiansen
Silk choreography by Ivo
Publicity by Gail Matsunaga, Long Pine Communications
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 The tale of a Governor’s maid who is secretly an assassin was written by an author from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 a.d.). Over its 1200-year history the story has been used as a theme for various arts, including Beijing Opera. |
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 A
tale that seemed to call for martial arts onstage was exciting to
us. The original story is quite simple: During a turbulent time
in Ancient China, a governor decides to marry his daughter to the
son of a rival to cement a political alliance. But the rival is
treacherous and plans to invade the governor’s province. The
governor’s secret assassin infiltrates the rival’s bedroom
and steals his plans for the invasion. When the rival discovers
this he realizes he is faced with a superior adversary and he backs
down. |
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The story intrigued me but it seemed unusual that the assassin did not kill her prey. In our play Hongxian the assassin has newly converted to Buddhism. In most hero myths the hero enters an unfamiliar world in order to wage his/her conflict for good. In this play, the strange world was not geographical; rather, Hongxian’s internal world of morality - once clear - had become unfamiliar. How she wages her battle against evil without killing is her greatest conflict. - Stephen Legawiec |
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