Archa.lab residency
The Drifters will be a theatrical investigation into the travelling subjects and their interaction with the space they move through. It will try to draw a connection between the space between their hometown and Prague, and the space they experience in Prague. In the world where everyone seems to move and travel so much, and where non-places such as airports and train stations, highways and subways, and malls and chain stores prevail, this work-in-progress project explores how space can become meaningful on a personal level in our time.
The project will involve 3 young non-local living in Prague. They will take me to places with special meanings to them here. How we travel to these places is as important as the stories associated to them. Together, we will workshop what is behind their sentiments about the spots they choose. Finally, we will either condense these places and their related personal stories in a theatre space—or a space even smaller, or using sound to guide our audience to travel in the city.
"The Drifters is a continuation of my interest in travelling and moving in an urban context. My previous attempts on this topic already happened in London, Rota (Spain), and Shanghai. Prague for me is a new situation different from them, and also a place not entirely within the Western discourses, especially the predominant Anglo-Saxon ones. The audience here strikes me as ardent and true. They will not hide their reactions and paint their comments with ambivalent terminologies. As a performance maker, I feel lucky to have the chance to face their critiques." – July Yang
July YANG, multi-disciplinary performance maker and researcher, with MA Performance Making (Goldsmiths, University of London) and BA in literature (The University of Hong Kong). She shifts deftly between the artistic, technical, and theoretical aspects of performance. Currently working intensively with the Shanghai-based theatre collective “_ao_ao_ing ensemble”. Her recent practice focuses on rethinking contemporary daily experience, especially the alienation in urban context.
Previous works include:
Tourists Like Us: A Fantastic Bus Ride (2019, Hangzhou)
Murder of a Pomegranate (2019, Shanghai)
Annata: Not a Real Drag Show (2019, Shanghai)
Here Were the Wu People (2019, Shanghai)
Floating Citizens (2018, London)
FLASHCARDS (2018, Rota)
