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| is a new composition for theater. The performance is two hours long, with five major scenes and three transitional technical DIS-PLAYS. |
APE STORY is set against
a continuous two-hour, wide-screen, film projection. The sound
accompaniment is diverse, with a series of compositions on the
Chinese erh-hu weaving a musical theme. There are nineteen major
performers and approximately 350 Chinese children in this highly
choreographed work. In the late 1920's, Franz Kafka wrote Report to an Academy, a short play about an ape addressing the scientific establishment with stories of life in captivity, trying to find freedom through communication. In 1972 , I met Eugenie Chonnard, a then 84-year-old artist living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1914 she was commissioned to live with and sculpt a bust of Dinah, the first captive gorilla in this country. Throughout the 1970's, I video-documented and spent time with Koko, a young female gorilla initially raised at Stanford University, being studied and taught to communicate in American Sign Language. For about 10 years, I would visit zoos and primate research facilities, when traveling. Once, at the Bronx Zoo, I met Caroline, arthritic and nearly hairless, in her 50's, the oldest gorilla in captivity. Eventually, I composed a play about Dinah, an old gorilla able to talk with the aid of an implanted artificial larynx. She was entertaining, but after a while it was clear that she was also very confused. The play, Ape Story, was to also feature an all-Chinese cast, Chinese translation and ehr-hu music, and a choreographed, ever-increasing gathering of Chinese children on stage, until no one could move. |
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