Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theater

by Ping Chong, Ping Chong

"The cumulative power of these shared stories is nothing short of astonishing. Ping Chong creates a tremendous tapestry of lives."— Twin Cities Reader In Chong's extraordinary series of choral documentary dramas, bodies that had once been rendered 'undesirable elements' become - as bodies on stage always do, through the theater's magical mechanisms of empathy and display - emphatically desirable. The performers - who are not professional actors - live in the community where they are performing and, most important, they are telling their own stories. Through the act of naming themselves and recounting how they came to be here - quite literally here, now, in the theater, as well as here in this town in the United States - they claim their place in the body politic. Theater, like America, is a space of self-making. The Undesirable Elements series offers a distilled, elegant demonstration of that exhilarating and complicated process." - Alisa Solomon, from Her Introduction
This four-piece volume of Undesirable Elements , the community-specific theater works series, examines the lives of those born into one culture but living in another. Each production grows out of an extended residency, during which Ping Chong and his collaborators conduct interviews of community members and then create a script that explores both historical and personal narratives.
Ping Chong is a theater director, playwright, choreographer, and video and installation artist. The recipient of two OBIE awards, two Bessie awards, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, he has created more than fifty works for the stage, including twenty-five in his Undesirable Elements series.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jenny Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and I love Ping and Sara! I used some of these methods in my classes on Friday, and I believe in the work Ping does to explore community through theater.

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book ‘undesirable elements’ – real people, real lives, real theatre’ by ping chong documents the ‘undesirable elements’ performances that have taken place in many parts of the US and internationally. It describes the undesirable elements theatre performances with essays as well as presenting the scripts of four performances, including Inside/Out…voices from the disability community.

‘Undesirable elements’ began over 20 years ago as an idea for a performance piece developed to accompany a visual arts installation. It began with themes of cultural and national identities, and has evolved and expanded to include many different types of differences, all with the theme of “otherness.” The structure of the performances is the same: The performers are in a semi-circle, with chairs, scripts and music stands. There are sequences of claps as well as graceful gestures by the performers and unusual music, called “a haunting Norwegian incantation.” In all the performances, historical events, such as the Americans with Disability Act, are discussed by the performers along with their personal stories. All are honest, brave, personal stories, with many performers explaining how they learned to stand up for themselves.

The Inside/Out…voices from the disability community performance includes seven actors, ages 23 to 60, with different disabilities and experiences. This piece has been identified as the “first oral history theatre project on disability.” It is storytelling at its most powerful since it is “real people telling their own stories.”

Reading ‘undesirable elements’ is the first step in the process; the second is to experience a performance.