TALENT NEEDED for a recording – posting February 6, 2023
Seeking an alto, or (mezzo) female vocalist, and a tenor (or baritone with extended range) male vocalist, to perform a romantic duet ballad for a recording to be used in the promotion of a musical theater project. In the show, the song is performed by Asian characters (late teens, early twenties). However, casting Asian talent to perform the duet is a secondary consideration. More important is having the right voices for the song, so ethnicity is a secondary consideration. The song is stylistically pop similar to what might be found in a Disney musical.
The resulting recording will be used to promote the musical to theater professionals, and will not be distributed for sale. However, the final recording tracks may be available to listen to on the Internet.
Time commitment will be one practice session at approximately 1½ to 2 ½ hours and one recording session for approximately 2 hours. The rehearsal session and the recording session are paid. A transportation allowance will also be provided in addition to minimum. Minimum pay will be $400 per vocalist for the project. If rehearsals take longer than estimates additional pay based on a per ½ hour basis will be added to the total. The performers will be credited for the recorded performance. A signed release stating permission to use the performances for the purposes outlined above will be required.
If you are interested, a demo recording or web link to a vocal performance that you already have would be great. If you do not have a recording available, and you think you may fit the project, we can arrange an in-person audition. Please send the link or recording to lsantora@pair.com.
Background and Brief Synopsis
Mei Li Goodson is an Asian American high school senior nearing graduation. Like many of many of the other students, she is concerned about what lies ahead after high school. But unlike the others, she is also struggling with self-identity, an internal crisis intensified by a recurring dream about her birth city Guilin, Guangxi Province, China.
Mei Li was adopted as an infant not long after the Tiananmen Square student protests in 1989. She has a normal family life with her adoptive parents in a loving and nurturing home. Questions about identity didn’t arise until a recurring dream began over the last several months. Each night, she sees the same Chinese people and places over and over. And, every dream ends the same way with her waking up shivering cold even though it is summer in Connecticut where she lives.
John and Lia, Mei Li’s adoptive parents, are concerned about Mei Li’s dreams but don’t know how to help her. Mei Li tells them that in the dream she is being called by a Chinese policeman and a young Chinese women. They draw close reaching out for her, but then disappear and she wakes up shivering from the cold. Her parents assure her that the dreams will pass and are just a result of stress from the changes happening soon in her life.
Still, Mei Li spends much of her waking hours preoccupied by China and questions about her brief time there as an infant. At school, she talks about the dream daily to her best friend Lisa who listens and tries to help by telling her she is American and should relax and enjoy her teenage life. But Mei Li insists that the events that occur after she closes her eyes at night are significant. She is convinced that the places and people she sees are real. She believes that she is being called back to China and to her birthplace Guilin, Guangxi Provence. Mei Li tells Lisa and her parents that she wants to go back and find out if the people in the dreams are real. She wants to learn about her heritage, and touch the ground in the city where she was born. John and Lia are sympathetic and want take her to China but first they encourage her to concentrate her thoughts and energy on the first year of college that lies ahead.
Mei Li tries to stay focused on college, but the dream continues unrelenting the same way, until one night the events change. On this particular night, she leaves the comfort of her bedroom in Connecticut. She leaves her loving parents and all that she knows. And she begins a journey to Guilin, China “the most beautiful place under heaven.” Her story begins on banks of the Lijiang River.
From the Author
A majority of the show takes place while Mei Li is dreaming as she journeys back to Guilin, China, her birthplace. There, through a series of events, she finds her birth father, a policeman named Zhuang Guo. Zhuang Guo, who is known by the locals as The Old Guard, and the spirit of his wife Xi’er, are the people who have been calling Mei Li in her dreams.
After his wife died, Zhuang Guo is a lonely man without family. The closest person he has to a family member is his longtime friend Zheng Hu, who is the Mayor of Guilin. Zheng Hu’s role in the show is as a wise man, a teacher and Zhuang Guo’s moral conscience. Zheng Hu was with his friend on a cold night in January when Zhuang Guo took his infant daughter to the orphanage nearly two decades past. At the time, they were both young Communist Party officials dealing with the aftermath of the crackdown on the student protestors in Tiananmen Square.
Zheng Hu knows how strongly Zhuang Guo wishes to see his lost daughter again. The guilt Zhuang Guo felt on that cold night, has only intensified over the years since the abandonment. The heartbreak of losing her daughter likely resulted in Zhuang Guo’s wife Xi’er’s early death.
With the aid of his deceased wife who conjures up a strong supernatural force, Zhuang Guo succeeds in bringing his daughter back to China via a dream. When Zhuang Guo first sees Mei Li. and later discovers that Mei Li is his daughter, he tries to convince her to stay with him by explaining their shared heritage, by showing her the house where she was born, and by his efforts to convince her to accept the fact that he is her father. He explains why he no choice but to give her up. The political events that occurred around the time when she was born, and the one child policy that was law in China at the time, put him into a difficult position. He justified taking her to the Institute because it was the safest path for her and his wife and son. He answers many of the questions she has had throughout her life about her birth mother, her family, and the traditions of the land where she was born. He appeals to her to allow him a second chance to be her father.
On her journey to her birth land, Mei Li meets The Mayor of Guilin and a guide named Yo Ping. Yo Ping tells Mei Li what it is like to be young and ambitious in China. Zheng Hu, The Mayor of Guilin, shows Mei Li the never-ending Limestone Mountains and teaches her about the rich history of the land where she was born. When they do meet in the second act, Zhuang Guo, Mei Li’s father, takes her to her birth home in the village. He shows her the way of the Zhuang ethnic traditions. And he offers her love in a Chinese way.
Listen to the song In A Chinese Way, performed by the character Zhuang Guo (Anderson Davis):
Mei Li’s internal conflict continues and intensifies throughout her journey in China. She wants to go back to Connecticut and her adoptive parents; however, she is confused about where her home truly is. The pressure of having to choose between two cultures, two entirely different ways of life, and love on two continents, overwhelms Mei Li. Her fantastic journey of discovery wrapped in beautiful surroundings morphs into a hideous, surreal experience of life in China versus life in America.
Within the context of the dream people are larger than life, places are more beautiful than can be imagined, and love is a fantasy fulfilled in a most splendid way. The audience who sees Guilin, will experience all that is fantastic about China. They will meet Guilin’s mayor, Zheng Hu, who will teach them about the rich traditions of his land as he strolls through Elephant Trunk Hill Park meeting and greeting the locals and tourists. The audience will walk with Yo Ping and Mei Li as they discover that they are the same young people inside even though they are culturally a world apart. Mei Li’s dream is shared by the audience as they travel together to Guilin, “the most beautiful place under heaven.”
Louis Steven Santora