Mei Li Goodson, the protagonist’s “I Want” song is
Faraway in the East
Introduction
Guilin is the name of a city in China known as “the most beautiful place under heaven.” The city is the setting for a story about Mei Li Goodson, a Chinese American teenager born in China, adopted, and raised in the United States. It is a story about Mei Li’s discovery of self through a dream that takes her back to her birth city and to her biological father.
The composer, lyricist and book writer for the musical Guilin is Louis Steven Santora, a lifelong musician, writer, composer and music arranger. Guilin is an inspired story with beginnings that originated with Santora’s trip to China in 2004.
Brief Synopsis
Being adopted has created uncertainty and emptiness in the life of Mei Li Goodson, a Chinese American teenager, the protagonist in the story. Now in transition from high school to college, adolescence to adulthood, the search for self-identity has become a driving force in her life.
On the other side of the world in China, there is a man who has lived a life of regret due to the actions that he took one cold night in January – the abandonment of his only daughter. This man, Zhuang Guo, once an advancing Communist Party official, has regret that is so strong that it drives a supernatural force – a force that allows him to communicate with his lost daughter through her dreams. The drive of human emotion is so strong an unearthly force brings father and daughter together, even though they are worlds apart and not physically known to one another.
Guilin is a “feel good” story with universal appeal – a blending of cultures set in an exotic place. The show is a fantasy where lost and found love, lifelong guilt and regret, the consequences of individual choices, the profound effect on the outcome of ordinary lives by the decisions made by the powerful few, and most important, the quest of discovery of self, are all tied together for the audience through a timeline of events, storytelling, and the emotional relationships between the characters.
For the audience
For the audience, the story is a fanfare of the exotic. It takes them to a place that not many have seen “the most beautiful place under heaven.” The audience, through Mei Li’s dream, go on a journey through a historical account of Chinese political unrest and how that tumultuous time in Chinese history relates to her life. Most compelling is the emotional drive of the characters as they rediscover their relationships and love for each other. Because most of the story takes place during a dream, the characters are larger than life and have the ability to do unnatural things. Guilin is truly a magical place.