[FW: re: your play From: Melissa To: Readers]

From: ​“Melissa Bailey”
Date: Jun 26, 2013 12:31 PM
Subject: your play
To: ​“Aaron Jafferis”
Cc:

Hey Aaron,

Nice to see you at Stuck Elevator last week. Powerful stuff. It’s been one of my favorite productions at Arts & Ideas so far.

Taking you up on your invite to email some thoughts on your (excellent) show. Including a couple of constructive (I hope?) criticisms.

Going into it, I was kind of apprehensive about the lack of plot: just one dude sitting in an elevator, for 81 hours? And singing the whole time? But the real-life story it’s based on—immigrant deliveryman too afraid of deportation to push the help button — seemed compelling. And I had a hunch you’d make it work.

Quick verdict: You did.

I loved how you broke through the walls of the elevator (and time/space) and let the play flow between reality and zany fantasy. The lucha libre fight was hilarious. The ​“shame” moment was really poignant. And I liked the times when the other four characters ganged up on Guang: The convergence of their various motives/roles/emotions was quite beautiful.

Marco was a hoot and nailed the raps.

Overall, I loved how you used little details (the three sauces in Guang’s bag; how much $$ he was losing per hour by being stuck in the elevator; how this was his only reprieve from the noise of the city because of the blaring Mexican wrestling at home) to tell a really human story without hitting us over the head with the Immigration-In-America theme. I felt a great range of hope and despair and laughter, often swirled together.

There were just two parts that came across to me as heavy-handed:

The speech that starts, ​“I am hunger. I am hunger in the stomach of America…” felt flat to me. Felt more like spelling out the theme versus showing it, as you do so well in other scenes through lively action that works on multiple levels (e.g. being eaten with chopsticks!).

Also, the 11 million figure at the finale took me away from the powerful human story into the realm of a political news report. Maybe because we hear that number [of undocumented immigrants in the USA] so much in the news? I see where you’re going by elevating the singular story into a national one. But that number for some reason killed the emotional momentum for me.

Last thought: I overheard a high school kid after the show suggesting you add numbered buttons to the elevator’s wrestling outfit. I didn’t think it needed changing: I liked how the outfit was a bit abstract, not just a boxy elevator on legs. But it seemed like a great sign that he was into the play enough to approach you with a recommendation.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your talents here at home! We’re lucky you chose to stick around New Haven.

Best,
Melissa

Stuck Elevator, a musical with libretto by New Haven’s own Aaron Jafferis and music by Byron Au Yong, is playing at Long Wharf Stage II until June 29 as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Ticket info here.

Previous stories on Stuck Elevator:
• City Hip-Hop Poet/Playwright Debuts In San Fran
• ​“Stuck Elevator” Unsticks Writer’s Imagination