Gold Mountain
Created & Performed by Emma Clark
SYNOPSIS
In 1849, frontiersman Abner Blackburn struck gold in the Nevada desert in the newly-minted United States of America before moving right along to seek fortune in the wilds of California. Unbeknownst to him, he had stumbled upon one of the richest gold deposits in the world, an area that eventually generated billions of dollars and helped to build the city of San Francisco. He died in poverty, and take it from his great-great-great-great-grandniece (me), his family never saw a penny of that money. Simultaneously, the California Gold Rush spurred the first major wave of Chinese immigration to the U.S., and by the end of the century, economic fears spurred the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first U.S. law to exclude an entire ethnic group from its borders. Somewhere between those histories lies a picture of my ancestors, forever standing on the edges of a party to which they were not invited. In San Francisco, 1969, East meets West once again in the form of my mother, and two decades later in me.
This solo performance investigates, elaborates, and fantasizes about the truths and myths of my family’s past. What can theatrical imagination generate to fill the silences in my family’s history? How does my mixed heritage situate relative to my personal identity and my relationship to a geographical idea of home?
An exploration of the landscapes that define us and the myths we build around them. A collision of cotton candy dreamscapes and the dirt of an imagined frontier.
This solo performance investigates, elaborates, and fantasizes about the truths and myths of my family’s past. What can theatrical imagination generate to fill the silences in my family’s history? How does my mixed heritage situate relative to my personal identity and my relationship to a geographical idea of home?
An exploration of the landscapes that define us and the myths we build around them. A collision of cotton candy dreamscapes and the dirt of an imagined frontier.
COLLABORATORS
Dramaturgy by PJ Stanley
Movement Consultancy by Chusi Amoros
Movement Consultancy by Chusi Amoros
Development history
This piece is currently undergoing research and development, having been supported previously by Arts Council England, Chinese Arts Now, and China Exchange.
Scratch performances were shared at the 2018 PULSE Festival Suitcase Prize Day at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich and at the 2019 Chinese Arts Now Festival Scratch Night at Soho Theatre.
Scratch performances were shared at the 2018 PULSE Festival Suitcase Prize Day at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich and at the 2019 Chinese Arts Now Festival Scratch Night at Soho Theatre.
