By Sandi Masori in San Diego
San Diego has such a vibrant multi-cultural community so you can always find something of cultural interest occurring.
This past week there have been many Chinese New Year celebrations happening all over town. Some new friends invited me to see their new year play.
Sponsored by the Chinese Women’s Association and written and produced by Kent Brisby and Gingerlily Lowe of Asian Story Theater, this year’s production is The Great Horse of Mongolia. Every year husband-wife team Brisby and Lowe write a new show for the Chinese New Year based on the animal for that year (last year was year of the snake, and this year is … you guessed it, year of the horse.)
This year’s production was a fable that explained how the Mongolian instrument Morin Khuur got its horse shape. To quickly sum up the story, young Suho (Antaria Jongco) acquired an injured horse from a horse trader (Rhys Green) and nursed it back to health. He did it so well that the horse then saved him and his flock of sheep from some evil wolves and legend of the special horse traveled far and wide. This led the horse trader to want his horse back and shockingly trickery was involved. Chaos ensued. The story was also infused with some ancient wisdom imparted from Grandmother (Gingerlily Lowe) to grandson Suho, for example “If you are afraid, don’t do it. But if you do it, don’t be afraid.”
The set design was by Jay Newington. I was especially entranced by the puppets they created to represent the sheep, horses and wolf. They were simple but clever and effective. The version I saw was staged at the Marie Hitchcock puppet theater in Balboa Park, but they also had one at the House of China the same day and in another location.
Musician Natasha Papausek expertly played the Morin Khuur and brought it to life for us.
Kali Kamaria was stage manager and helped build the puppets.
All in all, it was a delightful short show.
I can’t wait to see what they do next year for year of the goat.
To keep abreast of future performances from Asian Story Theater check out its website.
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Associate editor Sandi Masori is a theater and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.