Author Archives: Daniela Silva

The Vampire of Hollywood Cemetery

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/20/17
Primary Language: English
“This is about the  Richmond’s Church Hill Tunnel, that imploded on itself, or something, in the early twentieth century. When the tunnel was destroyed, some workers  were buried alive. People say  a thing covered in blood with fangs and skin hanging from its bones emerged from the cave-in and ran towards the James River. It fled to the Hollywood Cemetery. One person survived collapse of the tunnel. His name was Mosby, or something. I remembered it because it was the same name as the Suite Life of Zach and Cody guy. I think he was a firefighter who had been shoveling coal in the tunnel when it collapsed. He didn’t survive his injuries. That might’ve been the guy that people saw running from the wreckage but I don’t know, Virginia is creepy. So, I believe it.”
-Savannah Hemmig, heard this from friends at parties.

Psychologists

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/12/17
Primary Language: English

 

  1. The piece being performed:

 

The most fucked up kids are the kids of psychologists.

 

  1. Why do they know or like this piece? Where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to them?

 

“My father is a psychiatrist and I have met many people that have parents that are therapists or psychologists and we share in the mutual bond, the shared experience of being raised by someone who consistently tries to ‘shrink’ us.”

 

  1. The context of the performance.

 

Madison’s bedroom, right after speaking with her mother.

 

  1. My thoughts about the piece.

 

It is a telling proverb, because it highlights the emotional distance between Madison and her father, especially as she grows older and tries to be a daughter, not a patient. It also might be indicative of growing up Jewish, as Madi feels she has heard the saying from many others of the same religion.

 

 

Ritual for the Dead

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/19/17
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Ritual for the Dead, Hong Kong, China

 

“With Buddhist influences in Hong Kong, we believe that if we burn something for our dead ancestors they will receive it in the next world/underworld so in funerals we will burn things like, all made of paper of course, like maids, actual life-scale paper Benz, paper IPhones, paper suits, paper clothes. Oh! And probably like furniture and then every year, when it’s the anniversary of my grandfather’s passing away, I would follow my grandmother to his tomb and burn him some new things like radios and iPhones. The paper IPhone is a pretty recent thing so yeah; we burnt him some of that burnt him some new pants and stuff. All of these things that we do is to ensure that my grandfather would have a comfortable life in the afterlife hence the Benz, the iPhones, the maids, the furniture etc. Also, plenty of money, we burn plenty of paper money for him, not the real ones of course. Because all this paper stuff has turned into an art for us, stores actually put a lot of effort making the paper things look good.”

The Myth of Pangu

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/19/17
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

“Before there was anything, there was a chaotic mess. Then it kind of condensed into an egg. Inside the egg, was yin and yang. Out of the egg, came Pangu. Pangu is a large, hairy man with horns and fur. He was the creator of the world as we know it. He separated yin and yang with his axe, the earth was the yin and the sky was the yang. He pushed up the sky every day to separate it from the earth; the process took thousands of years. When Pangu died, he became all of the elements, he became the animals, the winds, the trees, the stars, and the Milky Way.”

 

-Tsang heard this origin myth from his classmates, in grade school in Hong Kong.

Don’t Procrastinate

Nationality: Colombian American
Age: 48
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Tampa, Florida
Performance Date: April 26th
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

“No dejes para mañana lo que puedes hacer hoy”

Don’t Leave for tomorrow what you can do today.

Ines Elvira Ortiz, Bogota Colombia, heard it from her mother.