Naomi’s Road opera: Interview with cast members Gina Oh and Gene Wu
By Todd Wong
I had the opportunity to interview Gina Oh and Gene Wu, performers in Naomi’s Road, with the Vancouver Opera Touring production. I had met Gina on previous occasions after the presentations at the opening weekend and the November 12th concert for Save Kogawa House, at the Vancouver Public Library. This was the first time I had met Gene. Jessica Cheung (soprano) and Sam Chung (tenor) were busy setting up for their final rehearsal before the spring touring season. This interview took place at the Centre for Peace in February 2006.
Naomi’s Road next performs for the general public on Saturday, March 11, 2006, 7:30 pm
Powell Street Festival Society presents Naomi’s Road
Vancouver Japanese Language School Hall
487 Alexander Street
Vancouver, BC
Admission: $10 (general) / $8 (students, seniors) / $5 (children 12 and under)
Tickets and Information: (604) 683 8240 / www.powellstreetfestival.com
Todd Wong: Gene, you were part of the workshop. How does it feel working with the group?
Gene Wu: It’s great. It’s a great dynamic. It’s a great cast. Couldn’t ask for a better cast. Coming into it after being away for so long, I really surprise myself by remembering so much of the music. Because there were cuts and slight changes to the music but luckily not so much for me. It was really nice that I could remember it, and that goes to the composer’s credit how memorable the music is, and how singable it is.
TW: And you haven’t performed on the road with the group yet?
GW: No I haven’t done this particular show on the road. I did a tour last year with Calgary Opera, another local interest piece called Turtle Wakes. About the Frank Slide at Turtle Mountain, And I did the tour with them for about a month. I’m looking forward to this though.
TW: What is it like being able to do an Asian Canadian story, as an AC?
GW: I think it is great. You know, the story is quite compelling. Having read Obasan and Naomi’s Road it’s something that really needs to be told. Especially with all the press that Joy’s been getting about her house, I think it is one of those issues that the Canadian people I think really need to hear more about. It’s been kind of creeping in every once in a while, but to bring it to the forefront like this is really great.
TW: You haven’t done it in front of the audience, but I’m sure there have been stories (about the audience reaction) from the cast. What are some of the great stories that you’ve heard?
GW: Actually, I haven’t any stories yet… I’ve spent this past week rehearsing, so I’m just trying to get my head around all the staging and what everybody else is doing, in trying to integrate it. Because being the new guy into the production, I just have to make sure that I’m on the same page as everybody else. And I don’t want to mess up anybody else’s staging or music or anything like that. So my focus has just been to concentrate and integrate myself as well into the production as possible. So, stories probably won’t come into we hit the road and little anecdotes come up because somebody will say, “Oh! I remember when so-and-so did this and we all had a good laugh about it afterward.”
Gina Oh: But for the record, Gene is assimilating so well, and he’s just…Bravo!
TW: But you (Gina) weren’t there during the workshops when Grace was doing it with Gene.
Gina: Exactly…Yes!
TW: This is like the first time you are working with Gene.
Gina: It’s like a tag-team effort, I guess.
GW: Well that’s the thing about these touring ensembles. It is a group effort, and to have a really wonderful cast that works well together.
Gina: Actually… A lot of it has to be the creative team because the creative team is so strong. And by the creative team, I mean the director, and the composer, and the musical director, and we have the assistant director who is directing the remount. Because the ideas are so stable for them to express what they want from us, it makes it very easy for us to do our job essentially because we are really just vessels, and because we have the composer right there it’s very easy for us to just work and develop creatively ourselves.
TW: Great! So one of the reasons I was really inspired to request an interview with you is because I have heard stories coming from the road that are very very memorable… Ellen Crowe-Swords was there in Uculet and has some pictures for you. And that still stands out very much for Ellen and Joy. So, what are some of the stories from the road that stand out for you?
Gina: You, know… it is amazing! I think, first of all, being on the road just locally let’s say within Vancouver. It has been amazing to see these schools with such a high Asian population, especially with every school we go to. I think it’s the moment we are packing, and there are the 3 rice bowls and the chopsticks… And all of a sudden, the kids I think feel an understanding, that you know these kinds of utensils are used in our home. You know, we don’t use forks and knives and things like that. There are small connections to see the kid’s reactions. It’s something I wish that we had more of like that as icons when we were younger. You know to say “That’s like our family.”
TW: So it’s like a sense of self-identification?
Gina: Exactly! Because I think we don’t have a lot of Asian icons in society as it is, and for the kids, they always want to relate to something. And since kids are very visual, for them to see an Asian cast is very special. And I am so honoured to be part of that because, for me, I’ve always wanted that.
That and the Island was amazing, what an opportunity to see BC. And I am so looking forward to Lethbridge and Seattle. That’s going to be awesome and fun.
But on the island, it’s very interesting because the pace is different, the pace of living is very slow, and the appreciation is greater… It’s overwhelming actually. The response from Denman Island were these standing ovations and the gratitude from each production.
Ucluelet was actually adjoined with Tofino. They actually held the show late, because the bus was late, it was a duo city community effort, and they said they hadn’t anything, that kind of entertainment like that in years. It was amazing. And they put out this great reception, and to have Joy there was especially nice, to see her join us at certain moments in our tour.
TW: Ucluelet and Tofino during the term of the internment stood out differently. We just talked with Ron Macleod from a fishing family there, and we just introduced him to Ellen Crowe-Swords and he remembers seeing her Dad, and he tells stories about how they knew everybody there.
Gina: That was a special show in Uculet though, it was very special because Joy was there. And there was a lot of awareness.
TW: The Tofino-Ucluelet Historical society for instance.
Gina: Yes, exactly, they definitely made an effort. They had a lot of knowledge behind them. As a sitting audience, to have so much knowledge about what we are doing makes me a real modest performer because I often feel like I am only the first layer of describing because I don’t really have a personal connection because this is just my craft.
Denman Island had a different appreciation, I think. I don’t know if they had the same richness or knowledge as Ucluelet. But most audiences are aware and they learn about this in school.
There’s this school on an Indian Reservation. The day after Halloween, so the kids were hopped up on sugar. That was an amazing moment for me too because Roughlock Bill is portrayed. And I felt that those kids were really special to us because they connected right away for some reason with the entire production. The kids came out, and they were climbing in our vans, and they felt really comfortable with us. It was almost like because we looked similar to them some kind of way. It was already there was no barrier. There was a hug right away, there was a kinesthetic opening… you could just hug them.
TW: Had you had that kind of connection with First Nations before?
Gina: Personally, ummm… not a lot, not a lot…
TW: The audience difference between the adults, comparing the Norman Rothstein Theatre with Tofino, or in comparison with the children in the schools, How is it different?
Gina: Oh, on so many levels… so many levels… It’s interesting, in terms of Q&A period, the adults tend to become very reserved, and that they ask very intelligent questions that have relevance, and things like that. Kids… there is something about kids. They just don’t tend to have a filter. And the pure honesty of it is so refreshing, and it’s something that we really appreciate because it‘s really pure.
It could be any comment, positive or negative comments, it’s all positive. They have absolutely paid attention. Some of these kids…
I was telling our director one story… that one of the kids was so attentive. She must have been quite young because she was sitting in the front half of the room. In the story, the mother goes to Japan and tells Naomi, because your great grandmother is ill. So that’s at the very beginning of the show. A little girl asked, “Did the grandmother die?”
And I thought Obasan? “No… Obasan is not dead at the end of the story.”
She said “No… the grandmother!”
I thought, oh… the mother’s grandmother. They are already that aware. We do this, and we forget layers of it from time to time, and then we are reminded from time to time.
All the kids look at the show and see a family and relate it to their own family life. So to me, I am just imagining that that young girl would have a connection to her family and her roots.
TW: Now… there was a school (Larson Elementary in North Vancouver) that came out and sang the Farewell Song back to you.
Gina: Ohhhh. Myyyyy… Yes… We were speechless… speechless. We got out. We took our bows… We took our questions and then a teacher got up and she said, “And now we have a presentation for you.” And she sat down (at a piano) and started playing. And the entire gymnasium started singing. And then the purest voices.
(sings)
Ma-ta o-o-o
Hi-ma de
Ma-ta o-o
Hi-ma de
Jessica and I were in tears…..
That was like a huge gift in so many ways. Because it was music. They had learned something, They learned music which was our language. Not just the story and they got the entire school to do it.
TW: Just in closing…. I just want to share with you that a Richmond Elementary School has visited Kogawa House with Joy. They have been so moved by the book and opera that they have written letters and will be going to present them to Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, asking to help save the house.
Gina: We are honoured by this. We all have our scores signed I think, by her (Joy). We are very proud to be part of this. It’s a very lucky time. Very serendipitous time for all of us. It’s not just me being a performer. For us as performers, ultimately this is a trade that we do. But the fact is that this is being propelled by so much history that is relevant right now. It’s amazing timing, so we are very appreciative of our time.