WORK / 01 · 影阁戏台 · Yingge box
A box that lets a play leave the building.
「松江皮影戏是画出来的，以画为主。」
— 唐家昌
— 唐家昌
THE PROBLEM
The troupe worked in a small old hall they did not own. Puppets, screen, and sound were separate. If the room went, the play went.
WHAT I DID
I drew a one-person box so I could keep performing if I left for school. Light, screen, rods, figures — packed so one person could set it up.
The box, closed and open. Light, screen, rods and figures pack inside.
WHERE IT FAILED
The first amplifier blurred the speech and lost the low end. The screen was one size. Then the hall was leased out, just as the box was nearly finished. The plan to take it with me stopped making sense.
WHAT IT BECAME
A later version with a cleaner audio path and a screen that folds. Tang Jiachang took it into rooms and streets that are not a theater. I still think of it as a box that happened to be ready when the room wasn’t.
Majia Hall, Sijing — the room the play used to need. Rehearsal, and painted figures.