Stay in Character

by shiangtai, a member in the chorus
As Eric has pointed out in some of the earlier postings, it is important to stay in your character in a show. The principals all have their specific roles to fill. However, as Eric pointed out, there is the difficulty for a chorus member to assume a character. Who am I?
In a grogram of a Gilbert-Sullivan shows I was in, you might see, among the bois, while other people showed off their various stage experiences, mine was something like this: "He was Shanghaied by the Pirates of Penzance at age of 16, sold to the land of Mikado, rescued by the sailors of H M S Pinafore, and was left in Italy. That is why he is one of the Gondoliers now."
It is much harder in this show. Not having done as much research on 1830's Spanish history, I have no way to know the Asian population in Seville at that time. (I did try Google "Chinese Population Spain 1830" but it got me nowhere. Google is not as powerful as I thought!) Did Marco Polo (1254 – 1324) bring back some Chinese servants or soldiers to Europe? Is there any trace that they left any descendants in Spain? Possibly, you might say. The path Marco polo traveled is now called the “Silk Road”. Though I went on a tour to the "Silk Road" region in China, I still do not know much about the majority part of the "Silk Road" which extends across Middle East all the way from Beijing to Rome. I think the trade was done in sections back then. The European merchants went as far as Near East (a later term). The Middle Eastern tradesmen went to China. And the Chinese? Being in the richest and most civilized country (back then), they were not interested in trading. They simply sat home and used silk and Chinaware as everyday commodities. It was the "foreign" merchants who came and bought silk or Chinaware. As far as I know, direct Chinese influence and immigration only extended to South East Asia. For a stage set for Spain, I would have to pretend to be a Chinese ambassador or a Chinese astrologer (as I did in some of the Renaissance Faires in Raleigh) if it were a show about the elite, but not this show about "common people". You see, it is hard enough to find one character to fit the show already and I need four. Why four?
This is a story about Carmen and Jose's entangled love live and four stages of their adventures, starting the moment Carmen threw him a flower at the door of the factory, continuing as they were in a Gypsy tavern, joining the revolution, ending at the final scene out side the arena. On stage, we are the back ground by which to mark those places.
In the first act, other than the soldiers, the chorus men are lazy bums to come "meet" with the poor but flirty cigarette factory girls. In second act, we are groupies of Escamillo, the bullfighter, running around party hopping, you know, the Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and their rich friends type. In the third act, Carmen and Jose encountered and joined the smuggler/revolutionaries, something like the Symbionese Liberation Army. Hey, citizen of the universe with our free will as the law! Who does not like that? In the fourth act, we are the family type. We go, with wives and children, to the most popular entertainment of the time; go see the well dressed Picadors stick colorful lances to the side of the bull to draw blood; and go see the much admired and worshiped Escamillo to kill the bull with one thrust of his fine sword (from the libretto).
Now, for my characters: (The following history is made-up) Say, after the Inquisition, it is no longer dangerous in Spain and people started to go there. Let my character in Act I be some one who just came to Spain either from China or from a neighboring country, you know, the first generation migrant type. He is, say, either a Chinese medicine man or an astrologer. He made a lot of money by working hard giving false or superstitious advices to people though he honestly believed in those talks himself. Things never change, do they? Only that they are in California now. Every afternoon he would leave behind his work, wife, and children to go find some entertainment at the town square. Didn't I say things never change? In act two, let my character be none other but this above-mentioned, first generation migrant's son, a second generation migrant. We know them [sic] type too. He wants to get away as far as possible from his parents' old culture. He despises his father's entertainment at the town square but not his father's money. So, he goes to the most popular Gypsy tavern in town, mixing with the Paris Hiltons and Britney Spearses of the time. As for the third act, we can use the theory that my character is one of the descendants of merchants from Marco Polo's period. It was hard to survive the Inquisition (about the time of and extended until long after Marco Polo). Anything you did that your priest did not like was called blasphemy and your head could be chopped off. A Chinese, even after converted into Christianity, might still keep some portraits of their ancestors. That would be enough to win a death penalty. As a result, many of them, along with Jews and other foreigners, were either killed, moved away, or became fugitive. My character is one of these "undocumented". He runs around with a bunch of smuggler and thieves who call themselves freedom fighters, living under the sky, endures a lot of hardship but makes good drug money, perhaps. Now, for the fourth act. Well, the Inquisition was long time ago, even for the 1830s (almost 500 year has past). Some of the Chinese survived alright and some others came out of hiding. They were, after all, good people. My character in the fourth act is one of their descendants. He is a good man, works hard, goes to church, i.e., goes to masses, married a local, and was accepted well in the local society. Like others in his adopted society, he has even picked up the habit of going to the football games, I mean, the bullfights. Prends Garde a toi!