Bak Chang

(肉粽)

Book & LYRICS by lauren taslitz
book & music by Emily Chiu

Shannon is determined to recreate her late grandmother’s glutinous rice dumpling (bak chang) for her mom, but can’t get it right. Stumped, she tries to enlist the help of her grandmother’s Tai Chi friends at the park. Although they don’t have the recipe (because who uses a recipe??), the grannies eventually guide Shannon to the realization that she’s the one who needed the bak chang all along.

Commissioned by the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle, WA.

(1 hr 15 min)

LISTEN

Shannon’s memory of Ah Ma, her grandmother.

After Shannon and her girlfriend have a big fight about moving in together, the grannies show up at the girlfriend’s tattoo parlor to intervene.

Bubbe Roberta, Ah Ma’s best friend, tells Shannon what Ah Ma (Rose), and the Tai Chi Collective means to her.

After exhausting every option and failing to recreate the dumpling, Shannon grieves Ah Ma.

PHOTOS

Development History

• (Winter 2020) Industry Reading
  5th Avenue Theater, New York, NY

• (Summer 2019) Table Read
  5th Avenue Theater, Seattle, WA

• (Summer 2019) Writing Residency
  5th Avenue Theater, Seattle, WA

• (Winter 2018) Writing Residency
  5th Avenue Theater, Whidbey Island, WA

• (Fall 2018)
  Conceived at 5th Avenue’s First Draft Story Summit.