KUNG FU, written by David Henry Hwang, received its world premiere at New York's Signature Theatre Company in the winter of 2014, opening on February 24, and closing on April 6. It was directed by Leigh Silverman, with fight choreography by Emmanuel Brown, Chinese Opera choreography by Jamie Guan, and dance choreography by Sonya Tayeh. The cast featured Emmanuel Brown, Bradley Fong, Cole Horibe, Francis Jue, Peter Kim, Ari Loeb, Reed Luplau, Kristin Oei, Jon Rua, Phoebe Strole, Christopher Vo, and myself.
In summary, it is a piece concerning the internal and external struggles of the iconic Bruce Lee on his way to stardom and inner peace, using language, and movement.
I worked with an actor who once said "I'm a mover, not a dancer; when the dancing starts, I move the hell outta the way!"
There's no interesting beginning to this story; I got involved with this project because I auditioned for it and, for some reason, was hired. I'm not a dancer, not a martial artist, but I am a fucking highly-trained, solid actor and have a lot of stage combat experience.
I took Shotokan Karate briefly as a senior in high school, inspired by Ryu and Ken in Street Fighter (when I was a ten-year-old, waiting for Mom to come home in our small apartment on a military base in Belgium, I would scream "SONIC BOOM!" at the top of my lungs and clap my hands together, hoping some kind of vaguely sperm-shaped, revolving projectile would fly out of my arms. I also tried using the Force after I saw the Star Wars trilogy, around that same time, because I'm awesome). I took a few Karate classes as a kid, too. That, my friends, is the extent of my martial arts training.
My dance background is being a black kid steeped in American pop culture in the 80's and 90's. Michael and Janet Jackson, Bel Biv Devoe, The Fly Girls, MC Hammer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. You know you loved that Vanilla Ice cameo in that joint. Don't lie.
Surely this would qualify me to share the stage with experienced acrobats, martial arts exponents, gymnasts, and Juilliard-trained dancers, right?
I guess Leigh Silverman thought so...bless her heart.
Anyway, back in early 2013 the piece was very, VERY different, and I auditioned for a WORKSHOP in a track that would become radically altered in later drafts of the play. I went in, did my read, and I was pretty funny. Then I heard nothing for like 2 weeks. Then there was a movement call. It was one of those things where there were a bunch of Asian men, a bunch of Asian woman, a bunch of white girls, and then like 4 black dudes--there was NO question as to what role we were up for.
Movement calls tend to be the bane of my existence, so I focused intensely and spoke to no one, even my one friend that was there (yeah...it was one of the black dudes. His name is Clifton, too. He's pretty awesome--in fact, he's playing the lead in the Motown tour right now). There was some martial arts/dance choreo, and a fight sequence. I remember feeling pretty good about what I did. So, yeah, it made perfect sense that I heard nothing for a month after that.
(Breif note: in that call I saw why this thing must have been a BITCH to cast. Lots of dancers in NYC, but can they fight aggressively and convincingly? Lots of people with stage combat training in NYC, but can they handle dance choreography? And can any of these people do these things AND say words at the same time AND etch out multiple characters that seem like reasonable facsimiles of human beings??? Holy crap.)
Eventually I got an email saying I got an offer. Of course, being the depressive I am, my first thought was "I wonder who dropped out at the last minute so that I could do this???" Actors. Ugh.
I should note that I fought pretty hard to stay in contention for this workshop; other projects that may potentially have conflicted, I either turned down or didn't audition for--I knew it was important to be on the "ground floor" of something like Kung Fu, because people who do workshops tend to get used in later iterations--if their work is banging. Actually, sometimes they DON'T get used again, no matter what. Anyway, I kept a laser-focus on this project, even not knowing that much about it.
Bruce-Fucking-LEEEEEEEEEEEEE, Son!
I was not prepared for Cole Horibe.
I mean what the hell. This guy was on So You Think You Can Dance and then magically wound up here. How on earth does a person like this exist, who has extensive martial arts AND dance training, and who has always wanted to be an actor?? David Henry Hwang wrote this play right at the time Cole is in his physical prime. You couldn't ask for better circumstances. Is he lucky? Of course he is. But he's also been training for like almost a quarter-century. I think the time had come.
The initial two-week workshop at Signature Theatre in the Spring of 2013 was a blast. I got to do a lot of fighting, and just a little bit of goofing off (when the play opened almost a year later, I got to do a little bit of fighting and whole lot of goofing off).
Almost immediately in the room, I felt an atmosphere receptive to the energy and work I brought into it, which was a refreshing shift from what I was used to. It was an amiable group of people, down for just about whatever; the fight and dance sequences were awesome, and I was happy just to WATCH some of them (dem Kato sequences...gat damn!). We performed a heavily-abridged version of that draft as a presentation, but I think the important thing was getting an idea of what was possible physically; that workshop began to give a rough definition of just how the hell a play about Bruce Lee--a man who was a kinesthetic genius--could work in a space with live performers doing it. I'd say it was a success, and I was noticeably happy to be there.
Then a few weeks later I got an email from Leigh that there was to be another workshop and that Emmanuel Brown, our fight guy, would be doing my track (I should note here that he's a black dude...we be takin' each others' jobs). I was disappointed, but didn't take it to heart because I knew they wanted a better "mover" than myself for that role--a character based on a guy named Jesse Glover, one of Bruce's first students in Seattle, who apparently could kick ass. But I appreciated Leigh's gesture--she's a savvy mama.
I told her that I couldn't wait to see the production; because I figured I'd run my course with the project. Oh well...onto something else.
However, Leigh is smarter than I am (...just a little bit, though)--and I was wrong.
NEXT: How I Found Myself in the Company of Dancers; or How I Was Hired to Play a Couple Chinese Dudes, a Black Dude, and a Famous White Dude
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