Fall(oon)

Actors Tuju and Odko pose with set pieces

Celebrating our premiere with Bamboo Artistic Director Uyanga and her baby

My stop in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia was the final stop of my fellowship and one of the busiest. 

A year ago, I met Uyanga Ayurzana at a conference. When I learned that she was the founder and artistic director of Bamboo Theatre- a theatre for young audiences in Mongolia- I immediately approached her (I secured TWO of my five stops by cold-approaching people that I didn't know so let this be a lesson to other anxious people that this unfortunately works). 

In a testament to her open-mindedness, Uyanga agreed to host me in UB. On zoom, we decided that I would create a new play for audiences under the age of six. Bamboo Theatre has a "baby play" for every season: winter, summer, and spring. All that was missing was fall. 

When I arrived at Bamboo, I quickly realized that the team was talented and well-experienced in developing new plays. They performed several shows a day on top of administrative duties and side projects like participating in The Voice Mongolia or starring in a television show. I felt honored and intimidated to direct such established artists. 

We rehearsed four days a week for several hours a day, racing to explore our theme and structure a new play in six weeks. 

Luckily, my collaborators were full of amazing ideas. We started working with a broader company, then narrowed down to my three ride-or-dies: Odko, Zoloo, and Tuju. 

By early May, we landed on a surprising premise- Fall(oon)- a play about fall made of balloons. Uyanga hired a composer, Nurlan, and a designer, Zombaa. 

We premiered Fall(oon) just a day before I had to leave Mongolia. At my farewell dinner, I felt so proud of everyone and so lucky to have been given the chance to create something new. Not only had the whole team put in hours and hours of work into our project, they had picked me up from my airbnb every day, helped me book a tour of the Gobi desert, and taken me out for drinks and countless midday iced coffees. We had overcome a tight timeline and language barriers to make something truly special (poor Zoloo's brain was about to explode from the effort of translating back and forth between me and Odko). 

Now, Fall(oon) will be a permanent part of Bamboo's repertory, and we are already scheming about when we can see each other next, hopefully at a festival, or for a new project in the US! 

Meeting theatre artists from around the world has been one of the most rewarding parts of this fellowship- and leaving them behind has been one of the hardest. 

Members of the Fall(oon) team. L-R: Odko, baby Barkhas, Uyanga, me, Zoloo, Kha, and Tuju