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Ratskin carol.png

Ratskin

full-length play

some tags:

immigration
intergenerational
magical realism
futurity

trauma, epigenetics

characters:

Brook - generation 3, female

Sam - generation 3, male

Mary - generation 2, female

Bobby - generation 2, male

Nu - generation 1, female

Li - generation 1, male

art by Carol Lee (@art_droppings)

BOBBY: We can’t let people know we’ve spawned a rat. If we don’t cut off her tail, she’s not stepping foot outside of this house.

MARY: Bobby, this is our daughter / you can’t talk -

BOBBY: It’s not my daughter. It’s a rat. She’s not my daughter. / Not like this.

MARY: Bobby, how could you -

BOBBY: Not until we cut her fucking tail off.

NU: Then she’s my daughter. And I will take care of her. And she’ll be safe. From you. From everybody.

BOBBY: What are you going to tell her? That she’s a monster?

NU: That her name is Brook.

🐀🌱💚

description

Ratskin centers around Brook, the granddaughter of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants who settled in Tacoma. She has been born with a rat-tail - a mysterious appendage that has been passed down her family ever since Nu, on her way to the U.S. from China, grew a tail. Brook, at the request of Nu, has grown up with her tail with one condition: she may never leave the house and see the light of day. This tail, and its history, must be kept hidden.

awards

Honorable Mention, Undergraduate Library Research Award, University of Washington, 2019
Mary Gates Research Award, University of Washington Mary Gates Endowment for Students, 2019

---presented at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium, Performing Arts Panel, 2019
Senior Capstone Award, University of Washington School of Drama, 2019

production history

Full Production, University of Washington School of Drama, 2019 (site-specific) - review

acknowledgements + sources of inspiration

in the interest of acknowledging that this play-thing would not be here without these works, individuals, and support:

​

  • Karen Hartman

  • Scott Magelssen

  • the team behind the first production, in particular, Ran Ran Wang

  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

  • Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa

  • the families affected by the violent 1885 Chinese expulsion of Tacoma

  • archives and library at the Wing Luke Museum

  • "Racial Ethnic Women's Labor" (Evelyn Nakano Glenn)

  • my own family, in particular, my Grandmother

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