Photo©Fernando Zarza
Photo©Fernando Zarza
Photo©Fernando Zarza
Photo©Fernando Zarza
Canadian Contemporary Drama
AFTERGLOW
Directed by: Huirui Zhang
Show time: April 2, 2022
Jie Yu Li as Anna
Kai Dueñez as Alex
Stage Manager : Joy (Yiming) Han
Production Designer: Xingmeng Jing
It was my graduation project for the directing class at McGill University. Due to increasing COVID Omicron cases, the one act play festival where the performance was originally going to showcase was cancelled. Thus, I chose to adapt it into an outdoor performance on the Lower Field of the campus open to the public.
My production team and I calculated the sunset time and show runtime and made deliberate efforts to align the progression of the plot with the natural dimming of the sun. This utilization of natural sunlight matches the setting of the play, making a late afternoon hiking trip convincing.
What do you do when you fall in love with your best friend but she is coping with grief? A few weeks after the turn of the millenium, the fall of a meteor near Whitehorse, Yukon brings a few changes to two friends, Alex and Anna. They go on a trip into the wilderness to find fragments of the meteorite, while in truth, seeking an answer for their troubled hearts.
Photo©Fernando Zarza
Photo©Fernando Zarza
Photo©Fernando Zarza
What is it that you are searching for? Maybe it is a “yes” or a subsequent “I love you”. Maybe it is a sense of self or being you again.
Afterglow is about the search for the stars as much as it is about the search for what is missing. It is about a change, a pause in time, a moment when you are not ready to say goodbye.
Since this is a coming-of age story, I have chosen to highlight the hesitation, the spark, the melancholy and make the intangible between the two young people feel tangible. So, for now, let’s crack open a meteor and find what is calling to your heart.
Festival Poster
Show Poster Designed by Huirui Zhang