The 2020-21 C1 PlayLab Pao Fellowship is a two-year long fellowship supporting the creation of community-centered art-making with Kit Yan and Melissa Li, along with Community Producer Christina R. Chan, and Associate Producer/Dramaturg Alison Yueming Qu. The fellowship resulted in a new theatrical work-in-progress that responds to the neighborhood and reflects a rapidly changing Chinatown

This musical was developed with, and rooted in interviews with current residents of Boston’s Chinatown, their personal stories and pressing concerns of the neighborhood. The artistic team embedded itself into the Chinatown community, and explored the neighborhood’s history. Li and Yan then crafted new songs with fictional characters based on the team’s extensive interviews. Thanks to the longterm and deep collaboration between two of Boston’s core cultural institutions, community access was facilitated with the support of Pao Arts Center, with funding from ArtPlace America and the Barr Foundation, while artistic and dramaturgical support was provided by Company One Theatre, with funding from the National New Play Network's Bridge Program.

About the story:

An eccentric hoarder grandma, who’s lived in Chinatown her whole life, is the last holdout in a building designated to be demolished for new luxury condos. As the threat of the wrecking ball looms outside her window on the coldest day of the year, she recalls to her trans grandson the history of the objects in her house – a living museum of Chinatown history – and they must decide between staying or leaving.