Portland has a small animation concentration, particularly in stop action. So it's not out of the blue that an animated opera, Sun Wu-Kong, The Monkey King, would be created here by Alexis Gideon. Sun Wu-Kong is based on the famous Ming Dynasty Chinese novel Journey to the West. The novel is fantastic and fascinating. One character is Sun Wu-Kong, who accompanies a Buddhist monk, the protagonist, in a quest for ancient sūtras on the Silk Road, from China to present day Afghanistan.
Gideon's musical and visual collaborators include Portland creatives Becca Taylor, Cynthia Star, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Rachel Blumberg, Cory Gray and Shelley Short.
It's an epic tale, through a Portland frame, tapping Chinese culture. We need much more of this given China's history and importance. World premiere, with the "making of" artifacts on display through September 5. At Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N Interstate 8PM all ages $5
