The Visible Theater is currently in pre-production for two new projects that go beyond any of our previous work. At once traditional and innovative, we hope you share our excitement. We invite you to read more about our past work and to consider joining us on the journey.

Audiences at the 2005 SF Fringe requested more of our award-winning show GREEN BAMBOO HERMITAGE, so we are working to expand of the story of Auntie's girlhood romance. As a contrast to the spoken drama of GBH, we are exploring kunqu, the oldest form of traditional Chinese opera. Marked by gentler, more refined melodies than Beijing or Cantonese opera, kunqu was named an Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations in 2001.

Supported by CA$H, a grants program of Theatre Bay Area, in partnership with Dancers' Group

THE MARCO POLO PROJECT

The Marco Polo Project will use the myth and history of the Italian explorer to examine questions of cultural identity and authenticity through the performance styles of the Silk Road. We will devise the script through a series of workshops in technique, history, and improvisation.

If Marco Polo was in China from age 17 to age 34, when he finally returned to Venice, did he feel more Chinese or more Italian? What was it like to be bicultural in a pre-modern society? And if, in fact, Marco Polo never went to China at all, but instead compiled his legendary journals from tales told by other travellers, how does that affect the validity of what we know about the world?

The Marco Polo Project will be our largest show in breadth of subject and in time. We anticipate development for the next 12 to 18 months. We encourage interested performers, artisans, historians, and supporters to contacts us through the above link.