Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey [solo show]

Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey [solo show]

USA Projects
2012

Elizabeth Liang
Los Angeles

Over the last two years, I’ve developed Alien Citizen (originally titled Unpacked) at the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute, Terrie Silverman’s “Start to Finish Solo-Show” Master Class, and on my own.  I performed segments of it at the “5,000 Women” Festival at Wesleyan University, the Hollywood Fringe Festival, East West Players, and Beyond Baroque.  This production will be my first step toward the much larger goal of taking a self-contained theatrical work around the country (and world, hopefully).  I am doing it now because of an irrepressible need to share the Third Culture Kid experience, which is extraordinary yet rarely told.

Who are you when you’re from everywhere and nowhere?  And what’s more important to a Guatemalan-American teen in Egypt: the Pyramids of Giza or the prom?  Alien Citizen is a funny and poignant one-woman multi-character show about growing up as a dual citizen of mixed heritage in Central America, North Africa, the Middle East, and New England.  Alienation and the search for identity, as well as the sometime refusal to search and learn, weave thematically through the narrative.  Another recurring theme is the challenge of growing into womanhood in environments that can be hostile to females (including the USA).  The main character struggles with being a “perfect guest” in each host country, which often involves stifling herself.  Where is the line between respecting others and betraying yourself?  Naturally, humor is a great survival mechanism!…

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