A Year on Angel Island project was based on around two foundational performances that involved professional artists collaborating with undergraduate students. The year also culminated with A Day on Angel Island performances by a team of faculty and students under the umbrella of a Townsend Working Group.
Angel Island – Oratorio for Voices and Strings
Angel Island – Oratorio for Voices and Strings explores the history of Angel Island through poems by people incarcerated at the Immigration Island Station. Detainees carved their poems into the walls of their barracks, which were rediscovered and transcribed years later. The 60-minute oratorio for string quartet and chamber choir weaves a story of immigration, discrimination, and confinement – bringing history into the reality of our current lives. Learn more about the development of this oratorio at the website of the Del Sol Quartet, which commissioned the piece.
Angel Island-Oratorio for Voices and Strings, composed by Huang RuoPerformed by the Berkeley Chamber Chorus conducted by Wei Cheng and the Del Sol Quartet
Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley
December 3, 2022Pre-performance talk: 7:15-7:45PMPerformance: 8PM-9:30PM
Pre-performance talk at 7:15 will include:
Huang Ruo, composer
Wei Cheng, music director
Olivia Ting, visual designer
Ky Frances, choreographer
Mia Chong, choreographer
Within These Walls - Berkeley Dance Project
Within These Walls is an integrated, multi-media contemporary dance project featuring UC Berkeley student performers and original recorded music, poetry, and video projection. The performance serves as a meditation on healing, resilience, and compassion, inspired by experiences of those detained and processed at the Angel Island Immigration Station. It premiered in 2017 as a site-specific dance at the Immigration Station as part of a community-wide commemoration of the 135th Anniversary of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Watch the Within These Walls documentary
Within These Walls, choreographed by Lenora Lee DancePerformed by the Berkeley Dance Project, directed by SanSan Kwan
Affiliated course: Theater 180 Berkeley Dance Project, Fall 2022
Zellerbach PlayhouseFebruary 23-26, 2023Post-Show Discussion:
Artistic Director Lenora Lee will share insights into the creative process — Friday, Feb. 24 immediately following the performance.Pre-Show Talks: Dramaturg Crystal Song will discuss the context and themes of Within These Walls — 7:15pm on Saturday, Feb. 25 and 1:15pm on Sunday, Feb. 26 in the Zellerbach Playhouse lobby.
A Day on Angel Island Performances
Over two semesters in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023, a team of faculty and students collaborated under the umbrella of a Townsend Working Group led by Prof. Lisa Wymore (Theater, Dance & Performance Studies) and Susan Moffat (Creative Director, Future Histories Lab) in order to create site-specific performances inside the Angel Island Immigration Station detention barracks that illuminate the history of the place. In the Spring semester we were joined by doctoral students in Assoc. Professor Roshanak Kheshti’s course, Theater 203: Performance Practicum–Bodies, Space and Time, who created movement and spoken word performances.
April 19, 2023
Angel Island Immigration Station
On April 19, 2023, we presented a series of installations and performances at the Angel Island Immigration Station telling stories of migration, family separation, and cultural dislocation. We presented a series of installations and experiences for attendees at the annual conference of the California Preservation Foundation in hopes of expanding the toolkit of interpretive methods used by public historians, historic preservation professionals, and museum and historic park curators.