ANGIE LEVINE Romney Piamonte (left)
holds back Gyron R. Makasiar (right) in a fight
scene during the rehearsal for "Parachute Kid."
By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin contributor
Screenwriter Weiko Lin and composer Christopher Wong are going
to Hollywood. However, before embarking on their film careers,
they’re putting on their new musical, “Parachute
Kid” ““ a valedictory effort, so to speak.
Sponsored by the Chinese Student Association, “Parachute
Kid” will have its first, and perhaps final, performance at
Royce Hall tonight.
“This is my last musical,” Lin said. “I
don’t really want to do another one. I mean, I love it, but
it’s our last thing together unprofessionally. I hope to work
in the professional arena.”
The story centers on a Taiwanese immigrant living without her
parents in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. The girl, Yvonne (Zara
Benosa), is the fulcrum around which various gangs and lower-class
denizens interact.
The duo force of Lin and Wong first came together for
1999’s “Heavenly Peace,” a musical about the
Tiananmen Square massacre in China.
“We learned so much from “˜Heavenly
Peace,'” said Lin, who directed, produced and scripted
both musicals. “”˜Heavenly Peace’ was play-driven,
but “˜Parachute Kid’ is music-driven. Music makes it
memorable.”
That’s where Wong, a recent graduate from UCLA’s
music composition program, came in. With Lin’s finished
script, Wong, a former student of film scorer Jerry Goldsmith,
filled in the gaps.
“Both Weiko and I knew that we wanted it to have more of a
rock feel,” Wong said. “The show “˜Rent’
attracted a younger audience because of its rock ‘n’
roll nature.”
Though rock music is being used, Wong doesn’t shy away
from using the classical techniques of counterpoint and texture
that he learned from his UCLA days; yet he manages to keep it
accessible and fresh.
“Chris Wong is a phenomenon,” Lin said. “Most
musicals have this one distinct style that goes through. We have
rock and classical.”
One of the songs, “Baba,” is about Yvonne’s
hope that her father will come take her out of poverty. Benosa
admits to crying every time she sings the song.
“I can’t help it,” Benosa said. “I hear
the intro to that song and I get knots in my stomach. He writes
music so appropriate to the scene.”
Lin actually wrote “Parachute Kid” as a screenplay
six years ago, revising it for the current production. Lin was
inspired from his involvement in the Los Angeles Skills Center, a
non-profit arts organization located around Inglewood. The
after-school program helps kids, some of whom are pregnant or were
in jail, to finish high school.
“Just from talking to the kids, I found out that they grew
up being latchkey kids,” Lin said. “Their parents are
working 24/7 so they’ve grown up on their own. I think
that’s the reason why they resort to a lot of gangs. I think
kids growing up are so angry at their situation that they
externalize it.”
The gang wars and love triangles in “Parachute”
almost beg for comparisons to “West Side Story” and its
precursor, “Romeo and Juliet.”
Lin, however, infuses his musical with far more than just a love
story or just an immigrant story. It’s also about expanding
what it means to be Asian, a factor made more obvious by the
Chinese Student Association’s support of the musical.
“CSA died,” Lin said. “In a way, we came in
and revamped it. They didn’t have a culture show last year
and they wanted us to do a show for them, because they liked
“˜Heavenly Peace.'”
Instead of using the culture show formula of traditional dances
and stories, Lin wanted to prove his idea that culture shows should
place cultures within the context of America.
“In culture shows, they really explore the cultural
aspects of it,” Lin said. “They just keep going and you
think, “˜Am I Chinese or am I American?’ Enough of that.
Culture shows have done that already.”
Keeping with that philosophy, Lin uses an Asian gang and a white
gang in the performance. In addition, many of the cast and crew
members represent a wide array of non-Chinese ethnicities. For
example, Benosa is Filipino and Sean Morris, who plays Mr. Frank,
is African American. Furthering Lin’s message of interracial
peace, inner-city kids will be bused in to the performance.
As for Hollywood, Lin looks forward to graduating in June even
though he will still be involved on campus as an English teaching
assistant.
He is currently a program coordinator in the dorms and a
full-time graduate student in the School of Film and Television.
Both Wong and Benosa have no doubt that Lin will break into
Hollywood as a screenwriter.
“Weiko Lin is a ball of energy,” Benosa said.
“He has more energy than the whole cast put together
sometimes.”
The film industry, however, has already found Wong. Besides
writing music for the trailer to the recent film,
“Memento,” Wong is also slated to score his first
feature film, “Second Time Around,” being filmed in
Hong Kong.
In the meantime, Lin and Wong are savoring “Parachute
Kid,” their last chance to work completely out of their
hearts rather than just to pay the bills. Lin’s devotion to
getting it right is evident when he tells the cast about maxing out
his credit card for the show’s numerous props and sets.
“School is the only place this can happen, where people
have optimism and passion,” Lin said. “No one here is
paid.”
The cast hopes all its passion will amount to more than a single
performance, which is what “Heavenly Peace” got. To pay
for the show, recordings of the music as well as other memorabilia
will be sold. Since the show is free, tickets will be given at the
box office if there are no-shows.
Putting off the pressure of Hollywood for another day, Lin and
Wong leave “Parachute Kid” as their legacy to UCLA.
“Hopefully, they’ll dig it,” Wong said.
THEATER: “Parachute Kid” premieres
at Royce Hall tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are free and are available
at the Central Ticket Office or at the box office.