OCTAGONAL
AMUSEMENT PARK (2026)
TEXT & DIRECTION BY SHUOWEN ECHO SHENThis performance contains strong language,
depictions of violence against the body, intense flashing lights,
glitch effects, and loud sounds.
Octagonal Amusement Park is a performance text and movement-based stage work set inside a subway car that may be in Beijing, New York, or somewhere in between.
@ Barnard Movement Lab
Performance Dates & Times
Friday, April 3rd | 8:00 - 9:30 PM
Saturday, April 4th| 4:00 - 5:30 PM
Saturday, April 4th | 8:00 - 9:30 PM
Sunday, April 5th | 2:00 - 3:30 PM
Friday, April 3rd | 8:00 - 9:30 PM
Saturday, April 4th| 4:00 - 5:30 PM
Saturday, April 4th | 8:00 - 9:30 PM
Sunday, April 5th | 2:00 - 3:30 PM
CREATIVELY DEVELOPED BY
Lighting Design: Chloe Dittloff
Atmospheric Design: Liza Irshai
Sound Design: Madison Middleton
Dramaturgy / Movement Consultation: Anastasia Ellis
Dramaturgy: Shaoxuan Tian
Production Stage Management: Sherry Wang
Producing: Anna Rui Dou
ENSEMBLE PLAYED BY
Georgia D'Aloisio, Robert Gemaehlich,
王璀鉅 Tsui-Chu Trevor Wang, Mark Woznicki
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Youtong Wang, Kitty Rodriguez D
Developed as a workshop presentation, the piece experiments with repetition, resets, and ensemble movement, tracing how personal memory intersects with collective histories of migration, urban transformation, and political rupture in Beijing through a journey on New York City's 1 train. Moving from the turn of the millennium to the present, it weaves together memories of the recent Beijing floods, long-term air pollution, the pandemic, the displacement of the so-called "low-end population," and the landmark feminist case of Xianzi, alongside personal and mundane memories of childhood and questions of what it means to belong to a homeland.
The piece asks: What does it mean when the body is the only vessel that connects memories across different spaces? How does the body remember? What does it mean to inhabit a body shaped by constant movement? What is home, and can we ever truly be at home?
As passengers wait, speak, and move together, the subway becomes a site where timestalls and the body carry what cannot be resolved. Octagonal Amusement Park asks what remains when places change, destinations disappear, and movement no longer guarantees arrival.
