★ STORY

ㅁThe Spellsinger is a magical woman who makes the soup of imagination, 'strange soup'.
If this soup ever runs dry, so too will the imagination of the world.
Then, every story that has ever been imagined, every painting, every film, every song, and every dream will be lost forever.
It is the job of The Spellsinger to make the soup, and she invites the audience to help her with this task. Later, when the soup is complete, and celebrations begin, it is shared amongst everybody.

ㅁWe meet the Spellsinger in her laboratory, a cosmic kitchen, with her electronic servant Electra. She is preparing to make a new soup.
The pot is becoming empty, and Electra has warned her that she only has a few drops left to help her make the next brew.

ㅁThe audience begins to help her, and the crazy tale begins as the Spellsinger conjures characters and tales to help create the 'strange soup'.

ㅁMeet The Twins created when too much of the wrong ingredient is added. Instead of one sweet child, we have two very bad girls who do their very best to ruin the soup.

ㅁThe Animal Man is a strange mix of beast and bird 'accidentally' created when the Twins sabotage the brew.

And ㅁThe Muses are the Spellsinger's eccentric servants, who doubt that the Spellsinger will succeed in her mad endeavor to save the world's imagination.
Their music, a combination of contemporary and traditional instruments, underscores the whole performance.

ㅁTo make the strange soup, the Spellsinger needs some ingredients for the recipe - something heavy, something gold, something silver, something sweet and a tiger's tail. How can the Spellsinger get the ingredients?
Now, the Spellsinger get them from the tales that many Korean children well know!



★ Director's Note

ㅁThe stories that inhabit Strange Soup are drawn from diverse sources.
Tiger Story is an old Korean tale first collected by Zong In Sob 1925.
Spider Trap, The Grandfather's Tale, and Sweet Poo are all stories that I have been told while living in Korea, but finding their original source has proven difficult.
The story of Stone Soup, which makes up the skeleton of our play, is drawn from an ancient Celtic tale; so too is the impetus for the Animal man.

ㅁIn style, Strange Soup challenges the roles of actor and audience, using live music and video, comedy, and a contemporary twist on old tales.
The audience is invited to become part of the show and join with the zany characters to make Strange Soup and save the world.

ㅁAnd, in the end, we find that with imagination you can make soup from a stone.

-- Roger Rynd --