The Mailroom

Presented in Collaboration with Yale-China Association

The Mailroom is an experiential installation that reimagines the ethereal space of traditional Chinese mailrooms where information, objects, relationships, stories, and emotions converge, intertwine, and eventually disappear. At this event, you can shape your own visiting experience by interacting with the installation at your own pace. Through this multi-sensory exploration, artists from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University delve into the intricacies of community formation and transformation, inviting reflections on the enigmatic essence of collective memory.

Yale-China Artist Residency production by Jennifer Yuqing Cao, collectively devised with Xi (Zoey) Lin, Yung-Sung Sung, Celia Chen, Lyle Laize Qin, and John Horzen.

Credits:
Producer: Joy Xiaoyue Chen 陈小悦
Associate Producer: Hope Binfeng Ding 丁玢奉
Set Designer: Jennifer Yuqing Cao 曹语晴
Sound Designer & Composer: Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦
Lighting Designer: Yung-Hung Sung 宋永鴻, Celia Chen 陈蔚清
Costume & Fabric Designer: Lyle Laize Qin 秦莱泽
Projection Designer: John Horzen 约翰·霍尔岑
Project Manager: Steph Lo 盧胤沂
Technical Director: Cathy Ho 何家寶
Stage Manager: Chloe Xiaonan Liu 刘晓南

Jennifer Yuqing Cao

Jennifer Yuqing Cao (曹语晴) is a first-year MFA scenic design candidate at Yale David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Based in NYC and China, her work in theater and dance as an international artist focuses on the possibilities of space and storytelling. She believes that her design on stage does not act as a still supplementary but as a crucial and active participant in the narration. Selected works including Once 一场 (China National Tour) as the set designer, costume designer, and production stage manager; Set Design for Here’s a Blue Morpho For You (NYU CSSA GALA), The Comedy of Errors (NYU Tisch NSB), My Heavenly Favorite (assistant scenographer, International Theater Amsterdam). More about the designer: https://jenniferyuqingcao.com/

John Horzen

John Horzen (he/him) is a fourth-year masters in projection design at DGSD. He received his bachelors degree in Violin Performance from Vanderbilt, and is constantly examining the connective tissue that binds his rhyming loves of community, producing, designing, and music-making in order to find new ways of storytelling. Selected projection credits include The Planets (Woolsey Hall, Co-Projections), Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage, Assistant Projections), and The Kite Runner (Hayes Theater, 3D Animator).

Xi (Zoey) Lin

Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦 (Sound Designer/Composer), a native of Nanjing, China, holds a BA in Theatre Arts and a B.Music in Piano Performance from Lawrence University. She is currently a Sound Design MFA candidate at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Previous credits include original music composition for Morpho Studio’s Beijing Fashion Week releases of「CORAL 珊瑚」& VINCENT digital fashion collections, the Carlotta Festival of New Plays 2023 (Iseman Theatre, production sound engineer), Next to Normal (Yale University Theatre, assistant sound designer and engineer), Detroit ’67 (Princeton Summer Theatre, sound designer). Anchoring in the sonic world, Zoey is passionate about creating cross-sensory experiences that deepen the primal connection between beings and the universe. xizoeylin.com

Lyle Laize Qin

Lyle Laize Qin 秦莱泽 is from Chengdu, China, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the Environment Design (Fashion Interior Design) (Sino-UK Collaboration with University of Edinburgh ) at Donghua University. He is currently a Costume Design MFA candidate at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Previous works include art design for the Summer on the Roof 屋檐之夏 which was a reality variety show in Shanghai, Little Devil (Set Design and Costume Design Assistant) by Touch Lab in Shanghai, Fucking A (Yale University Theater, Costume Design Assistant) , Escaped Aone (Yale Rep Theater, Costume Design Assistant) and conducted fashion product design internships at the Walt Disney Company (China). Lyle hopes that through the discussion of clothing and fabrics, he can create a connection between the script and the characters, so that the audience can feel the story and the world more truly.

Yung-Hung Sung

Originally from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Yung-Hung Sung is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in design at David Geffen School of Drama. He received his B.F.A. in theater arts from National Sun Yat-Sen University. His design footprints have been seen around several nations and major theaters in Taiwan, such as National Theater of Taiwan, National Taichung Theater, and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying). Also, Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, Migration Matters Festival (UK); Beijing Dance Festival, Shanghai International Festival of Arts (China); Changmu Performing Arts Festival (Korea); Festival Off Avignon (France). Selected awards include Ten Lines of Poetry to NK, which received third place for Professional Lighting Design at the World Stage Design Exhibition 2022 in Calgary, Canada. Recent work includes Moonie and Every Brilliant Thing at Yale Cabaret as well as Cleansed and Macbeth at the Geffen School. yhslightingdesign.com