Created and Performed by Melinda Jean Myers and Kurt Chiang, Unfinished Business was presented by Lucky Plush Productions for its Chicago premiere in October 2022. The show's development period was supported in large part by LPP's Embodied Research Grants.
ABOUT
Mindy and Kurt have always wanted something. They wanted to dance (Mindy), and to act (Kurt). Eventually, they got what they wanted, whether it was a role, a part, a job, a career, and so on. But it wasn’t what it seemed to be. What they wanted was different. Or it could be, or should be. What they wanted – from dancing, from acting – was changing all the time, from year to year, or from the time it took to walk across the room. In the meantime, they wound up here, in front of you, the audience.
Unfinished Business is a two-person dance and theater performance created while the artists lived in different cities. Mindy and Kurt exchanged voice memos, archiving a lively exchange of thoughts, opinions, knee-jerk reactions and free-wheeling associations. The memos serve as a soundscape in a show woven together with elements of dance, movement, theater and gesture. Stage actions derive from the show’s title – reaching for something out of reach, moving the body in ways it doesn’t move anymore, climbing ladders that lead to nowhere. Mindy and Kurt question their own trajectories, challenging each other along the way, in an attempt to create a moment with the audience that is honest and entirely present.
credits
CHICAGO PREMIERE: Links Hall - Chicago, IL, October 2022
CO-CREATORS: Melinda Jean Myers, Kurt Chiang
PRESENTER: Lucky Plush Productions
PERFORMERS: Melinda Jean Myers, Kurt Chiang
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER: Mariana Tejeda
LIGHTING DESIGN: Jacob Snodgrass
SOUND ENGINEER: Sathapat Sangsuwan
PHOTOGRAPHY: Ella Kang
past performances
Support for Unfinished Business is made possible through project grants from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts; development support through Lucky Plush’s Embodied Research Program and a creative residency at The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard, MA); and season support from Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Peter G. and Elizabeth Torsion Foundation, and Chicago’s CityArts Program through the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.