The Rhino
Written by - Jenn Amelia Martin
Directed - by Petunia Hu
Producer - Stéphanie Stowers
PSM - Sam Regenbogen
ASM - Rayn Franz
Scenic Design - Yvonne Lou
Assistant Scenic Design - Viet Linh To
Puppet Design - Allie Nation
Costume Design - Nina Ganyard
Lighting Design - Jinxian “JC” Chang
Programmer - Keshav Nair
Sound Design and Music Composition - Me :)))
Assistant Sound Design // A1 - Ollie
Rion - Jay Gao
Joan - Franki Fogle
Ma - Leynah Nguyen
Dad - Christopher Simcox
Ada - Maggie Johnson
“When a divorcing family loses the fortune buried beneath a money tree, they have one week to recover it in an ordeal of sleepless nights that traps them inside their fractured home. Each night spirals into obsession: a boy who builds muscle over memory, a girl who becomes her puppet, a mother who hangs up on the final call, a father who cannot dream, and the kind of love that lies as the family unearths not only what was buried in the dirt, but also the truths they’ve long refused to face.”
Three things stood out to me when I first read the script for The Rhino. One was the initial stage direction, “Dusk rises in North Phoenicia as Guzheng and Banjo are plucked in call and response. American Appalachia meets Eastern lyricism; yet in some recognition of each other, the dissonance softens with Guzheng in soft solo.”. Already a tall order to get right but incredibly beautiful. The second was the potentialities for the vividly described puppet sequences telling a duel poetic story along with the very grounded main one. And third was the amount of times silence is described in the script. Silence intensifies. Silence gets louder. Silence as static. All of these vivid sonic descriptions in addition to a beautifully crafted story made The Rhino a dream to work on!