THE ELEPHANT PLAY Spotlight: Justin Woo

We’re thrilled to continue the creative team of The Elephant Play by Kelly O’Donnell with composer Justin Woo! Justin is an important contributor to Core Work, a co-creator of Portal Project, and most recently acted in Flux’s reading of The Ether. The questions are inspired by Kelly’s beautiful play—make sure to RSVP for the 6/27 and 6/28 readings in NYC!

RSVP

Do you have a favorite fact about elephants? If so, please share it.

From what I understand, elephants mourn their dead. If they mourn their dead, they can love. If they can love, they can imagine a future without their loved ones. If they can imagine a future, if they can love, if they can grieve, they’re sentient in all the ways that matter. If they’re sentient, they’re worthy of rights and human concern and care.

Who is your favorite fictional pachyderm?

My favorite fictional pachyderm is the elephant in the Buddhist parable about the three blind men and the apocryphal pachyderm, which is about our misunderstanding of reality based on our limited perspective.

Did you ever met an elephant in real life? If so, what was it like?

I believe I saw some at the zoo, but I don’t think that counts as “meeting”.

Elephants are fabled to never forget. What’s your memory like these days?

“Bro, remember when you did X thing back in the middle 2010s?!”

“Nah, but that does sound like me.”

Over and over again. That is what my 40s has been like so far.

Have you ever felt separated from your herd?

As a terminally extroverted person, yes. Constantly.

Do you have anything coming up that you want us to shout out on social?

I want you to scream out how great Flux is, all day, every day. I’m trying to build up a small body of creative commons songs for modern dance choreographers seeking music… but that’s stalled a bit! I’ll post about it on Insta if it happens.

Justin Woo (he/him) has been on slam teams, made movies, written scripts, created devised theatre, and acted, but this is his first time working as a musician and composer. He couldn’t be prouder to be a part of this production.

How can people follow your work?

@justinwooCTL on Instagram, but I’m mostly not there anymore.