GRANDMA = FUTURE: The Musical

GRANDMA = FUTURE: The Musical is an original 80-minute tragi-comedic musical theatre extravaganza that expands upon Sakai’s project “Grandma Entertainment Franchise (GEF)”—a world where seniors are represented as vital, complex main characters against a maximalist backdrop. “GEF” comprises a Grandma Nightclub, a Grandma Day Spa, and a Grandma Amusement Park. GRANDMA = FUTURE: The Musical will add a fourth component to the franchise: a Broadway Theatre District. Growing up with conservative, Japanese parents, Sakai learned to use humor and entertainment to negotiate any tension that she felt within her intergenerational household. She still does this with her art practice; GRANDMA = FUTURE  is an entertaining way to speak upon our society’s obsession with youth, lack of accessible elderly care, urban divestment, notions of desirability, and the concept of success in relation to the American dream. “GEF” is in part a response to the treatment of seniors during COVID, and another part inspired by Sakai’s own grandmother, otherwise known as her “obaa-chan”.

When she was 9 years old, she and her “obaa-chan” solidified their bond as outsiders, or the only family members who were not “productive”, wage-earning adults. Her parents felt like authoritative obstructions, so GRANDMA=FUTURE represents a world where grandmas and grandchildren live without the oppressive presence of their parents. The script will draw from real-life interviews that she conducts with grandmas and their grandchildren across the country, employing a cinéma vérité style of documenting intergenerational familial dysfunction. Much of Sakai’s practice is about collaborating with local communities that do not have access to the arts because she did not grow up around art. It’s deeply important that her work encourages inclusion and accessibility for the arts—suggesting that anyone can create—in every step of the process. Blurring the lines of art and theatre, GRANDMA = FUTURE  will be performed by a mix of human actors, puppets, and “plushy actors” (performers in life-size, grandma plush mascot costumes). The set will operate like an oversized lazy Susan, divided into quadrants for different acts. Each quadrant will comprise original sculptures made from assemblages of found objects, highlighted by one light source (like a refrigerator light, lamp, and television). Video projections of outdoor scenes will enhance the staging. Choreography and musical arrangements will have high production value, contrasted with a DIY aesthetic that permeates throughout her work.

The show will tour through local community centers in towns that typically don’t have access to theatre. This show will emphasize joy, hope, sadness, and the universal aspects of the cycle of life. Viewers will leave entertained, reflective, invigorated with a newfound appreciation for the elderly, and interconnected by their shared experience of life and death. There’s a Japanese saying that sums up the spirit of GRANDMA = FUTURE: The Musical; “Nete, kutte, okite, baba tarete, ko wa oya ni naru, ko wa oya ni naru” —which translates to “sleep, eat, wake up, shit, a child becomes an adult, a child becomes an adult”.