Set rendering: an iron grid hangs over wooden frames on carts

Production proposal · 2026 · An original small-theater play

This Morning, and Last Night’s Dream

今天早上和昨晚的梦

A frozen northern city, one night of dreams, and the snowstorm that finally brings everyone together.

Role
Producer
Scope
Production proposal, script development, campaign and visual identity
Status
Script and scenic design complete; seeking festivals, venues and co-producers

The play

A city frozen solid

In a city in northern China, winter will not end. Neighbors live stacked in identical concrete apartment blocks, each shut inside a room and a life of their own. It is too cold to snow. The machines have frozen, so the city’s demolition crew wanders from building to building with sledgehammers, chipping at what froze the day before. Day and night, the pounding never stops.

Last night, everyone dreams alone. A teenage couple plans to run away. A family burns paper offerings by the road. Newlyweds fight on their wedding night. A housewife cares for her father-in-law. A cab driver waits for Noah’s Ark. A shut-in suspects he is already dead.

This morning, the first big snow in years buries the cars. Digging out, the neighbors gather in the courtyard and, for the first time, talk about what they dreamed. Then it is almost eight. The cars pull out one by one, the snow turns to slush, and today will be just like yesterday.

The play by Ma Xuan is an ensemble piece in fragments: six scenes and four wordless interludes, staged with wooden frames on carts, a washing machine, an old TV, and an iron grid that slowly descends until it rests on the floor.

Scenes, one night
Wordless interludes
Seats or fewer: the house it is built for
Scenic sketch: warped apartment blocks, with people on the rooftops hauling their appliances
Fig. 01Scenic sketch: warped apartment blocks, with people on the rooftops hauling their appliances · Hou Jiayu

每天最兴奋的事，就是同你分享昨晚的梦境。而关于我的现实生活，都是日日重复，日日头破血流，日日不值一提的小事。

“The best part of every day is telling you about last night’s dream. The rest of my life is the same thing over and over: getting knocked down, day after day, by things not worth mentioning.”

Campaign tagline by Li Jingwen, written in the play’s own voice

Structure

Six scenes, one night

Each scene is a different household on the same night. The households never meet until the last scene; between them, a man living alone appears in four silent interludes.

No.SceneWhat happens
01Imagining Berlin与柏林有关的想象A teenage couple trapped in the boy’s room plots to run off to snowy Sheep Town tonight. Every time they pay the demolition crew to distract his father, the plan grows bigger: Europe, a robbery, the moon. They never leave the room.
02Strangers异乡人A family from out of town burns paper offerings by the road on the anniversary of a grandfather’s death. Their little boy discovers that his nonsense rhyme can start and stop the wind.
03The Wedding结婚Aiping, 38, and Dawei, 45, neighbors for ten years, move into her fifth-floor apartment. An old washing machine that cannot be paused interrupts the toast and starts every fight.
04The Hole洞Honghong scrubs pots while her father-in-law waits for his medicine. A model steps out of the billboard across the street and sells her a dress for exactly the medicine money.
05American Sweetheart美国甜心Yongbin, a cab driver, wins two tickets to Hawaii on the radio. The only person he can tell is a passenger livestreaming “the end of the world.”
06It’s Snowing下雪了Morning. A blizzard has buried the courtyard, and one by one the windows open.
+Xiao Lin’s Story小林的故事 · 幕间Four interludes without dialogue. Living alone, Xiao Lin cannot find his pulse, his blood pressure or his shadow, and begins to suspect he is dead.

People you’ve met

CharacterWho they are
Xiao Lin33, housebound for five years, convinced he may be dead
HonghongA housewife who fools herself with an imagined youth
Boy & GirlHigh school sweethearts: one a dreamer, one who believes only him
YongbinA cab driver who never stops talking, in the loneliest job there is
Aiping & DaweiA late first marriage and a hopeful second one, two floors apart for ten years

Threads through the night

The scenes do not share a plot; they share a city. These are the images that carry from one household to the next, and the reason six separate stories read as one play.

ThreadScenesHow it returns
The pounding1 · 2 · 5The demolition crew chips at frozen buildings all night. The boy pays them to lure his father out; the father in Scene 2 calls the sound “King Kong”; the livestreamer in Scene 5 hears “a death knell.”
Screens and broadcasts1 · 4 · 5TV news and weather reports, the old man’s anchorwoman, the billboard models, the radio contest. The outside world arrives only through a screen.
Escapes that stay plans1 · 2 · 4 · 5Sheep Town, Europe and the moon; going back home; the restaurant across the street; Hawaii. Every escape is imagined at night.
The cold that won’t breakAllIt is too cold to snow. The north wind blows out the offering fire, lard sets in the sink, the livestreamer reports minus thirty. In Scene 6, it finally snows.
“Monday morning, snow so white”2 · 6The little boy’s rhyme controls the wind. In the last lines, the old night watchman remembers singing it as a child in the snow.
The elevatorInt. 3 · 4 · 6Xiao Lin flinches at the ding; the old man is wheeled into it to go “up to the sky”; in the morning it is one of the first sounds.

What the morning reveals

The last scene shows what the night hid: everyone lives in the same courtyard.

  • The boy from Scene 1 comes out of Building 3; the girl has been waiting for him with breakfast.
  • Honghong calls down from a sixth-floor window of Building 3: the girl is her daughter, Tongtong, who in Scene 4 was supposedly in her room doing homework.
  • Aiping stands at a fifth-floor window, still in her wedding dress. Dawei digs out his car.
  • Yongbin rings the buzzer for 302. Xiao Lin comes out to collect two sacks of flour and stops to watch the snow.
  • The little boy from Scene 2 runs to the night watchman, who has dreamed of the same rhyme.

Script development

Reading the play as its producer

My work is in narrative, so the part of producing I care about most happens before any poster: reading the script closely, deciding what must be protected, and finding ways to make it stronger without making it louder. This section sets out that reading and the notes that came out of it.

First reading

“What struck me the first time I read this script was its point of view. It isn’t about big events. It’s about ordinary people stuck in their routines, and about dreams as the one moment in the day when they get to rise above it all.”

From my producer’s note in the proposal

Three things stayed with me. The play is funny: a demolition crew that raises its price every time it is asked for help, a washing machine that cannot be paused on a wedding night. It is also bleak: a man checking every instrument in his room for proof he is alive. And it refuses to explain itself; nobody ever says why the winter will not end.

That combination is the play’s voice, and it was also the risk. A reader looking for a plot finds six households that never meet until the last page. My job was to make that structure legible to partners without flattening the voice that makes it worth staging.

Four notes to the playwright

The development direction I set with Ma Xuan came down to four notes. Each one is written to strengthen the draft on its own terms, not to make it more conventional.

01

Cut it down

Shorten every story to its leanest form.

Why
Six stories and four interludes in one evening leave no room for repetition. Every scene has to land its idea and get out.
In the draft
Each scene already runs on a single engine: the boy and girl’s plan grows each time they pay the crew; the offering fire goes out each time the wind returns; the lamp moves back and forth between sofa and TV stand. The note asks every beat that doesn’t turn that engine to go.
What it protects
The comedy, which depends on rhythm, and the running time a small theater can program.
02

Find the threads

Choose a few recurring images that run through and drive each story, so the whole play speaks in one style.

Why
The households never meet, so the connections have to come from images rather than plot.
In the draft
The pounding of the demolition crew, the screens and broadcasts, the cold, the rhyme, the elevator. Each appears in more than one household and changes meaning as it moves.
What it protects
The fragmented form. The play does not need to be rewritten as a single story to feel whole.
03

Bring time forward

Use setups and overlaps so the stories echo one another and leave room for interpretation, in the spirit of Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train.

Why
An audience should sense the shared night before the last scene confirms it.
In the draft
The last scene reveals the links: the girl who sneaked into the boy’s room is Honghong’s daughter, the one she thought was doing homework; everyone lives around the same courtyard. The note asks for small setups earlier in the night so that the reveal feels like recognition, not coincidence.
What it protects
The ending’s quiet. Nothing has to be explained if it has already been seen.
04

Leave it open

Don’t write everything down. In rehearsal, devising adds more small moments from everyday life.

Why
The play’s texture comes from ordinary detail, and the best ordinary detail comes from the people who will perform it.
In the draft
Xiao Lin’s four interludes are written entirely as action, without a line of dialogue. They are already scores for an actor rather than finished text, and they show how much of the play can be built in the room.
What it protects
The writer’s structure, with space for the company to fill it.

The full draft exists in Chinese and English and will be locked before rehearsals.

Protecting the play, and getting it staged

The hardest part of the producer’s job here is not finding what to change. It is deciding what not to change while the play still has to be pitched, budgeted, staged and sold. These are the pressures the proposal had to answer, and where I came down on each.

PressureWhat it pulls towardWhat we kept
MarketingA loud hook and a clear plotA tagline in the play’s own voice and a campaign as quiet as the play. The hook is the mood, not a twist.
ProgrammersA story that can be summed upThe fragments, with a two-line frame: last night everyone dreams alone; this morning the snow brings them together.
ScheduleKeep rewriting until openingA firm lock date. Devising fills in detail in rehearsal without changing the core structure.
Venues and touringA simple, fixed setThe descending grid at full scale where venues can rig it, with a fixed-grid version kept for limited venues and touring.
BudgetA bigger, safer showA small-theater scale of up to 300 seats, with the risk spread through co-production and multi-city touring.

Reading the design as story

Hou Jiayu’s design starts from a sketch of people sitting on rooftops with their appliances, as if moving out or with nowhere left to go. In the proposal and the campaign I treated the design as part of the dramaturgy: each element does a narrative job, and the campaign borrows its language.

ElementNarrative jobWhere it carries
Wooden boxesEach household is sealed in its own room; the audience watches “the way you’d watch a fish tank.”Every scene; the logo’s frame
CartsScene changes become moves, like a life being carried somewhere else.Every transition
Household objectsThe washing machine, the TV, the sofa crowd the people out of their own lives.Scenes 1, 3, 4
The gridPressure that hangs overhead, descends as people begin to disappear, and lands without crushing anyone.The arc of the whole night
Outside lightThe billboard and searchlight are a world that is eternal and out of reach.Scenes 3, 4 and 5; the finale
One lit squareOne window still on in a dark apartment block.The identity and every poster

References that shaped the reading

References were how I explained the play to partners, and how the notes stayed grounded in something we could point to.

ReferenceWhat it gives this play
Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and “Careful”Content: ordinary people with ordinary hopes who can’t get past what’s right in front of them, written in a spare, cool, detached voice.
Li Jianjun, 《飞向天空的人》Form: an ensemble piece in fragments, slices of life inside rooms with no clear beginning or end, built through devising and field research.
Jim Jarmusch, Mystery TrainTime: separate stories on the same night that overlap and echo, so the audience assembles the connections itself.

Write ordinary people the way Carver does. Stage them as an ensemble in fragments.

Concept

Selling a dream before it exists

This Morning, and Last Night’s Dream has not been staged. For now it is a script, a set of sketches and a proposal. How do you make festivals, venues and partners believe in a play that so far exists only on paper?

My answer was to give the play the same thing it gives its characters: one clear image to hold on to, and enough evidence to show it can be built.

01Make a quiet play legible

Six scenes, four interludes and almost no plot is the play’s strength and the hardest thing to pitch. The proposal translates it into terms a programmer can act on: comparables, audience, festivals, venue, cost and risk.

02Pitch the form, not the plot

The play sits between Raymond Carver’s stories of ordinary people who can’t get past what’s right in front of them, and Li Jianjun’s 《飞向天空的人》, an ensemble piece built from slices of life that plays more like a gallery installation than a story. One line holds both: write ordinary people the way Carver does; stage them as an ensemble in fragments.

03Name what is rare

Three selling points: unconnected stories on the same night, which few shows attempt; comedy at the end of the world, where the laughs and the dread play off each other; and a stage that moves, with rolling boxes and a descending grid.

04Know who it is for

Students, for whom a story drawn from real life speaks directly; working adults from 25 to 55, who share the characters’ problems; and women theatergoers, for scenes like Honghong’s. Above all, younger, experienced small-theater audiences.

05One sentence, one lit window

A fragmented play needs one line to hold it together. The tagline comes from the play’s own voice; the identity follows the set: a framed title and a single lit square, like one window still on in a dark apartment block.

06Lean enough to be made

A proposal convinces only if the show can be built. The script was pushed toward its leanest form, and the set is light to tour, with the actors handling every scene change.

Tagline poster
Fig. 02Tagline poster
Identity system: primary, reversed, horizontal, icon, color and type
Fig. 03Identity system: primary, reversed, horizontal, icon, color and type

Scenic design

Boxes, carts, and a falling grid

The design began with a single sketch: a cluster of warped buildings with snow on the roofs, and people sitting on top with their washing machines, sofas and TVs, as if they were moving out or had nowhere left to go. The scenic design pulls out “a person and their belongings” and makes it the building block of the whole show.

01The boxes

Square wooden frames inspired by the Japanese four-and-a-half-mat room. The audience watches the people inside the way you would watch a fish tank.

02The carts

Each box rides on a flatbed cart that the actors push or sit on. Every scene change is part of the show, like one move after another.

03Everyday things

A washing machine, an old TV, a sofa. They crowd spaces that are already cramped, squeezing the people on stage and making them strange.

04Light enough to tour

The actors handle every scene change, and the set is built for small-theater runs and touring, in black boxes of up to 300 seats.

The grid: pressure that comes down with the story

I · Overhead. The pressure hangs right over their heads; they fear it but never look at it.
Fig. 04I · Overhead. The pressure hangs right over their heads; they fear it but never look at it. · Hou Jiayu
II · Descending. Spirit money flutters down, the LED screen goes dark, and the grid drops to two meters as people begin to disappear.
Fig. 05II · Descending. Spirit money flutters down, the LED screen goes dark, and the grid drops to two meters as people begin to disappear. · Hou Jiayu
III · Landing. Every cart and frame lines up with a gap in the grid and passes through untouched as it comes to rest on the floor.
Fig. 06III · Landing. Every cart and frame lines up with a gap in the grid and passes through untouched as it comes to rest on the floor. · Hou Jiayu

Light: an outside world, eternal and out of reach

Inside the boxes, light is ordinary and domestic. Outside, it belongs to a world nobody on stage can reach.

ElementWhat it does
LED billboardLoops the same few glossy, high-end ads, over and over
SearchlightTurns slowly and steadily, sweeping across the whole theater
Light in the boxesThe most ordinary household light, set against the world outside
FinaleWhite light builds to its peak, then suddenly drops. The play ends.

My role

One producer, three jobs

As producer, my job is to turn the script into a production that can reach a stage. Before rehearsals, that work falls into three areas, outlined below with the skills and deliverables each one involved.

i

Proposal

The document a festival or venue reads before anyone has seen the show.

  • Wrote the 25-page production proposal, in Chinese and English
  • Summarized the play, its staging and its characters for a reader who has not read the script
  • Positioned it against comparable works, with three selling points and three audiences
  • Ranked five festivals by fit and priority
  • Studied Beijing venues and built the case for Gulouxi Theater from its audience survey
  • Laid out partnership models, a 2026–2027 timeline, the budget structure and the main risks
Skills
Positioning, audience and market research, venue analysis, budgeting, risk planning
Deliverables
Production proposal (EN/ZH), festival shortlist, venue study, timeline, budget structure, risk plan
Sources
The script, the scenic design, statements by the playwright and director, Gulouxi Theater’s audience survey
ii

Script development

Notes that make the play easier to cast, rehearse, schedule and budget.

  • Set four directions for revisions: cut it down, find the threads, bring time forward, leave it open
  • Pushed each story toward its leanest form
  • Looked for recurring images that run through every scene
  • Proposed setups and overlaps so the stories echo one another, in the spirit of Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train
  • Left room for devising in rehearsal rather than writing everything down
Skills
Script analysis, dramaturgical notes, structure
Deliverables
Development notes; full draft in Chinese and English, to be locked before rehearsals
Works with
Playwright Ma Xuan
iii

Campaign and identity

One system for every piece the audience will see.

  • Wrote the campaign tagline
  • Designed the logo system: primary, reversed, horizontal, icon, color and type
  • Designed five key posters (Mist, Night, Mist Metal, Night Metal, Hand-drawn) and a tagline poster
  • Made a 3D porcelain key visual
  • Designed nine merchandise items
  • Produced every piece in Chinese and English
Skills
Copywriting, identity design, poster design, 3D key visual, bilingual typography
Deliverables
Logo system, six posters, key visual, nine merchandise items
Languages
Chinese and English, for print and online

Inquiry

Producing a play before it is staged

Three questions a producer has to answer before a single ticket is sold: how to pitch the play, where it should open, and how to market it without betraying it.

01

Pitching a play with almost no plot

Programmers decide from a page or two. How do you pitch six unconnected stories and four wordless interludes?

Pitch the frame and the form, and give the reader facts they can check.

01Lead with the frame

Last night, everyone dreams alone; this morning, the snow brings them into one courtyard. Two sentences hold the whole play.

02Borrow a shelf

Comparable works tell a programmer where the play belongs: Carver for content, Li Jianjun’s 《飞向天空的人》 for form.

03Answer the practical questions first

Genre, structure, venue fit, status and what we are seeking open the proposal, before any argument.

04Show it can travel

Rolling boxes and actor-driven scene changes make the show light to tour, which matters as much to a programmer as the story.

02

Finding the right room

A quiet play can disappear in the wrong festival or the wrong house. Where should it open, and on what terms?

Rank every option against the play, not against prestige.

01Rank the festivals

Five festivals, compared on focus and fit. The Beijing International Youth Theatre Festival comes first: international, young, avant-garde, and interested in structures like this one.

02Read the audience data

Gulouxi Theater’s own survey shows an audience that pays its own way and comes for the work itself.

03Match the house

At 262 seats, combining a theater, café, bookshop and rehearsal room, Gulouxi produces as well as presents, and favors original small-theater work.

04Share the risk

Three partnership models, all drawn from Gulouxi’s practice: crowdfunded investment, a co-producing alliance of small theaters, and audience co-producers.

FestivalFocusFit with this playPriority
Beijing International Youth Theatre FestivalInternational, youth, avant-gardeOriginal structure, experimental, explores life’s dead endsFirst choice
Daliangshan International Theatre FestivalDiverse, innovative; “Return and Gaze”Looks at people and the world, and people and themselves, todayHigh
Beijing College Student Theatre FestivalDevelops campus workThe creative team’s academy backgroundBackup
Beijing International Women’s Theatre FestivalWomen’s perspectivesStill new, with a narrow focusNot now
Nanluoguxiang Theatre FestivalBroad focusHard to make the play’s strengths stand outNot now
80.95%
Buy their own tickets
73.81%
Would load a theater membership card
64.29%
Come for the show itself

Source: Gulouxi Theater audience survey.

03

Can a campaign stay quiet?

Marketing wants a hook. This play wants to stay quiet. Can a campaign tell the truth about a play like this and still fill a room?

Let the campaign speak in the play’s voice and look like its set.

01Write from inside the play

The tagline is not a slogan about the play; it is something one of its characters could say.

02One lit window

A framed title and a single pale green square: a box from the stage and a window in an apartment block at once.

03Drain the color

Silver fog, black night, and that one square of light. Everything else stays gray.

04Still asking

Whether a quiet campaign can sell a quiet play is a question only a first audience can answer.

Budget and risk

Making it real

The proposal gives partners the shape of the budget and a plan for each known risk. Figures are shared on request.

Line itemIncludes
Set constructionWooden-frame boxes, carts, iron grid and rigging
Lighting and videoSearchlight, LED billboard, lighting rentals
Costumes and propsEveryday clothing; washing machine, TV, sofa
RehearsalRehearsal space, workshops
FeesCreative team, cast, crew
VenueRental or box-office split
MarketingPosters, video, online promotion, press
Admin and contingencyInsurance, travel, contingency

Budget figures and the full schedule are available on request.

Risks and how we’ll handle them

RiskPlan
The script is still evolvingSet a firm lock date. In rehearsal, devising fills in detail without changing the core structure.
The moving grid and rotating framesConfirm rigging points and load limits with each venue’s technical team early. Keep a simpler version with a fixed grid for limited venues and touring.
Small theater is slow to break evenSpread the investment through co-production and multi-city touring. Build word of mouth at festivals first, then move to a commercial run.

Roadmap

From proposal to tour

The production is planned in six phases from 2026 to the end of 2027. The first is complete; the rest depend on partners, and dates can shift to fit their calendars. Each phase lists the producer’s work and the documents it produces.

2026

Phase 01

Proposal, script and campaign

Complete

The script by Ma Xuan and the scenic design by Hou Jiayu were in hand. I wrote the proposal, set the direction for script development with the playwright, and built the campaign so that a partner could see the play, read it and picture its audience before committing.

My part

  • Wrote the production proposal in Chinese and English
  • Set the script development direction
  • Designed the identity, posters and merchandise

Documents

  • Production proposal (EN/ZH)
  • Full script draft (EN/ZH)
  • Scenic sketches and renderings
  • Campaign kit: logo system, six posters, key visual, merchandise

Q4 2026 · Now

Phase 02

Lock the script, find partners

In progress

Reach out to festivals and venues, confirm dates and terms, and set the date on which the text is locked.

Producer’s plan

  • Send the proposal to the shortlisted festivals
  • Open conversations with Gulouxi Theater and co-producers
  • Agree on a script lock date with the playwright

Deliverables

  • Festival applications
  • Partnership terms
  • Locked script

Q1 2027

Phase 03

Casting and workshops

Planned

Physical training and field research, with devising adding slices of everyday life to the text.

Producer’s plan

  • Organize auditions and workshop space
  • Schedule field research with the company

Deliverables

  • Cast list
  • Workshop schedule
  • Devising notes

Q2 2027

Phase 04

Rehearsals and set build

Planned

A rehearsal period, with the set build and technical running in parallel. The grid’s rigging is confirmed with each venue.

Producer’s plan

  • Run the production schedule and budget
  • Confirm rigging points and load limits with venues
  • Prepare the fixed-grid touring version

Deliverables

  • Rehearsal schedule
  • Build drawings
  • Technical rider

Q3 2027

Phase 05

Festival premiere

Planned

Debut at a festival and gather audience and industry feedback.

Producer’s plan

  • Launch the campaign
  • Host programmers and press
  • Collect audience feedback

Deliverables

  • Campaign rollout
  • Press kit
  • Audience survey

Q4 2027 →

Phase 06

Run and tour

Planned

A commercial small-theater run, then a multi-city tour, depending on response.

Producer’s plan

  • Negotiate the run and tour dates
  • Build the co-producing alliance

Deliverables

  • Tour plan
  • Box office reports

Campaign

Posters and merchandise

Every piece is built on one system: a framed title, one lit square, and grayscale images. Each exists in Chinese and English.

Poster A · Mist
Fig. 07Poster A · Mist
Poster A · Night
Fig. 08Poster A · Night
Poster B · Mist Metal
Fig. 09Poster B · Mist Metal
Poster B · Night Metal
Fig. 10Poster B · Night Metal
Poster C · Hand-drawn
Fig. 11Poster C · Hand-drawn
Merchandise: tote bags, T-shirt, programme, tickets, postcards, badges, stickers, wallpaper, bookmarks
Fig. 12Merchandise: tote bags, T-shirt, programme, tickets, postcards, badges, stickers, wallpaper, bookmarks

Script and proposal

Read the play

The full script by Ma Xuan, and the full production proposal.

The script is for reading only. Not for performance, adaptation or commercial use without the playwright’s permission.

Credits

Playwright
Ma Xuan
Directors
Ma Xuan, Qiu Hongjun
Dramaturg
Yang Yaxi
Scenic design
Hou Jiayu
Producer
Li Jingwen
Associate producers
Jin Tongxi, Lin Yiyao, Lei Lingwen

We’re looking for festivals, venues and partners for this play. Get in touch.