Overview
Alix lives in a tiny motel room with her mother and two brothers, scrabbling to make weekly rent. Mason lives comfortably in a grand, empty house while his father runs jobs for the Hong Kong Triad. Until the day his father disappears and Mason has to figure out how to come up with grocery money and dodge Child Services and the INS. Mason and Alex develop the most tentative of friendships, struggling to survive, and trying to outrun the mistakes of their parents. Will they make it out or fall through the cracks? A play about Motel Kids and Parachute Kids raising themselves and living at the poverty line in a land of plenty.
Casting & Production
Casting
MASON — 17, Chinese American in a black hoodie—a lonely, misunderstood musical prodigy.
JAMES — 45, strapping, cocky, leather jacket, perfectly coiffed hair, from Hong Kong.
FIONA — 42, a gorgeous and cultured blonde former Huntington Beach gal.
ALIX — 17, a scrappy survivor who’s bigger than the town she’s from.
OSCAR — 17, a dude of color, aqua blue dreadlocks, a modern day Basquiat, gregarious, a dreamer.
Setting
Place
Sandman Motel, Anaheim, CA
Anaheim Tropic Motel, Anaheim, CA
Mason’s house, Tustin, CA
An Abandoned Convenience Store, Santa Ana, CA
Time
Now
Reviews
“Ms. Ching writes roles that actors enjoy playing, probably because she works from a place of genuine curiosity about who we are and how we got to be that way.”
—The New York Times
“Nomad Motel is generous and heartfelt. And in its depiction of a particular kind of cultural and generational gap, Ching’s play does offer genuine insights into a kind of familial relationship that is rarely depicted onstage with such acuity.”
—Theatermania
“Nomad Motel delivers a thought-provoking work inspired by the struggles of Parachute Kids and Motel Kids that will challenge your assumptions of younger generations and will spark your inner-social champion.”
—Broadway World