Unzipped by Rebs Chan
Unzipped, an original one-person show of alternating music and monologues, explores the perception of East Asians in the dominant United States’ culture and Rebs' own coming-of-age as a queer Chinese-American. After growing up in small-town Michigan, they head off to slightly-larger-town Michigan for college. Then, their grandmother's death in 2020 launches a search for belonging and identity,...
Unzipped, an original one-person show of alternating music and monologues, explores the perception of East Asians in the dominant United States’ culture and Rebs' own coming-of-age as a queer Chinese-American. After growing up in small-town Michigan, they head off to slightly-larger-town Michigan for college. Then, their grandmother's death in 2020 launches a search for belonging and identity, navigating tumultuous friendships and relationships as resurfacing white supremacist violence threatens them and their family.
The show is best described as a theatre-concert: theatrical storytelling intertwined with dynamic, staged musical performance. The music all exists in the realm of indie folk and indie rock, composed for a band with keyboard, guitar, bass, and drums.
The title of the show, and the show's main metaphor, are derived from the anti-Asian slur "z*pperhead." To be be seen as a “z*pperhead” or “zipped” is to be seen as an other, someone different and barbaric and an enemy to democracy. To be “unzipped” is to somehow shed that perception, being seen as an individual, not the stereotype. The major dramatic question is, “Is it possible to unzip? And how do you do it?”