Prelude: Historical images of the Western frontier are projected on a screen across the stage while the orchestra works its magic to paint a soundscape of cultural encounters and conflicts foreshadowing the eventful opera.
Act One: February 1885, Chinese New Year celebration. It is the Year of the Rooster, which is generally believed to bring unrest and discord.
Scene 1: The May’s residence at the waterfront. Mr. and Mrs. May are dressed up in elaborate New Year’s outfits, receiving kowtow greetings from their equally well groomed young children under the supervision of their nanny; the children receive gifts of “red bags” and New Year’s blessings from their parents. Mrs. May’s red robe attracts the attention of the children and she tells them the history of the family heirloom.
Scene 2: Mr. and Mrs. Lee visit their old friends and business partners, the Mays. They exchange New Year’s greetings over tea and sweets; the gentlemen discuss current events, especially concerning the surge of settlers in Tacoma. They are troubled by labor unrest and job shortages, and the anti-Chinese labor incidents in Washington Territory and other parts of the Western frontier. They decide to contact representatives of “The Six Companies” which manage Chinese labor in the US and local authorities to secure their property and business. The ladies discuss their children’s schooling and muse over the future generation’s prospects in America.
Scene 3: At the waterfront: The New Year’s party hosted by the Chinese community to welcome the newly arrived settlers to Tacoma and ease tensions. The mayor of the newly expanded Tacoma, Weisbach, makes a speech, accepting toasts from his Chinese hosts half-heartedly, referring to the Chinese as “celestials,” slaves to the Chinese emperor in comparison with free willed white voters recently arrived in Tacoma. Judge Wickersham, Weisbach’s legal consultant, makes veiled comments against Chinese labor practices, and Father Hylebos, sympathetic to the Chinese, prays for peace for the coming year. Among the onlookers is Kevin, a charismatic International Workingman’s Association organizer, just arrived in town, milling among the crowd and muttering derogatory comments about the Chinese, drawing laughter from the crowd. The chorus’s singing swells out in discord to an unsettling chaos.
Intermission
Act Two: The Chinese Must Go
Scene 1: Later in 1885, in Mayor Weisbach’s store a secret meeting is held between the mayor and several workmen of IWA, including Kevin, to plan actions against the Chinese. Weisbach gets ready for another fight for his liberal ideals. Across the street, a mass meeting commences in the Alpha Opera House to resolve the “Chinese problem.” An ordinance requiring 500 cubic feet of air per person in a bedroom is presented by Judge Wickersham as a way to legally deter Chinese laborers in town and a raid on Chinatown is planned. The town’s people and the “better elements,” business owners, debate over the right of the Chinese to stay in Tacoma. Mayor Weisbach champions the rights of the working class. His speech draws cheers from the crowd, led by Kevin. An action committee is selected to resolve the Chinese problem. The meeting ends in a torch-lit parade along Pacific Ave. The defeated business owners, among them Mr. and Mrs. Meeker weigh their options.
Scene 2: Fall 1885, a flurry of activities among all parties involved: Mr. May speaks with Mayor Weisbach; the mayor leads the “health inspection” of Little Canton; Mr. Lee telegraphs to the territorial governor asking for protection. Sensing hardship ahead, Lee laments the changing times. Wire communications shuttle among the Governor, the Secretary of the State, the Six Companies’ representative, and the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. The citizens take up arms and are deputized. Father Hylebos speaks to his congregation; Judge Wickersham speaks with nervous business owners; Kevin and his fellow workmen go door to door to press business and home owners to fire their Chinese laborers. They confront Mrs. Meeker who defends her Chinese workers. Mrs. Lee and Mrs. May agonize over whether to stay or to go.
Scene 3: On Nov 3, 1885, after a shrill whistle, a pistol and hatchet waving mob headed by Kevin gathers at the intersection of 7th and Pacific Avenues, and marches towards Chinatown intending to drive the Chinese residents to the train station. Mayor Weisbach, and Sheriff Byrd are among the spectators. Father Hylebos makes one last plea to avoid bloodshed. Judge Wickersham, watching the march from the sidelines, muses on the resourcefullness of the Chinese.
Scene 4: At the waterfront of Old Tacoma, Mrs. May is dragged out of her house in public while her husband pleads with the mob. He spots the mayor in the crowd and pleads his case only to receive insults. Mr. May bursts into tears. Mrs. May suddenly seizes a hatchet from one of the rioters and charges into the crowd, howling like an animal. She is restrained and carried inside the house by her husband and a few sympathetic neighbors, while the looting and the mob scene continues. She returns moments later in her family heirloom red robe, which freezes the crowd in shock. As she boards the train in despair she bids farewell to her home and to her American dream. She vows to remember the humiliation and warns future generation of the evil. Chinatown is in flames. Native Americans in full tribal attire look on from the flanks of the stage. The sound of the moving train becomes deafening as the train passes by at high speeds, leaving the mob behind on the platform.
Tacoma Method: a new full-length opera 