Careful what you wish for: Robots and burnout
Louise Jiang is most known for her high energy solo, her prolific and growing screen presence, and her love of physical theatre. Seeing Double is her first pen-to-paper play, a story of the world’s youngest self-made billionaire who secretly clones herself to avoid burning out at work.
Louise Jiang
A graduate from Toi Whakaari on the Bill Guest Scholarship, Louise Jiang (Chinese) is an actor and maker across stage and screen. With a vested interest in devised theatre, her recent theatre work includes ‘Wrest’ with Red Leap Theatre as well as Scenes from a Yellow Peril by Nathan Joe and Ciggy Butts in The Sand (Tupua Tigafua). On screen, Louise features in Sweet Tooth (Netflix), Camp Be Better and Warren's Vortex (TVNZ).
Outside of performing, Louise is expanding her craft this year as an emerging writer and director. After debuting her devised solo show 'actor//android' at Tahi Festival and then Basement Theatre in 2023, 'Seeing Double' will be the first play Louise has written sitting down, with the support of Proudly Asian Theatre as a part of Fresh Off The Page.
Where do you draw inspiration for your project? / Were there particular experiences, ideas, or tensions that inspired this piece?
Maybe as a perfectionist trying to practise a more sustainable middle ground, I naturally thought, “What would be the extreme of success?” Not too long ago, the youngest self-made female billionaire Lucy Guo, made headlines. She surpassed Taylor Swift and was a young Chinese American woman working in AI. I was really inspired by her because it was a kind of representation I wasn’t expecting to see. The play is not about her, but her success made me dream about our demographic of women and what goes on in the private moments during our success.
Lucy Guo, the youngest, self-made female billionaire at 30 (as of April 2025)
’m really interested in alternate lives and what happens when we take things to the extreme, especially when we come up against our natural limits. If I were a Venn diagram, I’m a freelance artist and also a child of immigrants. In that overlap, I’ve noticed a lot of hustle among my peers and in my community. The same quest for excellence exists, but you’re navigating it in an industry that’s quite boundless and not always within your control.
I think the questions we have in this bracket are similar; How do you make a life? How do you reconcile ambition with living sustainably inside capitalism? All whilst taking into account the honour and filial piety of your culture?
I mashed those things together and set it in a world that’s new to me: the corporate world and the tech world. The startup scene especially high-stakes, businesses and leaders set to disrupt the industry. It felt like a great environment to set a play in.
What are you hoping to get out of your development reading?
I think the Fresh Off The Page development reading is a really exciting place to test my playwriting voice with an audience. Coming from an acting background, I’m often tuned into the voice and rhythm of the writer whose work I’m supporting. This time, being in the writer’s seat, I’m learning more about my own voice and how I like stories to unfold.
As an artist in Aotearoa, it’s also a really cool chance to connect with people and artists I may not have worked with before. It’s happening through writing rather than being seen on stage, and that’s refreshing, it offers up a new mode of connection.
I’ve been experiencing through the programme, the joys of being a student and learning how to build worlds through another lens of writing. I feel grateful to be adding to my kete of tools, and it grows my appreciation for more aspects of the creative process. Going wow, these are all the bits that make the whole before an actor even steps into the rehearsal room. I know I will come away with experience investigating from both sides of the story process and be able to contribute more in theatre making spaces.
Louise in Camp Be Better (TVNZ) as ‘Niah’
What’s one question you have about your own script or story at this point? Or a problem you’re trying to solve?
There are two areas of exploration and questioning for me.
One is getting the plot, climax, and ending to feel surprising and dramatic while still being satisfying.
The other is figuring out how to write scenes that actors can really play inside. I naturally think about that because I’ve been on the other side. I would like to produce dialogue that is layered and subtextual. Dialogue that feels muscular.
I’m learning what I like about through reading a lot of scripts and stories such as 'A Number', 'The Ugly One', 'Marjorie Prime'... But unfortunately, the poetic gift hasn't landed overnight. I’m figuring out how to find my way into the music of writing stylistically.
Poster for actor // android (2023) by Jode Wade Lee
What’s one thing you’d like to share about your writing process?
That focus can be a muscle. Before this programme, I never believed I could sit down and write for longer than 20 minutes without getting testy, fidgety or bored. But through just keeping at it, with practices like morning pages and the consistency of writing, I’ve learned how writing is all cumulative. To lean into the messiness and pull out the thread of what I'm trying to say.
Those consistent bits every day, or at least on the days you planned for, have helped me build trust and faith in myself. They’ve helped me return to my practice each time with more confidence.
So that's to say, anyone can do it! Kicking down the idea of what being a 'writer' looks like. That was holding me back.
What’s one question you have about your own script or story at this point? Or a problem you’re trying to solve?
What are the stages of burnout that we’re subconsciously aware of? What are the structures that contribute to the normalisation of burnout in our respective industries? And what does it take for each unique person to pursue ambition while living sustainably and leading a fulfilled life?
That’s very much aligned with how I’m observing and testing the way I construct my own life, both artistically and in terms of my overall wellbeing. While being realistic, I’m also having a bit of fun with the idea by putting myself in the shoes of someone in the corporate world, which I to see as a more extreme challenge of work life balance, compared to freelancing - where you get to design more or less your own schedule.
actor // android. Photo: Julie Zhu
Something I’ve learned from reading academic texts, plays, and literature is that we’re all gifted with different modes of articulating ourselves. Dancers have great intuition and expressiveness through their bodies and movement. Writers do it through their words.
I’m at the very beginning of learning how to articulate myself through writing. I'm lucky to have had a way in through emotion and through movement. Right now, writing is about sharing my perspective on the world, and using the tools I have to start a conversation with the audience.
SEE YOU AT THE READING!
Seeing Double by Louise Jiang
Sat 20 June, 7:30pm
TICKETS ARE LIVE!
Louise is supported by dramaturg Nathan Joe (Scenes from a Yellow Peril) and director Batanai Mashingaidze (Dakota of the White Flats), with an incredible cast including Celine Dam (Basmati Bitch), Chye-Ling Huang (Homebound 3.0), Lucy Dawber, Kirana Gaeta and Dennis Zhang.
