Drafts, posters and images of events return to the project archive: from booking arrangements for Real Image and recruitment and publicity for Cocoon to the script and working agreement for Kill That Rose.
P4 Theater website essay · 2026-10-03
What has been recovered?
This backup of WeChat files adds drafts and images from the making process to projects previously represented mainly by links to public articles. The provenance and byte-level identity of 854 files have been retained for checking. Of these, 126 have direct evidence linking them to P4; 481 are connected through text, spaces or sequences of images; and 247 remain candidates. The number of files is not the number of works or of separate events.1
Research Site B now provides 567 source records from this batch. Eighteen documents can be read in full, and 433 images can be browsed directly and opened at larger sizes. The remaining public records describe the preserved material and its current access conditions. Application documents, CVs, private contact details and unverified external references remain internal and are not mixed into P4's work catalogue.
- Browse the published source catalogue and documents: 567 source records from this batch have been added to the research website.
- Browse the 433 uploaded images: previews, enlarged views, source identifiers and the evidence for connections.
- Find material by project, type and full text (Site A publication pending): images, documents, evidence for connections and versions.
Real Image: the arrangement of an encounter is also material
The booking arrangements for Real Image bring together the experience, photographs, certificates, duration, rescheduling and preparation of one's appearance. Reading them today reveals how a creative project arranged an encounter as a concrete process, beyond a remembered description of the work. Price lists show distinctions between offerings proposed at that time. They do not establish actual transactions and do not describe services necessarily available today.2
The photography essays, booking process and price lists in this batch are preserved separately. They cannot be compressed into one versionless project description. How the rules changed, and whether they corresponded to actual experiences, remain questions for further research.
- Real Image: how an encounter is arranged as an offering: sources, hypotheses and counterexamples still to be sought.
Cocoon: how publicity narrates collective production
The recruitment and publicity drafts for Cocoon describe open conditions of entry alongside intensive rehearsal, commitments of time, repeated questioning and physical demands. “Sixteen days and nights” preserves a collective narrative from that time. We can study how it organised expectations, but cannot substitute it for every participant's feelings.3
Dated drafts, posters and images help re-establish paths for finding material. The publicity's date of 31 October, the export labels on photographs and the dates when photographs were actually taken still need to be treated separately. Photographs associated through cross-referencing do not become verified records of a particular performance merely by appearing on a webpage.
- The Cocoon material group (Site A publication pending): publicity drafts, posters and associated images.
- Cocoon: how an invitation enters rehearsal: reading the promise of openness alongside material from the process.
Kill That Rose: preserve the script and the agreements for working together
The script of Kill That Rose incorporates group photographs, image editing and online circulation into its scenes. The project's working agreement discusses public promotion, other people's chat records, independent creation and the observer's position. These two kinds of text coexist within one project and provide concrete starting points for research. What happens to fictional characters remains part of a script and must not be rewritten as participants' experiences.45
Different files containing scripts and outlines under the same title retain separate checksums. This batch does not arbitrarily designate one as the final draft. Relationships among textual differences, the division of musical responsibilities and the version actually performed should continue to be determined through the material.
- The Rose material group (Site A publication pending): scripts, outlines, agreements and images.
- The Rose: how scripts and publication rights are negotiated together: distinguishing textual provisions, actual negotiation and research interpretation.
How to use this material
At present, Research Site B allows users to search source descriptions, browse 433 images and read 18 documents and three new question dossiers. Site A's page for searching by work, source identifier, material type and document full text has been completed but awaits publication. Each item retains a stable address, evidence for its associations, its access status and the original file's checksum.1
Material concerning Hallucination, Howlers on the Rooftop and A Centrist's Self-Help Guide After Denouncing the Failure of Love, as well as spaces, discussions and workshops, has entered the same index. Authorship, dates and project affiliations that cannot be settled from current evidence remain open questions. Files added later may revise these associations.
- All backup material (Site A publication pending): the public index on Site A.
- Document search on Research Site B: source descriptions and links back from research.
Sources and original texts
- Early P4 in a WeChat Backup: Public Material Index — P4 Theater Archive, catalogued 2026-10-03
2. Real Image, Act One: Booking Arrangements and Service Introduction — P4 Theater historical document, original date unverified
3. The Anticipation of Sixteen Days and Nights at P4 Theater — Original document credits retained; publicity evidence for a 2020 performance
4. Kill That Rose: Script — P4 Theater project document, original date unverified
5. Kill That Rose: Project Group Working Agreement — P4 Theater project document, original date unverified
Written from the historical files preserved in this batch. Editorial summaries, historical source texts and judgments about project associations are distinguished. Prices, open calls and event dates here are historical information. Publication status as of 3 October 2026: Research Site B has opened its source catalogue, 433 images, 18 documents and three question dossiers; Site A’s separate material pages await publication. The Site A links labelled “publication pending” are not yet available in that recorded publication state.
Chinese webpage: https://p4theater.cn/knowledge/wechat-backup-early-p4/