Events Calendar

FACE: A Performance by Haerry Kim

Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP at the links below beginning Thursday, January 17, at 9 a.m.

USC Students, Staff and Faculty: To RSVP, click here: http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/897845
General Public: To RSVP, click here: http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/897845

Reception to follow.

“The writing and performance is flawless and elegant . . . she captures the transition between ages, time periods and characters with effortless precision”—The British Theatre Guide

“Can change your view of the world . . . superb performance . . . A must-see show at the FRINGE”—ThreeWeeks (Edinburgh)

“Viscerally intense theatre experience, featuring an exceptional performance”—The Epoch Times (New York)

Written and Performed by Haerry Kim
Directed by Natsuko Ohama

Based on testimonies of Korean comfort women, FACE is a powerful one-woman show about a rural girl who survived two wars. Written and performed by Haerry Kim, artistic director of ETS Theater Company in Seoul, Korea, FACE superbly and elegantly reveals suppressed histories and creates a space for reclaiming memories.

It is estimated that some 200,000 women were abducted by the Japanese military; historians and researchers have stated that the majority of these women were from Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines but also account for a number of women from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and other Japanese-occupied territories. Young women were reportedly abducted from their homes and, in some cases, recruited with offers of work in military factories and hospitals. It is estimated that only 25 percent of “comfort women” survived, most of them unable to have children as a consequence of multiple rapes (25 to 35 times per day) and/or due to the diseases they contracted. To this day, the matter is still highly political in Japan and the rest of East Asia. There have been more than 1,000 demonstrations in twenty years as Korean comfort women continue their fight to receive an official apology. The Japanese government continues to deny claims, despite having been found guilty by the UN Human Rights Commission and being urged by parliaments across the world to formally acknowledge, apologize for and accept historical and legal responsibility for their actions. There are only 61 Korean survivors today, and their number is declining rapidly due to their age.

Haerry Kim is a founding member and the artistic director of ETS Theater Company (established in 2009) and a full-time lecturer at Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea. She received an MFA in acting from Columbia University. With ETS (Eye to Soul), she has created three full-length original plays: FACE, Serve God: Sounds of Nightingales and Bathtub Play. Her one-woman play FACE has been presented at the 2011 World Festival of National Theaters at the National Theater of Korea (Seoul), HERE Arts Center (New York), the sixth soloNOVA Festival (New York), the Berkshire Fringe Festival (Massachusetts) and the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Scotland) to critical acclaim.

Related Events:

Creating Art: History and Society as Inspiration
Wednesday, February 6, 7 p.m.
Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library 240
For more info, click here.

Finding Voice: From Story to Performance
Saturday, February 9, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Parkside Performance Café, International Parkside Residential College
For more info, click here.

Organized by Natsuko Ohama (Dramatic Arts). Co-sponsored by Kookmin University (Seoul, South Korea).

For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.edu

Location: 24th Street Theatre: 1117 24th Street, Los Angeles

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Daria Yudacufski