The purpose of this project stands: An idea that sparks a passion, idea, or question in the audience that ties directly into our current political discussion, while remaining integral to the academic world, serving as one of the most concentrated locations of permission to think openly and ask difficult questions. A Plot Discovered in particular achieves this by asking what it means to have power and to not, to be a man in another man’s world, to be a woman in any man’s world, to be neither really man or woman but somewhere in between, the consequences of dictatorship and revolution, why the human condition loves to get high, as well as the devotion and blindness of love on three different levels: friendship, romance, and family. These themes serve the script as it was written in all three of the applied timelines (it’s original 1600s, the adapted 1970s, and our current) leading to the biggest question of them all, do we as humans really evolve or is it a mere illusion painted by our ability to enhance the environment around us?
The desire to adapt A Plot Discovered came during a conversation with my peers during a semester spent studying classical drama at Oxford University. As we debated the themes of the play, a guitarist played post Vietnam War era music in the street below echoing up the cobblestone street and entering our dining hall window. The result was an artistic revelation that would drive my passion into this project for the next two years. Rewriting, designing, casting, directing, and reflecting upon A Plot Discovered has proved not only the most difficult but also the most rewarding event within my undergraduate studies.
View A Plot Discovered miniature documentary here: https://vimeo.com/325355612
In this study, I analyze the construction of childhood and nature in a number of Korean Theatre For Young Audience (TFY) works and family movies produced since 2000. Studying The Tale of Haruk, Gamoonjang Baby, Oseam and The Way Home, I explore the childhood memes that surface in the analysis and how they relate to dominant cultural understandings of Korean childhood. Both nature and childhood are metaphorical spaces reflecting the specificity of the cultural context in which they are situated. And in the works I explore, the two are paired in interesting and complex ways and for ideological reasons, the study of which produces a deeper understanding of the construction of Korean childhood. The “child" in Korean TFY has not been thoroughly explored in earlier scholarly work, nor do many preceding studies explore the performance texts of Korean TFY from an analytic stance. This is a serious gap in the literature, considering the significance of the discourse on childhood as a major conceptual framework bolstering TFY and the centrality of the performative aspect of the field. Thus, this study is meaningful as one of the first doctoral works to analyze the performance texts of Korean TFY and the first work to explore Korean TFY from a childhood studies framework. The findings of this interdisciplinary work will be of interest to the field of childhood studies and TFY, broadly defined. In studying the works, my main methodology has been detailed performance analysis. Through the analysis, interesting tropes of Korean childhood emerge, some of which have not been addressed explicitly before. My work reveals Korean childhood as a hybrid cultural assemblage reflecting the complexity of the Korean cultural context, where historical, current, native and foreign ideas about childhood mingle.
The aim of this project was to create an original sound design and score for the ASU SOMDT production of HEDDATRON, by Elizabeth Meriwether. Composition and sound design was done primarily with a modular synthesizer. All audio editing was done in Reaper, and the cues were programmed in Qlab.
Whispers from Above is a creative project that aims to normalize the conversation and validate the emotional experience of grief, through the use of art therapies. Art therapy can be expressive in which someone creates their own work, such as visual art, poetry, performance, music, movement, etc. Art therapy can also be receptive in which someone analyzes and understands someone else's artwork. This project was released on SoundCloud in order to make grief resources more accessible to all and to build an online community.<br/><br/>Whispers from Above worked with twelve poets, fifteen artists, six different interviewees, and multiple musicians to create a month of grief support. The finale piece of Whispers from Above was devised from the twenty-nine poems used within this month-long healing journey. All the individual poems were woven into a single devised poem to be presented as the final piece symbolizing that no one is alone in grief.<br/><br/>Whispers from Above is creative community exploration of grief, loss, and death in which we hope contributors, and listeners find solace and support. This series will exist on SoundCloud after March 27th, 2021 with a monthly release of a poem or interview accompanied by art, and music.
Through this creative project, I analyzed how COVID-19 has affected the theatre industry. I created a mini-documentary following ASU’s production of Runaways, which was performed without an audience. The final product was a combination of pre-filmed and self-taped scenes. I documented how students were still able to learn and cultivate their skills during a time where most things are virtual. In addition, I analyzed how the shift to filmed theatre has changed the definition of live theatre, including increased accessibility. I also explored the importance of theatre through analyzing the themes of musical theatre performances such as Rent and Runaways. During a time where people cannot gather, artists are still finding a way to create and tell stories.