Contact: Patti Klein Lerner,
(818) 677-2130

CSUN Faculty Member's Play Is Staged at Kennedy Center

Doug Kaback's adaptation of "Shim Ch'ong Chon: A Korean Folktale," was performed June 1 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. as part of the New Visions 2000: One Theater World national festival and symposium. The play was commissioned by CSUN and originally produced on campus as part of the 1999-2000 production season.

"It has been an incredible opportunity for me to develop this play with my colleagues as well as students in the theatre department and then to see the work evolve to become part of an important international festival," said Kaback, a part-time professor of theatre at CSUN and executive director of CSUN's Teenage Drama Workshop.

"There were more than 70 professional American theaters represented there and several have already inquired about producing the play around the country," added Kaback, who traveled to Washington for the staged reading.

"We in the College of Arts, Media, and Communication are very pleased that Doug Kaback's work has received this national recognition. It gives national exposure to the work we do here," said William Toutant, interim dean of the College of Arts, Media, and Communication at CSUN. "This is an example of CSUN's commitment to multiculturalism and diversity in all our programs. We're very proud of the work our faculty does."

Ah-Jeong Kim, an assistant professor of theatre at CSUN, and Anamarie Garcia, an associate professor of theatre at CSUN, brought the folktale on which the play is based to Kaback's attention. Kim served as dramaturge and Garcia directed the play when it was performed on campus. CSUN alumna Hi-Za Yoo composed the music and accompanied the performance playing a kayakeum, a native Korean stringed instrument.

Permission to adapt the work was granted by the Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University Press, which holds the rights to scholar Marshall R. Pihl's English language translation of the approximately 1,000 year-old Korean folk tale, "Shim Ch'ong." Originally performed in homes, courtyards and plazas by a singer accompanied by a musician, the story concerns a young girl's sacrifices for her blind father and contains mythic journeys to the underworld and other magical places, said Kaback. It is still read by Korean schoolchildren and loved by many Koreans. With its themes of the power of the family to transcend hardship and fulfill hopes for a better life, the story has universal significance, Kaback said.

"CSUN's Department of Theatre commissioned the play to be written because we want plays that help provide students with a global outlook on not only theater but the world they're going to be living in," said Jerry Abbitt, chairman of CSUN's Theatre Department. "We look for every opportunity to expose the students to different cultures and try to support new playwriting activities that support these values we hold dear within the theater department."

Cornerstone Theater Co., an award-winning company that works to build inclusive, community based theater throughout the United States, submitted the play to the Kennedy Center. All the actors were cast in Washington, D.C.

For more information, call Kaback at (818) 677-5811 or Bill Taylor, CSUN's theater manager at (818) 677-3091.