Independent Shakespeare Co Announces Limited Run of LETTERS FROM HOME

Independent Shakespeare Co. (ISC), presenters of the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival announce performances of interdisciplinary artist Kalean Ung's original solo work, LETTERS FROM HOME, directed by Marina McClure. LETTERS FROM HOME will play for four performances only: Friday, November 10 & 17, Saturday, November 11 & 18 at 7:30pm at Independent Studio in the Atwater Crossing Arts + Innovation Complex, 3191 Casitas Ave., #130 in Atwater Village.

In 2016, Kalean Ung learned of a drawer in her father's study, filled with letters from family and friends living in desperate circumstances in refugee camps and detailing their lives during the genocide that befell Cambodia with the rise of the Khmer Rouge. LETTERS FROM HOME examines her own life through the stories her father (acclaimed composer Chinary Ung) told her of arriving in America in the 1960s as a young music student, and his subsequent quest to rescue family members.

Through song, storytelling, and the text of the letters, she navigates the boundary between her family's history and her own experience as a bi-racial, first generation American. First presented as a reading at ISC's iambic lab series, this extraordinary collaboration between father and daughter takes the next step in its development in the ISC Studio before embarking on tour.

Comments Artistic Director Melissa Chalsma, "When Kalean first told me about her desire to create a performance piece based on her father's life and her family's experiences, I was immediately captivated. Although she shared her thoughts with me early in her process-before she had even begun writing - something resonated deeply with me, and I thought that Independent Shakespeare Co. would do all we could to support this project. For all its epistolary simplicity, LETTERS FROM HOME is a complex and richly rewarding theater experience. In it, Kalean negotiates the boundaries between her family's frequently harrowing lived experiences and her own Southern Californian upbringing. She explores the impact of uncovering the past, and also the price of keeping it hidden. And through it all, she explores the power of art to help us make sense of what we come to know of the world, a kind of sense that is poetic and not rational: one that does not seek to answer questions, but rather create an environment where we can come to exist alongside the unendurable in a sort of trembling peace."

LETTERS FROM HOME is the first opportunity for audiences to preview ISC's new, expanded Studio at the Atwater Arts + Innovation Complex (ATX). For the last six years ISC's indoor home (just down the hall at ATX), has evolved through experimentation into a venue where we develop new works, explore performance techniques for classical plays, teach classes, and create the productions of the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival. This much larger Studio will continue to be a space that is active and unpredictable, serving as a multi-purpose and multi-disciplinary laboratory. Named the Studio (and not "theater") because it is where we work and discover. The Studio is a place of shared exploration for the artist and audience.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM AND CAST

Kalean Ung (Writer & Performer) is an award winning actress, singer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles.. She has worked with critically acclaimed theatre companies such as Critical Mass Performance Group, Independent Shakespeare Co., Four Larks Theatre and CalArts Center for New Performance. Her recent acting LA credits include: "Measure for Measure" (Isabella), "The Snow Geese" (Viktorya), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Titania), "The Tempest" (Ariel), "Richard III" (Margaret), "Othello" (Desdemona) with Independent Shakespeare Co., "Paul Sand Presents: Kurt Weill at the Cuddlefish Hotel" at the Actors' Gang, "Pericles" (Marina) with Independent Shakespeare Co., "The Temptation of St. Antony" (Queen Sheba) with Four Larks Theatre (Ovation Award Winner), "Purple Electric Play" (The Vital Organ) at Machine Project, "Twelfth Night" (Viola) with Independent Shakespeare Co., "Prometheus Bound" (Chorus) directed by Travis Preston with CalArts Center for New Performance/ Getty Villa, and the title role of "Alcestis" directed by Nancy Keystone with Critical Mass Performance Group/Theatre @ Boston Court. Other LA favorites include: "Camino Real" (Esmeralda) directed by Jessica Kubzansky at the Theatre @ Boston Court and "Jomama Jones: Radiate!" (Sweet Peach) at The Kirk Douglas Theatre. Opera roles include: "Both Eyes Open" (Catherine) with First Look Sonoma, "Light and Power" (Tesla) with wildUp at the Hammer Museum, "The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth" (Witch) directed by Yuval Sharon, as well as "Fairy Queen" (Hermia), "The Magic Flute" (Second Lady), "Winter's Child/ Moth" (Bird), and "Dice Thrown" a chance operations opera by John King at CalArts. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from California Institute of the Arts and her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

CHINARY UNG (Music) was the first American composer to win the highly coveted and international Grawemeyer Award (1989), sometimes called the Nobel prize for music composition. Among other honors, Ung has received awards from The Kennedy Center (Friedheim award), The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Asia Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts. Ung has been a featured composer/master composer at prominent festivals/conferences, including: Asia Society, The World Music Institute's Interpretations Series- Four Generations of Asian Composers; 2007 Asian Composers League in Seoul, Korea: The 30th ACL Forum in Seoul, Korea; 2008 AURORA Festival, Sidney, Australia; Panel/Concert at The Library of Congress; Thailand International Composition Festival at Burapha University, Thailand; and in 2009, Other Minds: OM 14 Festival, San Francisco. Commissions include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Meet the Composer, Koussevitzky Foundation, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and La Jolla Summerfest and Santa Fe Summer Music Festivals. Ung's music is published by C. F. Peters Corporation and is a member of Broadcast Music Incorporated.

MARINA McCLURE (Director) helms the multidisciplinary art lab The New Wild and is a resident director at The Flea Theater. Her work has been seen throughout the US, Canada and South Africa. Recent: Tear a Root from the Earth, a new musical for Afghanistan in collaboration with Qais Essar and Gramophonic (New Ohio's Ice Factory; Kennedy Center); CasablancaBox (2017 Drama Desk Nomination for Unique Theatrical Experience); Wing It! a giant puppet parade and large-scale community performance for the Tony-winning Handspring Puppet Company in celebration of South Africa's National Day of Reconciliation; an episodic adaptation of Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics as a part of The Flea's new initiative for young audiences, Cereals. Upcoming: Kalean Ung's Letters from Home (ISC in Los Angeles; UC San Diego), Steph del Rosso's Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill (The Flea), the premiere of Sara Farrington's Leisure, Labor, Lust (The Tank). Marina teaches directing at The National Theater Institute at the O'Neill and frequently directs at Dartmouth College and NYU-Tisch. MFA: CalArts.

Lighting Design is by Bosco Flanagan. Video Projection Design is by Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh. Costume Design is by Amanda Wing Yee Lee. Sound Design is by Chris Porter. Stage Manager is Jenny Jihee Park.

SCHEDULE AND PRICING

LETTERS FROM HOME will play for four performances only: Friday, November 10 & 17, Saturday, November 11 & 18 at Independent Studio, 3191 Casitas Ave., #130, (between Fletcher Drive and Glendale Blvd.) at the Atwater Crossing Arts + Innovation Complex, Los Angeles, CA 90039. Free, ample lot and street parking.

TICKETING PRICES

Generous Admission - $35. Support ISC's programs.

General Admission - $25. ISC's affordable ticket price.

For tickets, please call (818) 710-6306 or buy online at www.iscla.org

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