International Human Rights Art Festival to Present New Play SELL ME: I AM FROM NORTH KOREA

International Human Rights Art Festival presents the premiere of Sora Baek's
profound portrait of North Korean defectors - SELL ME: I Am From North Korea - directed by Amanda Kate Joshi.
SELL ME: I Am From North Korea is inspired by the true stories of North Korean defectors who risk everything to escape one of Earth's most repressive regimes. Ms. Baek's solo performance weaves
together relatable young naïveté, the harsh realities of life inside a brutal regime, and the unforgiving struggle of life as an undocumented refugee in order to bring voice to a silenced people.

After reading and researching the harrowing stories of her Northern neighbors, Korean-born playwright
and performer Sora Baek was inspired to give voice to this crisis. She wishes to not only share the hardships of North Korea, but the continuing obstacles, stigmas, and prejudices defectors face once they escape. Bringing this story to an American audience will add humanity and nuance to the North Korea question that passes in and out of our current news cycle. North Koreans and their stories deserve to be
examined as the world grapples with its response to refugees, humanitarian crises, and the human cost of the rise and perpetuity of dictatorial regimes.
Ms. Baek began working on this story shortly after the birth of her second son. It is her wish that her children grow up in a world that is more welcoming, free, and just than the one she sees around her now. This piece is her contribution to bring about this change in both Koreas, America, and the broader world.

Sora Baek has an MFA in acting from Academy of Art University in SF. She has been an actress with Only Make Believe for eight years and is an associate member of Blessed Unrest. Her acting credits include: The Storm, A Christmas Carol, and Sworn Virgin (NY and International Tour) all with Blessed Unrest. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Calaveras Repertory Theatre), Odd Couple (Machoola Productions), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Curious Frog). She has worked with Emmy Award-winning directors Joseph Sargent and Robert Butler. Sora received a Best Actress Award at the Epidemic Film Festival in San Francisco, CA and also at the National College Theater Festival in Korea. www.sorabaek.com

Amanda Kate Joshi is a NYC-based director and producer, and has spent the last 15 years working on new and developing plays and musicals. Directing selections include: Inch by Inch by Rachel Graf Evans (Theatre for a New City at Producers' Club); Craig McNulty's Welcome Home Steve (Players Club); Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest (14th Street Y); Michelle Markowitz's Hookups & Hang-ups (Abingdon Theatre); Jay Hanagan's Softly Sara Falls (Lookinglass Theatre). She has worked with theatre companies including Goodspeed Musicals, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Abingdon Theatre Company, New Dramatists, and New Georges (whose production of A Beautiful Day in November...Great Lakes won an OBIE in 2015). She has been an associate director many times for both Tony Walton and Don Stephenson. Additionally, she has been a reader for the Lark's Literary Wing, the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting and has been an SDC Observership Evaluator. www.amandakatejoshi.net

WHAT

SELL ME: I Am From North Korea

WHO

By Sora Baek
Produced by Jaimie Van Dyke and Sora Baek
Directed by Amanda Kate Joshi

FEATURING

Sora Baek: JISUN PARK

WHEN

December 15 th, 2019, 3pm

WHERE

Wild Project 195 E. 3rd Street East Village, NYC

TICKETS

$20

BOX OFFICE CONTACT

(212) 228-1195

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