"Comfort Women: A New Musical" is raising funds to support it's budget. With your donation, we will be able to pay some of our cast of over 50 actors. With the funds raised, we will buy more advertising space to help promote and market "Comfort Women: A New Musical." Set in 1941, Comfort Women takes us to Seoul, Korea, where we meet Goeun, a young woman whose brother is attempting to revolt against the Imperial Japanese Army. Goeun meets a man who promises her a good paying job at a factory in Tokyo. Feeling like she has no other options to support her family, she chooses to leave her home and take the job. Unfortunately Goeun soon realizes that this is not the dream opportunity that she has been promised. She is held hostage, transported to Indonesia, and is forced to become a Japanese Imperial Army sexual slave. We follow Goeun through this life-altering experience as she befriends fellow slaves (Comfort Women) and they plan their impossible escape.
Comfort Women is based on the real-life accounts of a few of the approximately 200,000 women who were trafficked into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army from 1930- 1945. Women and girls as young as 14 were coerced or kidnapped from their homes and forced to service 50 to 100 soldiers a day. As a result of this treatment, combined with unsafe practices, only 25- 30% of these women survived the war, and those who did live were forever changed. Comfort Women gives voice to a story that has been silenced far too long.
During World War II, approximately 200,000 women – and young teenagers – from across Asia were forced into sexual slavery at “comfort stations” for the Imperial Japanese Army. Inspired by testimonies from the women survivors, "COMFORT WOMEN: A New Musical" features a cast of fifty-three Asian & Asian-American actors to tell these stories which are excluded from history books. The breakdown of the money raised is simple:
1) $11,000 (34%) to buy Advertisements across NYC, including PR Newswire.
2) $5,500 (17%) to purchase additional Sound and Lighting equipment.
3) $16,000 (49%) to pay some of our cast.
Each audience member will receive a copy of "CAN YOU HEAR US: The Untold Narratives of Comfort Women." A portion of proceeds will go to "House of Sharing," the home for surviving Comfort Women living in South Korea. Currently, we are in rehearsals, in Manhattan, NY. We're planning for an Off-Broadway Debut at the Theatre of St Clements on July 31st. Every purchased ticket will receive the book, "Can You Hear Us? A collection of interviews with Comfort Women survivors". But we need your help to get us to that next level.
We launched this campaign to raise money for the Marketing and Promoting of our musical. We want to reach as many people as possible, We feel that this is an important subject that needs to brought into the light. We need your help to get this show out there, for people to see. We have carefully chosen social media marketing campaigns that are focused on interested local audiences. We have designed a timely series of newspaper and magazine ads that will give us the exposure we need. But all of this comes with a price tag. That is why we are asking for your help today.
