Give Voice to a Flaming Radical
and Be an Integral Part of our Production
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Soomi Kim as Kathy Change, InterAct Theater, 2014 part of CAATA. Costume by Machine Dazzle Photo by Kendall Whitehouse
Dearest Friends,
FOR THE PAST 3.5 YEARS SUZI AND SOOMI HAVE WORKED HEARTILY AND HARD TO BRING OUR MOST AMBITIOUS PROJECT TO THE STAGE. AND NOW YOU CAN BE A PART OF THE FINAL JOURNEY BY HELPING US BRING CHANG(E) TO LIFE!
(Read on to see how you can a part of the *magic*)
What is Chang(e)?
Chang(e) is a (dance theatre) play about Kathy Change, devised in collaboration by actor and HERE Artist in Residence
Soomi Kim and director Suzi Takahashi.
Project description: Fighting for global social transformation, performance artist and activist Kathy Change (formerly Kathleen Chang) was on a mission to save the world from disaster. As a final act of protest, she self-immolated on the campus of UPenn in October 1996. Chang(e) is a live-staged biographical docudrama that slipsbetween reality and fantasy, plunging viewers inside the mind of Kathy Change. This project was born from our belief that her timely message and story deserves attention.
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Kathy Change (Kathleen Chang) circa 1990 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Who are we?
Soomi and Suzi build and create the
work in a non-traditional way… from scratch! We start from an idea and the
“script” is actively created through the process of doing. Chang(e) will
complete a trilogy of work that honors Asian American visionaries
whose lives have been cut short. Our subject matters exist in spaces between
life and death. In supporting our work, you also support the work of
female driven Asian American theatre, that reflects diversity—not only on the
stage, but in form and content.
We have an outstanding team of established and up and coming artists:
Set- Bryce Culter, video- Kevan
Loney, guitarist/composer- Adam
Rogers, lighting Lucrecia Briceno, costume- Machine Dazzle, sound- Iggy Hung
and choreographer Alexandra Beller, Assistant Director Leta
Tremblay, Stage manager Alex West as well as 6 performers: Kiyoko
Kashiwagi, Ben Skalski, Adi Spencer, Zeke Stewart, David Perez-Ribada and
Criena House.
Rosin Fund Workshop rehearsal at HERE with cast
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Suzi, Lucrecia and Bryce on the HERE MainStage during the Rosin Fund residency
Where will the funding go?
After 3 years of hard work, development and grant writing we have reached the final
phase and still need to raise a remaining $13,000 to balance our budget.
YOUR FUNDS WILL HELP US GO FROM THIS LOOK:
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TO THIS ONE:
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Set design by Bryce Cutler, video design by Kevan Loney
Your generous support will go to the materials that will transform the stage: set construction, video projection materials (100 yards of string fabric to project onto) technical director & designer fees, props and costumes.
One of the major epiphanies we had in order to make this story feel very true to the audience, is to create a world where you the viewer, can be immersed in Kathy's journey. The set, video, sound, costume and music worlds all collide to make this journey a reality. The concept is that the stage is a space that can encompass the interior landscape of Kathy's psyche as well as the exterior of her literal world. The story's driving force is the journey of Kathy's last year leading up to her final "act." Your support will help us to realize our most (technically) cutting edge and riskiest project to date! If we don't meet our goal, then the conceptual space will be compromised.
Your gifts will go to HERE Arts Center and you will receive a tax deductible letter.
Soomi and Suzi's work has been presented at:
- 1st National Asian American Theater Festival, NYC. 2007, Samuel Beckett
- HERE Arts Center (Lee/gendary, 2007, Chang(e) Culturemart 2013 & 2014)
- Asian Arts Initiative artist residency (2012 & 2013)
- 3rd Consortium of Asian American Theater Artists: Conference and Festival (CAATA- Los Angles at the Inner City Arts)
- Culture Project's Women Center Stage Festival 2012 &2013 (The Living Theater and Culture Project MainStage)
- 4th CAATA ConFest in Philadelphia, PA. 2014 at the InterAct Theater
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Lee/gendary written by Derek Nguyen, conceived by Soomi Kim and directed by Suzi Takahashi. FNAATF 2007, Samuel Beckett Theater with Shing Ka (as "Yang") and Soomi Kim as Bruce Lee. photo by Steven Schreiber
Dictee: bells fall a peal to sky- Women Center Stage Festival, 2012. With Kiyoko Kashiwagi and Diana Oh photo by Hunter Canning
Chang(e) - CULTUREMART workshop presentation, February 2014 at HERE. Photo by Kendall Whitehouse
Other Ways You Can Help
- Please share and spread the word of our show and fund raising campaign to any and all theatre loving, socially & politically minded folks who care about supporting diversity and process driven works in the theatre!
- Remember you can use the Indiegogo share tools!
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Kathy was like a modern day "Cassandra" Photo by Kendall Whitehouse, taken on the campus of UPenn
Kathy's friends post performance in Philadelphia, October 2014 at the InterAct
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*Chang(e) fund raising video videographer and editor: Natasha Davis
Kathy was like a modern day "Cassandra" Photo by Kendall Whitehouse, taken on the campus of UPenn
