About this Event
Lead actress: Emily Kuroda.
Playwright: Dorinne Kondo.
Director: Donna Bonilla Wheeler.
The reading is sponsored by the Creativity, Theory, Politics Research Cluster in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC, with support from BAD ASIANS, an interdisciplinary network and working group of scholars and artists at the University of California, Berkeley.
SURVIVING THE S***SHOW
“Surviving the S***show” stages incidents from 2020 and beyond, including COVID, anti-Black violence and #BlackLivesMatter, anti-Asian violence, gun violence, ICE raids and deportation—as they punctuate the life of KEI, a Japanese American woman over 65, a professor who lives with disability. Two KUROGO, the black-clad stagehands from Kabuki theater, become multiple characters, from academic colleagues and activists to the Duke and Daphne from “Bridgerton”. The play draws stylistic inspiration from Beckett’s “Happy Days,” Lars Von Trier’s “Dogville,” and Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death,” with nods to Kabuki, Butoh dance and 1980s high disco, in a promiscuous mashup of genres. The insistent refrain throughout: How do we survive the unrelenting structural violence of our historical moment? How can we reimagine and transform our worlds?
Dr. Dorinne Kondo is a scholar, playwright, and has over 30 years of work experience in dramaturgy, including for the world premiere of Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles”. Her work spotlights the structural inequalities of race, gender, disability and other fields of power in the world of contemporary theatre and beyond.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Kaprielian Hall (KAP), 445, 3620 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, United States
USD 0.00
