Kim Sung-ryung joins international cast performing in both Korean and English
Eight actors will take turns playing a single role in the experimental production "Rosetta," set to open in Seoul next month.
The National Theater Company of Korea said "Rosetta," co-produced with the National Asian Culture Center in Gwangju, will run Aug. 23 to 31 at the Myeongdong Theater.
The play follows the life of Rosetta Sherwood Hall, a US doctor and missionary who devoted herself to advancing modern medicine and education for women in Korea.
The story follows Rosetta from the time she arrives in Korea in 1890. There, she fights discrimination and prejudice while founding the nation’s first school for the visually impaired, the Pyongyang School for the Deaf and Blind in 1909, and the Chosun Women’s Medical Training Institute in 1928.
Premiered in Gwangju in 2023, "Rosetta" was jointly produced by the National Asian Culture Center in collaboration with The Living Theater, the oldest experimental drama troupe in the US, and the Korean company Playfactory Mabangzen.
Eight Korean and American actors will alternate in the lead role of Rosetta. Kim Sung-ryung joins this year's cast alongside Living Theatre members Brad Burgess and Emma Sue Harris.
Performed in both Korean and English, the production uses language to underscore the communication barriers between Rosetta and the Korean people.
The premiere was written and directed by playwright and director Yossef K. Junghan, who previously worked with The Living Theatre.
Following its Seoul run, "Rosetta" will be staged at the Busan Cinema Center, Sept. 5-6, and at the Tottori Prefecture Citizens' Culture Hall in Japan, Sept. 27-28.
hwangdh@heraldcorp.com
