Turning The Glass Around

About This Project

Emma Katz, Producer

About: Pia Wilson’s “Turning the Glass Around” is a powerful play about a first generation Korean-American, Philip Lee, who is struggling to cope with his father’s death — and an ensuing identity crisis. Who is he in the wake of his father’s death: Korean or American, a good son or loving husband, an American success story or a foreigner?

The New York of the play is a recognizable terrain of claustrophobic offices, threadbare apartments, and crowded subways. Alongside that New York exists a skein of haunting silhouettes and doppelgängers. To realize its distinctive landscape, acclaimed puppeteer Izumi Ashizawa is part of the production team and will use two-and three-dimensional shadow puppetry and Korean mask puppetry to create Philip’s shadow world.

Outcomes: Following the successful production of the play in New York, playwright Pia Wilson and director Heidi Grumelot are now making plans to tour it around the country, specifically to open a production in Portland, Oregon late in 2015. Because Turning the Glass Around tells a classic immigrant story of trying to be true to your roots while making a life in a new place, we believe that it can resonate with communities around the country.

www.turningtheglassaround.com

“Receiving the grant helped us in fundraising from individual donors and other grant-makers by providing an important “seal of approval” for our project.”