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Home > Hancher > Cookin'

Program - Cookin' (Friday, April 15, 2005 - 7:30 p.m.)

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Cast
  3. History and Cultural Origin of Cookin'
  4. About the Artists
  5. Staff for Cookin'
  6. Hancher Family Arts Adventure

Introduction

Conceived by Seung Whan Song

Featuring

Design, Direction and Production

Cookin' is sponsored by Korean Air.

New York City premiere presented on September 25, 2003 by The New 42nd Street at The New Victory Theater.

Warning: The photographing or sound recording of any performance or the possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording inside this theatre, without the written permission of the management, is prohibited by law. Violators may be punished by ejection and violations may render the offender liable for money damages.

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Cast

In order of appearance:

At certain performances:

Cookin' is performed without an intermission.

Please silence all cellular telephones and personal paging devices before the performance beings. Thank you.

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History and Cultural Origin of Cookin'

History

Cookin' was originally developed in Seoul, Korea by PMC Production Co. Ltd., in 1997. It received the Sports Chosun's “Special Award” at the 4th Korea Musical Awards in 1998. Over one million people have attended performances of Cookin' in Korea, making it the longest running show in the history of Korean performing arts. In the last five years Cookin' has delighted audiences in over 20 countries throughout Europe, Asia and North America.

Cultural Origin

Nong-ak is a traditional Korean music form, developed thousands of years ago in the countryside by farmers to ease the hardship of labor-intensive farming and to help encourage unity among the people. The specialized rhythms of Nong-ak vary according to geographic location. In the 1970s, several experts of Nongak created an experimental music form which utilizes specific Korean traditional instruments: an hour-glass shaped drum, a barrel drum, a small gong and a large gong. They called their music Samulnori (which literally means “playing with four instruments”). From this experimental work, Samulnori has become the most popular and recognizable traditional Korean art form. The composition of Samulnori employs five basic rhythms at varying speeds, alternating the number of traditional instruments used throughout. In Korea, Samulnori has essentially replaced Nong-ak as the work for describing traditional music. The variety of rhythms in Samulnori reflects and reconstructs the routine beat of Korean life.

Cookin' applies the traditional rhythms of Samulnori to a fast-paced kitchen percussion show combining comedy, rhythm and non-verbal performance that culminates into a delightful and dynamic evening. The typical instruments of Samulnori have all been replaced with utensils commonly found in the kitchen including knives, cutting boards, pots, pans, chopsticks and woks.

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About the Artists

Dae Hee Kwon (The Manager) studied acting at Busan Arts College. He has appeared in numerous stage productions including General An Yong-bok, which was presented in Busan in celebration of the World Cup in 2002, and Death of a Salesman. He himself has been a fan of Cookin' for a long time and is very happy to join the cast. It is his dream come true. He is a very versatile percussionist.

Gon Ho Kim (Master Chef) majored in tourism at Kang Won College. He found himself interested in business and, consequently, opened his own shop in Seoul, dealing in bags and footwear. Realizing his real passion is in music and theater, he took drum lessons and, one year later, found a teaching position for drumming at the Hwa Yang Youth Camp before joining Cookin' in 2002. He is now excited that many people recognize him on the street by his role in Cookin'.

Eun Ji Kim (Hot Sauce) graduated from the dance department of Busan University. She won a gold medal at the Asia Dance Competition in 1982 and also participated in the World Dance Festival in Mexico (1998). She was a professional dancer at Busan Lotte Hotel Folklore Dance Troupe before she joined Cookin' in 2002.

Byung Joon Park (Sexy Food Dude) is a young and aspiring actor who studied drama at the esteemed Seoul Art College. His acting work includes: Guys and Dolls, The Wizard of Oz and Aida (opera).

Sung Joong Byun (Nephew) studied broadcasting engineering at Donga College in Busan. He started his acting career in the college drama club. His major works are Owooje 2000, which was invited to the Busan International Theater Festival in 1997, The Square Sea and a short film, The Medalist.

Young Ran Bae (Understudy Hot Sauce) has appeared in numerous stage and TV shows as well as musicals including Kids, NANTA and You Are All My Friends. She plans to become a police woman when she gets tired of acting.

Seong Jong Seo (Understudy Male Roles) is a versatile actor who just graduated from the Seoul Art College. He is the specialist in the Korean Mast Dance and has long been trained in Taik Gyun, an ancient Korean martial art. He took a leading role in Jump, a smash hit play in Korea, before he joined Cookin'.

Dong Woo Park (Scenic Designer) is a distinguished scenic designer in Korea. He began his career in scenic design after receiving his graduate degree from Hong-lk University. Over the last ten years, Mr. Park has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and designed the scenery for 15 major musicals and operas produced in Korea including Guys and Dolls, The Dream, The Last Empress (Seoul and New York City's Lincoln Center production) and the musical The Winter Wanderer.

Hee Joo Kim (Costume Designer). Major works include: Empress Min (opera), Tell Me Something (feature film), Carmen (opera) and The Only Son (play).

Hak Young Kim (Lighting Designer) has been the resident lighting designer for Cookin' since 2000. He has worked on numerous theater productions, TV shows and pop concerts as a designer and technician. Major works include Hard Rock Café and A Chorus Line.

Jai Hyun Park (Sound Designer). Recent work includes: Hard Rock Café, A Chorus Line, Guys and Dolls, Les Misérables, Cats, Grease!, 42nd Street, West Side Story, The Life, Gambler, Blue Saigon, Fame, The Last Empress and Chicago.

Nam Young Koh (Technical Supervisor) majored in film at Seoul Art College and has since directed numerous short films. He has been the resident stage manager of Cookin' since 1998. His major work includes: An Aged Boy, The River, A Narrow Road, A Goldfish, Reaction and The Life is Lonely.

Won Hae Kim (Assistant Director) received the award for Best Actor in both the '87 Dong Rang Drama Festival and '91 Kyung Nam Drama Festival. His work includes The Bell Sangwha, Romeo and Juliet, The Song of Youwha Panti, Underground Line One and Yoon Dong-Joo. He attended the cultural performance of the Atlanta Olympic Games as a member of the Korean Cultural Envoy. Mr. Kim is a talented performer of Samulnori and a specialist in Bong San Tal Choom, a form of traditional Korean mask dance. He has performed in Pippin, Godspell, DMZ, Choonhyang, A Fairy and a Woodsman, Gone With The Wind, Baby Baby, Free Like a Butterfly and Road.

Seung Yong You (Assistant Director). Specialist in Bongsan Tal Choom, one of the finest forms of traditional Korean mask dance. He has performed in Pippin, Godspell, DMZ, Choonhyang, A Fairy and a Woodsman, Gone With the Wind, Baby Baby, Free as Butterfly, Road and Shimchong.

Jamie H. J. Guan (Fight Choreographer) made his Broadway debut as an actor and choreographer with David Henry Hwang's Tony Award-winning play M. Butterfly. His choreography credits also include Broadway's Golden Child and Flower Drum Song, off-Broadway's The Woman Warrior, F.O.B. Dragonwings, Last of the Suns, The Tempest, Silver River, Carry the Tiger to the Mountain and Red. Fight choreographed Debbie Allen's Soul Possessed and Dreams as well as the Warner Brothers film M. Butterfly and “The 73rd Annual Academy Awards.” Associate choreographer: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Yong Seok Choi (Production Coordinator) holds a masters degree in scenic design from Brooklyn College. He has worked on numerous productions in America including Angels in America, Fences and Gathering Stones. In Korea, he was the production coordinator for the Universal Ballet Company. Mr. Choi now lives in Korea and is happy to be back in New York with the Cookin' company.

Dong Jun Lee (Composer) is the winner of the 1997 Grand Bell Prize (the honorable annual film festival) in the field of cinema music. He has garnered recognition and many awards for his compositions in the areas of cinema, classical dance, drama and musicals.

Ok Soon Kang (Choreographer) is one of the busiest leading choreographers in Korea. Her major musical credits are Grease!, Dracula, West Side Story, Whale Hunting, Game, Alice in Wonderland and Fiddler on the Roof. Ms. Kang studied at the Sydney Dance Company, and she currently teaches as a guest lecturer at the Sunkyunggwan University in Seoul.

Byung Kwan Lee (Rhythm Director) is an expert in Samulnori and one of the leading percussionists in Korea. He has worked as rhythm director in numerous percussion shows such as Tokebi Storm, DudeRock and Kids NANTA. He spends most of the time in his studio teaching Samulnori to students.

Richard Frankel Productions/ Rod Kaats (General Management). RFP is currently general managing productions of The Producers, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors and Stomp in New York and on tour. Over the past 18 years they have managed more than 40 productions in New York and on tour in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Rod Kaats: Productions with RFP: Cookin' (N.Y. and on tour) and Three Mo' Tenors. As artistic director for Helen Hayes Theatre Company: 27 shows including: Company (which he also directed) and the American premiere of Honk!. As booking agent for national tours: Three Tall Women, Crazy for You and Love Letters (for RFP). Vice president, Pace Theatrical Group. Harold Prince Musical Theatre Program: creator, director, co-librettist of The Ballad of Little Jo.

Daniel Sylvia (Production Manager) has been working professionally, on and off-stage, for over 18 years. National tours include Five Guys Named Moe, Tommy, Carousel, Jolsen, Joseph…, Bear In The Big Blue House Live, The Music Man and, most recently, Oklahoma!. Outside of touring, Daniel has also been working with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival for almost a decade.

Sunny Oh (Executive Producer) has recently joined PMC Production Co. as president of their U.S. branch. Until December of 2003, he has worked as associate general manager at 651 ARTS. As a member of the programming team, Mr. Oh has managed many productions and programs including the Bessie award-winning Verge by Bebe Miller and The Music Never Stops featuring Abbey Lincoln. He also worked as a tour manager for three national tours of The Festival of Korea produced by The Asia Society. He graduated with an MFA degree of performing arts management at Brooklyn College.

Byung Ick Kim (Production Supervisor) majored in English and Literature at Seoul's Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He has studied hotel management in Switzerland (1985) and was the culture and information officer of the Swiss Embassy in Seoul from 1987 to 1997. He has translated over 30 films produced by 20th Century Fox, Columbia-Tristar and Disney Entertainment from English into Korean (1988-1996). As an actor, Mr. Kim has played major roles in such productions as Oh, Dad, Poor Dad, Mama Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad, Send Me No Flowers, Festival of Mad People, Tri-cycle (Fernando Arabal) and the musicals Candide and The Fantastiks.

Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Creative Consultant) is a busy director, choreographer and teacher. Her work has been seen throughout the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Europe and Asia, including Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre, New York City Opera, Huntington Theatre, Arena Stage, Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodspeed, Denver Center, Cape Playhouse and Sacramento Music Circus, and includes exciting collaborations with Stephen Sondheim, Rupert Holmes, Robert Falls, Des McAnuff, Jeffrey Hatcher, Donald Margulies, Ken Ludwig, William Finn, William Bolcom, George Grizzard, Sandy Duncan and Kathie Lee Gifford. She is most proud of Maltby & Shire's award-winning Closer Than Ever (Cherry Lane Theatre), the Edgar Award nominated play, The West End Horror, which she co-authored with her husband, Anthony Dodge (Bay Street Theatre) and her sweet daughter, Natasha.

Lawrence F. Pisoni (Creative Consultant) is the founding artistic director of San Francisco's Pickle Family Circus. Prior to his work with the circus, he performed with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and New York's Circo Del Art. Since his time with the Pickle Family Circus he has worked in film, television and live theater. He currently teaches, directs and, on occasion, performs his original stage piece Clown Clown Clown Clown Clown Clown Clown.

Lynne Taylor-Corbett (Creative Consultant). Tony Award-nominee Lynne Taylor-Corbett directed and choreographed Swing! on Broadway and Natural Selection for the 2003 Fringe NYC Festival as well as productions off-Broadway and in regional theater. Her dance works have been commissioned by the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and numerous companies throughout the world. She will be directing Opal at The Lyric Theatre in Dallas.

Seung Whan Song (Conceiver, Director, Producer) is a well-known and influential actor in Korea. He has received many awards and accolades for his work as a performer and producer, including the 2000 Korean Award for Best Artist of the Year. Since 1968, Mr. Song has starred in major roles in television, radio and film. In 1976, he co-founded 76 Theater and led the Small Theatre Movement for the purpose of expanding theater-going audiences in Korea. Mr. Song recently produced another non-verbal piece, UFO, in 2002, and is host of the well-known radio show “Song Seung Whan's Cultural Promenade” (KBS Radio) in Korea.

PMC Production Co. Ltd. (Producer) was founded in 1989 by Seung Whan Song and Kwang Ho Lee. Since its first theatrical production, Your Silence, PMC has produced seven musicals, including Whale Hunting, one of Korea's most successful musical productions. PMC recently expanded its interests to include musical management (Good Music) and film production (Ho Cinema). In July 2000, PMC opened Cookin' in Seoul, Korea, which became the first long-running show in the History of Korean performing arts. PMC's subsequent piece, UFO, another non-verbal performance piece, was produced in late 2002.

Kwang Ho Lee (Producer), after studying textile engineering and earning a doctorate in business administration, served as executive managing director in the Chungnam Spinning Company until he became a founding partner of the PMC Production Co, Ltd in 1996. He is also the president of E&T, a textile company, and holds an additional post of visiting professor in the Chongwoon University, teaching business management. As producer, he has been co-represented with Cookin', UFO, Kids NANTA and Tory. He has been an active member of the Daejon Chamber of Commerce since 1991.

The Broadway Asia Company (Producer) was founded by Simone Genatt and Marc Routh, and is a management, production and consultation company concentrated on performing arts projects between the U.S., Europe and the Asia Pacific region. The partners of Broadway Asia have jointly produced and managed over 100 productions in New York, and have toured extensively in Asia, the U.S. and Europe. Their shows have been awarded 31 Tony Awards, 27 Drama Desk Awards, 20 Outer Critics Awards, four Grammy Awards and two Pulitzer Prizes. Current Broadway and U.S. touring productions include: Hairspray and The Producers, as well as Stomp and Cookin', off-Broadway. International productions include: an extensive Asian tour of The Sound of Music; world-wide productions of Cookin' in Asia, Europe and North America; a 16 city Japanese tour of I Got Merman, Swing! and Big River in Japan; the Japanese and Korean presentations of Smokey Joe's Cafe, Stomp, Break! and Mayumana in Korea; the Broadway revival of The Sound of Music starring Richard Chamberlain; the North American tour of The Vietnamese Water Puppets from Hanoi and New York Express in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Broadway Asia specializes in creating Broadway investment and sponsorship strategies for significant multi-national corporations. Broadway Asia is the exclusive Asian representative for the Rodgers & Hammerstein Theater Library in Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Select forthcoming productions include: Asian tours of the Tony award-winning Broadway musicals The Producers, Hairspray, Movin' Out, West Side Story and The King and I.

Simone Genatt Haft (Producer), president of Broadway Asia, has presented shows in over 25 countries in the last five years, including: The Sound of Music, Big River, Little Shop of Horrors, Swing!, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Stomp, Vietnamese Water Puppets and Cookin'. Forthcoming Asian tours: The Producers, Hairspray, West Side Story and The King and I. Ms. Genatt is a graduate of Stanford University, speaks six languages and is the recipient of the Robert M. Golden Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre Direction and Production.

Marc Routh (Producer). Current productions include: Hairspray, The Producers and Stomp. His producing credits with partners Richard Frankel, Steve Baruch and Tom Viertel include: Little Shop of Horrors, Swing!, The Weir, The Sound of Music, Forever Tango, Smokey Joe's Cafe, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Mnemonic, Tap Dogs, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Jeffrey, Penn and Teller, My Old Lady, Inside Out, Three for All, Love Letters, Later Life, Song of Singapore and The Water Coolers. He is the president of The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers.

Korean Air (Sponsor), with a fleet of 118 aircraft, is one of the world's top 20 airlines and operates almost 400 passenger flights per day to 85 cities in 29 countries. Korean Air is a founding member of SkyTeam, the global alliance partnering AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines and Delta Air Lines. More on Korean Air's programs, routes, frequency and partners available at www.koreanair.com.

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Staff for Cookin'

General Management

Staff

Broadway Asia

Richard Frankel Productions Staff

Special Thanks

Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Assembly Rooms, Joe Watson, James Haft, Mary Rose, Lauren Danilnuk, Tim Grassel, Leslie Anne Pinney, Hudson Scenic

Exclusive North American Tour Direction

Broadway Asia/On the Road

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Hit the "Spot" with the Hancher Family Arts Adventure!

ODC/San Francisco and Dan Zanes kick off four-year statewide project

Children and parents in Iowa City, Marshalltown, Spencer and Perry are gearing up for Spot - The Hancher Family Arts Adventure. Thanks to a generous grant from The Wallace Foundation, Hancher and partnering organizations in each community are bringing two artists to each town each year for the next four years.

The ambitious project kicks off in late April as dance company ODC/San Francisco comes to Iowa to complete three-day residencies in each location. Community members will have the opportunity to work with the dancers to explore the expressive possibilities of movement and to enjoy - and participate in - a public performance by the company. On Mother's Day (May 8) at Hancher, ODC/San Francisco will perform the company's acclaimed version of the classic children's tale The Velveteen Rabbit which the New York Times hails as "delightful, imaginative, with something to offer both adults and children…The choreography makes the story come alive."

"Romper rocker" Dan Zanes brings his unique blend of roots rock and folk music to Iowa in June. The former lead singer of the rock band the Del Fuegos delights children and adults alike with what the New York Times calls "true children's music, but executed with such sweet (and un-gooey!) humor, casual multiculturalism and shambling groove that you can call it your own." Like ODC/San Francisco, Zanes will spend three days in each participating community inviting families to make music with him and culminating in a public performance. He will perform at Hancher on Father's Day (June 19).

Spot is supported by an interactive web site where children can sign up to be "Spot Kids." The site features information about the artists, games and activities and will eventually include contributions from Spot Kids around the state. Parents are encouraged to surf to www.spotkids.com with their children to sign up. Additional information for parents is also available on the site.

Both Hancher performances will be preceded by a picnic which is included in the ticket price. The picnics begin at 12:30 p.m. with performances begining at 2 p.m.

The public libraries in each community are Spot partners. The other participating community organizations will be the Iowa Children's Museum in Iowa City/Coralville, the Spencer Community Theatre Playhouse, Arts on Grand and the YMCA in Spencer; the historic preservation organization Hometown Perry; and the Community Y in Marshalltown.

The ODC/San Francisco performance and residency is supported by Doug and Linda Paul and The Wallace Foundation while the Dan Zanes performance and residency is supported by Peggy Scholz and The Wallace Foundation with media support from the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Both pre-performance picnics are supported by the Waterfront Drive Hy-Vee Food Store in Iowa City.

For tickets to the Hancher performances by ODC/San Francisco and Dan Zanes, call the Hancher Box Office at 335-1160 or 1-800-HANCHER or purchase online at the Hancher website.

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