HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO Opens 4/2 at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will present the world premiere of Hannah and the Dread Gazebo by Jiehae Park, directed by Chay Yew, on April 2 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are March 29, 31 and April 1.

As the play begins, Hannah is two weeks away from becoming a board-certified neurologist when she receives a strange package from her grandmother, who may-or may not-have just ended her life in a most flamboyant fashion. The mystery leads Hannah and her family on a surreal, funny, heartbreaking adventure back to their roots in South and North Korea, and the forbidden Demilitarized Zone that divides them. With guest appearances by the ghost of Kim Jong-Il, subway mystics and a talking tiger, the story twists together creation myths and family histories to explore what it means to walk the edge between cultures.

Playwright Jiehae Park is a firm believer in the power of art and the necessity of comedy. "When life seems insurmountably difficult, we make art, or we make jokes, or we crawl into a hole and die," she observes. "The first two seem like better alternatives to me. That tension of pushing against darkness is what creates the humor in the play-deep pain and deep joy present at the same time."

Park continues, "I think the essence of the play is a family trying to navigate what feels like overwhelming, absurd, and incomprehensible circumstances, and trying to understand what those events mean for them individually and collectively."

The cast of Hannah and the Dread Gazebo features Cindy Im as Hannah, Paul Juhn as Father, Amy Kim Waschke as Mother, Sean Jonesas Dang, Eunice Hong as Girl and Jessica Ko as Shapeshifter. All performers play ensemble roles as well.

Director Chay Yew has been following the development of Hannah and the Dread Gazebo for some time now. "I first read this play four years ago," he recalls. "Jiehae was looking for a home for it, and I told her that sometimes the ambition of the play needs to wait for the ambition of the right theater to do it properly. Fast-forward to now, as OSF has taken up that ambition to make this play a reality. I think it is a brilliant fit."

Yew continues, "With this play, Jiehae is exploring, with great humor, what it is to be a contemporary Asian-American; trying to claim an identity, which is very complicated. I think it's remarkable how she has bridged two worlds. One world is where her parents are left (Korea), and then there is America, which is her new home, and of course there is what is in between. At the heart of it, besides the humor, is that everyone can understand what it means to have experienced loss, what happens to family in the wake of that loss, and particularly to this story, what is it to be Korean-American or Korean."

Ticket sales for Hannah and the Dread Gazebo have been brisk, with OSF adding three performances on May 25 (matinee), August 30(evening) and September 13 (evening). Call the OSF Box Office at (800) 219-8161 or go to www.osfashland.org to check performances with the best availability.

Scenic design for Hannah and the Dread Gazebo is by Collette Pollard, costume design is by Sara Ryung Clement, and lighting is by David Weiner. Obadiah Eaves is composer/sound designer, Lue Morgan Douthit is dramaturg, and Rebecca Clark Carey is voice and text director. U. Jonathan Toppo is fight director. Gwen Turos is production stage manager, and Molly Norris is assistant stage manager.

Helen and Peter Bing are the Producing Sponsor for Hannah and the Dread Gazebo. Sponsor is Charlotte Lin and Robert P. Porter. Partners are the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, The Hobbes Family and Richard and Marian Baldy. OSF's 2017 season is sponsored by U.S. Bank.

Founded by Angus Bowmer in 1935, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents an eight-month season of up to 11 plays that include works by Shakespeare as well as a mix of classics, musicals, and world-premiere plays and musicals. OSF's play commissioning programs, which include American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, have generated works that have been produced on Broadway, throughout the American regional theatre, and in high schools and community theatres across the country. The Festival draws attendance of more than 400,000 to approximately 800 performances every year and employs approximately 575 theatre professionals.

OSF invites and welcomes everyone, and believes the inclusion of diverse people, ideas, cultures and traditions enriches both our insights into the work we present on stage and our relationships with each other. OSF is committed to equity and diversity in all areas of our work and in our audiences.

OSF's mission statement: "Inspired by Shakespeare's work and the cultural richness of the United States, we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope of rotating repertory."