Prodigal Daughter

Women of Asia Company presents the world premiere season of
"PRODIGAL DAUGHTER"

Thought-provoking US writer/director Asa Palomera, renowned for strong sexual imagery in her work, takes a global stance on child abuse with her new play Prodigal Daughter opening at Trades Hall on November 24.

Prodigal Daughter follows the journey of Mina – a Korean American – who as a child was sent away from Korea to live in the US. In her middle age, Mina returns to Korea for her father’s funeral and finds out she was a victim of sexual abuse as a child and sent away to hide the family shame. Through dialogue, reconstruction of the past, strong sexual imagery and comic relief, the play shows how Mina’s troubled relationship with her mother (who wants to sweep everything under a carpet of secrecy) breaks down.

Prodigal Daughter is set in different parts of the world and weaves through time from the end of WWII to the Korean War, to the present.

Palomera, who wrote the play while living in Spain but has lived all over the world, says Prodigal Daughter depicts a universal concern:

“Child Abuse is a current global problem. Prodigal Daughter, through different cultural settings, shows how different cultures cope (or don’t cope) with the problem.”

The cast comprises eight Australian actors of multiple cultural backgrounds and bases. It includes: Amanda Sebastio-Ong, Felicity Steele, Kaori Hamamoto, David Dawkins and Cindy Elliott, Elizabeth Semmel and Vejay Shanmugam. Sonya Kerr and Lucy Campbell undertsudy for the main roles.

Although many of the characters in Prodigal Daughter are Asian, in following Women of Asia Company's principles, ‘caucasians’ will share the roles.

“Women of Asia has a strong principal of what we call ‘colour blind casting,’” says Palomera. “Melbourne is a cosmopolitan city and with this project we have many people of different backgrounds coming together with one unified goal.”

Asa Palomera, a Korean-American, grew up in New York in the 1970s. She is a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts. She began her career of acting in a Broadway production of Sticks and Bones (Golden Theatre on Broadway) a play about a Vietnamese soldier returning home. She was cast as a mute. At this moment she realised it would be unlikely sheÂ’d be given a voice on Broadway. Then following the lean years waiting to be rediscovered she turned to directing and writing plays. Asa Palomera is currently based in Melbourne and has lived all over the world including Tunisia, Spain, Egypt, Costa Rica, Turkey and Thailand.

Prodigal Daughter is her third play to reach the Australian stage this year, after the success of Monologues in Chapel off Chapel last April. As part of Melbourne International Writers Festival, she presented A walk through the Life of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes at Malthouse´s Beckett Theatre (a sell out), and it went on to play to full houses in Chapel off Chapel in September.

Women of Asia Company is a theatre company that aims to give Asian women a greater voice in theatre and dispel the myths surrounding Asian Women: "S.S.S"- all Asian women are Small, Sexy and Subservient.

Prodigal Daughter runs for 8 shows only from November 24 to December 4 in Old Council Chambers at Trades Hall, Carlton (cnr Lygon and Victoria Streets).



Thursday Nov 24,
8pm
Friday Nov 25, 8pm
Saturday Nov 26, 8pm
Sunday Nov 27, 2pm
Thursday Dec 1, 8pm
Friday Dec 2, 8pm
Saturday Dec 3, 8pm
Sunday Dec 4, 2pm

Tickets cost: $20 or $15 concession (including students, seniors, unemployed and union members)

Group discounts are available

Bookings: 03 9685 5111

Media contact:

Joanna Stanley
on 03 8309 5715 or email joanna_stanley@iprimus.com.au