The next production in our mainstage Sock & Buskin season, 410[GONE], will open this Thursday as scheduled. This new play by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig ’05 looks at the limits of love and how we release loved ones when they are gone. This “tragi-comedy suicide play” draws on Chinese and American cultural traditions to tell the story of Twenty-One, a young Chinese-American women struggling to find answers in the wake of the suicide of her brother, Seventeen.
After conversation with the cast, production crew, and the department, we feel it is more important than ever to move forward with this show. We believe that theatre offers a way to explore difficult, unsolvable questions and can create a space for healing and peace. We hope that this play can open such a space on campus at this time that will complement the important and valuable support services offered across Brown.
Alongside the production, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies is offering a series of free events to further facilitate dialogue around these difficult issues:
- Friday, April 2: Lunchtime pizza lunch with Professor Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson of Northwestern University and playwright Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig ’05. Noon. Becker Library, Lyman Hall.
- Sunday, April 5: Post-show talkback in Leeds Theatre. Free and open to all. Begins 10 mins after performance ends, around 3:45pm.
- Tuesday, April 14: Dinner & Conversation, “Mental Health, the Asian American Experience, and 410[GONE]”. More information here.
We offer this production to the memory of Hyoun Ju Sohn and hope that people will come to this play to share their time with us in a spirit of reflection and appreciation of the joy of life in the moment of transition.
Erik Ehn
Director, 410[GONE]
Department Chair, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies