Ji Won Jeon
Ji Won Jeon (she/her) is a South Korea–born, Michigan-based theatre director whose work investigates how personal and collective cultural histories shape who we become. She creates interdisciplinary, conversation-provoking theatre and works internationally across devised, contemporary, and classical forms. Ji Won holds a BA from the University of Southern California and an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University. She joined Michigan State University in 2022 and now serves as Assistant Professor in Directing. Recent directing projects include Othello and Inching Towards Yeolha. She is currently leading the MSU MFA Catalyst Play Commission in collaboration with the University of Iowa.
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
Devising Across Borders: Silent Clamor
Silent Clamor is an ongoing devised physical theatre project that explores the long-silenced histories of the Korean “comfort women” - victims of military sexual slavery under Japanese Imperial forces. Developed through ensemble-based research, movement composition, and cross-disciplinary collaboration, the project asks how culturally specific narratives can be created ethically, sensitively, and rigorously in a contemporary global context far from their place of origin. This practice-as-research workshop shares a devising methodology that centers anti-racist rehearsal practices, collective authorship, and the cultivation of a healthy ensemble culture.
Drawing from my rehearsal processes with artists of varied cultural, linguistic, and disciplinary backgrounds, the session introduces concrete tools for building trust, co-agency, and shared ownership in the room. Participants will engage in physical and dramaturgical exercises that support embodied listening, decentralized story-making, and the negotiation of cultural specificity when working across borders. I argue that devising is not only a method of creation but also a framework for ethical collaboration - one that can be applied to physical theatre, classical text, or any contemporary performance practice.
By situating Silent Clamor within a global context - developed in the United States, rooted in East Asian history, and influenced by international collaborators - this workshop highlights the productive tensions between tradition and contemporaneity, historical trauma and modern embodiment, and cultural specificity and universal resonance. The session will be especially valuable for artists and educators seeking strategies for devising culturally specific work with diverse ensembles, and for those interested in cultivating rehearsal rooms grounded in equity, care, and intercultural respect.