Kimi Maeda's EPHEMERA TRILOGY

Columbia performance artist Kimi Maeda brings three beautiful pieces together for a very special evening in The Richard and Debbie Cohn Trustus Side Door Theatre. Paper and sand, light and shadow, memory and identity, the familiar and the strange; woven together these are the elements that compose Kimi Maeda’s Ephemera Trilogy.  Developed over a period of six years, Ephemera’s three short solo performances use a range of innovative storytelling techniques and stunning visuals to explore the artists’ bi-cultural identity and family history. The Crane Wife uses shadow puppetry to reimagine the traditional Japanese folk tale of the same name as a metaphor for her mother’s experiences as a Japanese immigrant.  In The Homecoming, Maeda uses a flashlight to bring stationery paper cutouts to life while exploring the link between one’s home, memory and identity.  Finally, in Bend, Maeda’s work reaches it’s apex as her father’s history, spanning his time in a WWII American internment camp to his recent struggle with Alzheimer’s, is dramatically told through archival film footage and live sand drawings developed by Maeda on stage.  Together, the three pieces offer a glimpse into the mind of one of South Carolina’s most inventive and creative performance artists.  The development of Ephemera was made possible through generous grants from the Jim Henson Foundation, the South Carolina Arts Commission, Alternate Roots, the Arkansas Arts Council, the Japanese American Citizens League, and the KO Theatre Festival.