Tell Me Your Name: Audience’s Communal Responsibility as Ethical Witness

Abstract

Tell Me Your Name is a participatory solo performance which explores trauma rootedin the Japanese Occupation of Korea through humor and communal healing. Myeong, a mystical contemporary Korean “Pet Shaman,” summons and embodies the souls of deceased pets, playfully encouraging audiences through interaction and improvisation to invoke memories of their dead fur babies—how they moved and ate, sounded and played, lived and died. Each spiritual solicitation culminates in a ritual release, speaking the beloved soul’s name and saying goodbye. In the middle of Myeong’s healing rites for grief, care, and vulnerability, a human soul insists on breaking in. Audiences meet Grandmother—an energetic, talkative, affectionate old lady with a thick Korean accent—who arrives to tell her story as a “Comfort Woman,” a Korean girl sexually enslaved during the Japanese Colonial Era, and finally have her story witnessed and her name spoken so she can be released. Humorous, provocative, and playful, this piece explores the absurd ways we hide from generational trauma and how some stories lie in waiting until we are brave enough to stop them from being forgotten. This intimate and tender play uncovers the legacy of survival and resilience carried through storytelling and memory.