Rick Shiomi's Mask Dance (1995) deals with the issue of adoption of Korean children in Minnesota. Shiomi portrays their identity crisis, employing the form of traditional Korean mask dance, Pongsan T'alch'um, which is, as portrayed in the preface of Mask Dance, "fast, bold, and free in spirit, emphasizing expression and energy over tight choreography" (351). While he fully exercises the "freedom" of this dramatic convention, Shiomi also adds his original sensibilities to it. For instance, this play presents Spirit, who functions partly as the narrator and guide, along with Mask Dancer. This character is quite pioneering in the sense that it often speaks for the Korean adoptees, Karen, Carl, and Lisa. This theatrical device does not only "mask" the character's consciousness but also "unmasks" them by exposing their buried feelings on stage. While Shiomi sets his use of masks apart from that of Greek theatre, he adheres to the fundamental and classical nature of a Greek mask. Peter Hall extends the definition of a mask on stage, stating that Greek theatre itself is a "mask" in the way in which it keeps "all fundamental or violent action off stage" (24). Similarly, in Mask Dance, by cloaking the main characters' agony and emotional crisis through the use of masks, Shiomi maintains an objective viewpoint and thus offers plausibility and substantiality to this unique Asian-American performance. Mask Dance, consequently, can be marked as a revolutionary step in American theatre since it has founded a common ground between Korean traditional mask drama and classic Greek theatre.
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