The promise of a shared kimchi recipe during the COVID-19 pandemic led a local Korean American theater company to stage what the director calls an “immigrant epic.”
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The Masil Theater Company performed “Simcheonggil Secret Recipe: California” on Thursday, July 2, at the Bascom Community Center in San Jose. The production, co-hosted by Korean American Community Services, wove together the real-life stories of nine people who immigrated from Jeonnam-Gwangju and other provinces in South Korea to Silicon Valley. Originally planned as a staged reading, the work developed into a minimally produced play.
The project began when director Hyejung Son was distributing boxed meals during the pandemic and heard an elderly woman with dementia say, “If you give me one more lunchbox, I’ll tell you my top-secret water kimchi recipe.” The play uses food as a medium to reveal the loneliness, sacrifice and memories that sustained the lives behind stories of immigrant success.
Professional actors from Masil Theater Company performed alongside local Silicon Valley “citizen actors.” Among the actors in the latter group was Moon Hi Ree, who delivered a tearful scene based on her own story.
“Memorizing lines while preparing for the play made me reflect on my difficult past immigrant life,” she said. “It feels like the world has re-evaluated my life and affirmed its meaning; my heart is full.”
Other citizen actors participated to support family members. “My mom (Koeun Jun) was a movie actress in Korea, but her career was cut short after immigrating,” Dana Park said. “She devoted all her time to caring for us. While I’m grateful for the mom who sacrificed for us, seeing her shine on stage doing what she truly loves makes me so happy.”
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The stories in the play were taken from interviews of cast members and their families, which performers say made them resonate more deeply.
“I learned gratitude through our predecessors’ lives, and realized that our lives today can become stories for the next generation,” Mideum Lee said.
The play drew a standing-room-only crowd, inspiring the Masil Theater Company to explore staging a full-scale production next year.
“This performance—where immigrants tell their own stories and create it with their own community hands—became a meaningful space of solidarity sharing the survival recipes of life for all of us,” said director Son.
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