Handicapped Actor Follows His Dream

by Patricia Lamkin
Special to Asia
Photos by Michael Lamont.

East West Players (EWP) has announced the World Premiere production of “Voices From Okinawa,” starring Joseph Kim, an accomplished actor who also happens to be hard of hearing. This will mark Kim’s first major role on stage.

Kama (Joseph Kim) and Keiko (Sachiko Hayashi) comfort Namiye (Mari Ueda) in East West Players premiere of "Voices from Okinawa," by Jon Shirota.

Artistic Director Tim Dang was first exposed to Kim’s talent from his work in the workshop reading of “Voices from Okinawa” back in March, 2007, and was aware of his impairment during casting. "It was never a factor in the [casting] process,” said Dang. “He is a strong actor who plays the role extremely well and that is what matters. Because it was never an issue to him, it was never an issue with us."

Kim portrays the complex character Kama Hutchins, an American of one quarter Okanawan descent. “The character goes back to Okinawa to discover his Asian roots,” said Kim. “He's proud to be Asian, but his knowledge of his culture and [American-Okinawan] relations is just surface deep.” As Kama learns more about the Okinawa people, he is able to mediate between the two cultures. “This is exactly what happened to me when I went back to Korea. Even my aunt in the play is similar to my aunt back in Korea, whom I lived with. She is suffering from Alzheimer’s now and this play is dedicated to her.”

For Kim, who has been 40% deaf in both ears since birth, the experience with EWP has been, “amazing and professional,” he said. “Tim Dang is a master at the craft of directing, and I think this in part is due to the fact that he was also trained as an actor. The best directors were all actors,” he said, citing Elia Kazan as a famous example. In working with directors, Kim has learned that despite any preconceptions they may have about his disability, "if I make good strong choices from the beginning they'll know what I am capable of."

Kim doesn’t feel his hearing entitles him to special treatment. Letting people know about it is more out of courtesy to them. “I know from experience that it helps others to know that I’m not ignoring them if my back is turned to them when they speak to me,” he said. “I simply can't hear them and if they know this in advance their feelings don't get hurt.”

Despite the challenges, Kim has learned to work with his handicap as an actor, and knows he must raise the bar in what he brings to the stage. “I HAVE to pay attention more onstage due to my impairment,” he said. “This is just a reality.” For example, if he can’t hear his fellow actors, “I have to read lips or just follow the basic flow so I know when to come in with my line,” he said. “[But] I think it's made me a better actor and more grateful of the faculties I do have.”

Kim did not always pursue his dream of acting. He started out as a movie columnist and editor for the International Herald Tribune/Joonang Ilbo Newspaper based in Seoul, Korea. But he soon found out that journalism was not his true calling. “There is a book called ‘The Artist's Way’ that discusses the issue of ‘the career of our dreams’ vs. ‘the shadow career,’” he said. “When we're afraid to go into the career we ‘really’ want, we instead go into a career that mirrors our dream job, which is called the ‘shadow career.’ In my case, acting was my dream job, but I was too scared to go into it due to the lack of financial security. So instead I chose the next best thing, which was to write a movie column,” he said. But the monotony of rushing to meet one deadline after another only made Kim miserable. “Plus, I was terrible at writing,” he said.

It wasn’t until Kim joined a local theatre production of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap," that he realized how much he wanted to be an actor. “While onstage I felt an excitement that was so absent in my ‘shadow career’ of journalism. I quit the next day and moved back to the states to start training,” he said. Since then Kim has appeared on ABC’s Golden Globe nominated drama "Brothers and Sisters" and CBS’s Emmy Award winning soap, "The Young and the Restless."

Kim attributes much of his success to powerful role models in his life, especially a white-haired cop named George Hardman, who was his childhood karate teacher. “One day he pulled me aside and told me, ‘Joey, you're a good kid and you're damn good. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you’re not,’” Kim said. “Probably the most proud I've ever felt in my life. His encouragement gave me self-confidence,” he said, “but he also put me in my place when I got out of line. Self-confidence with humility are like peanut butter and jelly.”

Despite a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from UCLA School of Theatre, Film & Television, Kim has strong feelings about graduate study for actors. For aspiring actors, he recommends a more nitty-gritty approach: “Acting has to be learned on your feet,” he said. “[Graduate school] is like having a ‘shadow career.’ Instead of taking the plunge and becoming a poor actor, we take the softer road and spend 3 years in a make-believe bubble.” Meanwhile those who took the other route, “already have 3 years more experience in networking, getting an agent/manager and booking jobs,” he said. “Real work and a side acting class provide the groundwork you need to get up and running.”

For Kim, those classes were with Los Angeles teachers Salome Jens and Lesly Kahn. Salome Jens, who studied under Lee Strasberg, is member of the Actor's Studio and, “a regular Broadway headliner,” he said. “Lesly Kahn is probably the most successful teacher in Hollywood today. Both of these women have been role models, and like my cop karate teacher instrumental in all my successes,” he said.

And for those who are disabled, who have a particular goal or dream they wish to pursue, Kim has some powerful advice: “I'd tell them the same thing a D.C. cop told a shy, angry kid so many years ago... ‘You're perfect just the way you are, don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.’ Sometimes just hearing that we are is all we need to strive for greatness.”

“Voices from Okinawa” runs from February 13th to March 9th, 2008 at the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. EWP holds an American Sign Language-interpreted performance for every production. The ASL-interpreted performance of Voices from Okinawa will be held, Sunday, March 2nd, 2008. Tickets are $20 for deaf and hard of hearing patrons. For tickets call East West Players at (213) 625-7000 or visit www.eastwestplayers.org.

Kama (Joseph Kim) and Keiko (Sachiko Hayashi) waltz as the students spy on them.