"Han is not an easy word to understand. [. . .] I think it means both sadness and hope at the same time. You can think of han as the core of life, the pathway leading from birth to death. . ." Park Kyon-ni (1994)

An ancient dance is performed under a neon light. A virgin ghost stares out of the TV. A baby left alone in an apartment meditates on the nature of solitude. A woman explores memories of her life in relation to the Korean concept of Han. Through her struggle to understand the complexity of her own Han, we are carried into a dynamic meditation that explores the no man's land between myth and modernity, as we weigh the relation between suffering, sacrifice and destiny.

Theatre No Theatre. In January of 2022, Thomas Richards, apprentice of Jerzy Grotowski, closed the doors of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, of which he was Artistic Director for 23 years. Throughout its existence, the Workcenter was hailed as an outstanding and unique performing arts research centre, a place of constant experimentation and innovation. In February of 2022, several ex-colleagues of the Workcenter opened the new Cultural Association, Theatre No Theatre, which has inherited its artistic existence from the Workcenter, as it is dedicated to supporting the new theatre research of Thomas Richards.

Hyun Ju Baek. Hyun Ju Baek was born in South Korea. Her career developed mainly as a musical theatre actress for a decade in Korea. She traveled to London studying theatre directing and earned a master's degree in Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. Before joining the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, Hyun Ju worked as an actress, director, and playwright in both Seoul and London. She wrote, produced and directed many theatre pieces including: Flatmates V Zombies (Tristan Bates Theatre UK, Camden People's Theatre UK - a piece that won a fund of the Arts Council of England); The Lady of Burma (Moon Light Theatre Korea); Today (commissioned by Kyunggi Cultural Foundation); and The Sound Factory (commissioned by the Pusan Cultural Foundation). In 2017, she participated in the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards' Master Course, supported by the Korean Arts Council. After attending another pedagogic encounter with Thomas Richards in Hong Kong, she organized a theatre group: The association for Theatre Craft and Creative Process GB, and held the Seoul Work Encounter 2018, inviting to Korea the Focused Research Team in Art as Vehicle. The following year, she joined the Workcenter's Focused Research Team in Art as Vehicle.

Thomas Richards. Thomas Richards (B.A. Yale University, M.A. the University of Bologna, Ph.D. University of Paris VIII) was Artistic Director of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards from 1999 to 2022. He began his apprenticeship with Jerzy Grotowski in 1985, and their work together developed until Grotowski's passing away in 1999. Thomas Richards arrived in Italy in 1986 with Jerzy Grotowski from the University of California, Irvine, where he had participated in Grotowski's "Focused Research Program in Objective Drama".

In Italy, at first Mr. Richards worked as Grotowski's assistant, but soon he became the leader of one of the work teams, and then Grotowski's "essential collaborator". Eventually, Mr. Richards became Director of the Research Program on Performing Arts at the Workcenter. Richards was a fundamental driving force in the research developed at the Workcenter that came to be known as "Art as Vehicle". In 1996, Grotowski decided to change the name of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski to Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, because, as he specified, the direction of the practical work already concentrated itself in the hands of Thomas Richards.

Concerning Richards, Grotowski stated, "The nature of my work with Thomas Richards has the character of ‘transmission'; to transmit to him that to which I have arrived in my life: the inner aspect of the work."

Richards was the main creator and doer of the performative opus entitled Downstairs Action (filmed by Mercedes Gregory in 1989); he was the creator and main doer of Action, and the creator and a doer of The Letter (formerly: An Action in creation). He co-directed One breath left, and Dies Iræ: The Preposterous Theatrum Interioris Show.

From 2008 to 2022 at the Workcenter, Richards was leading the Focused Research Team in Art as Vehicle, and from 2016 to 2022 the Workcenter Studio in Residence as well. With his teams, he directed The Living Room (premiered in 2009), L'heure fugitive (premiered in 2015), The Underground (premiered in 2016), Sin Fronteras (premiered in 2017), Gravedad (premiered in 2018) and Han! (premiered in 2021).

Thomas Richards is the author of: At Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions (Routledge, 1995), The Edge-Point of Performance, published in English (Documentation Series of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski, 1997), and Heart of Practice: Within the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (Routledge, 2008).