c/o Bruce Ostler
Bret Adams Ltd Artists' Agency
448 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 765-5630
(212) 265-2212 fax
Email:
newdramatists@newdramatists.org
wAve
Simple Set
3m, 3w
(Multimedia Strongly Suggested)
Loosely inspired by the Medea myth. A love story about M and her husband
Jason, who leaves her for the bright lights of fame (he becomes the star
of the film “Mister Phnom Penh,” the movie version of Miss Saigon). M is
isolated by a world where the media personalities Chinky and Gooky reign
supreme, where the film version of Miss Saigon is the be-all and end-all
of existence, and where she can neither be a particle nor a wave. In the
end she must come to terms with her past, and clearly define her present
and future.
Premiered in 2003-2004 at the Ma-Yi Theater Company; Honorable Mention,
2001 Bay Area Playwrights Festival; commissioned by Mark Taper Forum Asian
Theater Project. Readings at Mark Taper Forum (1999), Ma-Yi Theater & Imua
Theater (1999), Public Theater, “New Work Now!” (2000), Arena Stage
(2000), Asian-American Theater Company (2000). Fluid Motion Theater
Company (2002).
YI SANG COUNTS TO THIRTEEN
Simple Set
2M, 1W
Inspired by the writings of Korean surrealist author Yi Sang, who died in
1937 at the age of 27. Three characters: Red, Green, and Blue are involved
in a love triangle that intermingles poetic scenes, a spoof on detective
noir involving limbs as characters, and erotic rituals involving Diet
Coke. Blue must choose between his friendship with Red and his love for
Green; but finds that he gets neither in the end. His only solace is the
words and images that erupt in his feverish mind, the joy of creation
coupled with the sense that the end is fast approaching.
2001 New York Fringe Festival Award for Excellence in Overall
Production. Developed while an artist-in-residence at Mabou Mines.
Produced at Seoul International Theater Festival (2000, directed by Lee
Breuer), New York International Fringe Festival (2001), Kraine Theater
(2002), Cornell University (2002).
INFINITUDE
Simple Set
4m, 2w
An ensemble comedy set in 1999 as a group of friends say goodbye to their
20s and the 20th century. The play revolves around the subjective world of
Filo, who has an interesting relationship with truth and the objective
world, as well as with his childhood friend Samantha (Sam). His life is a
bit of a random walk, dealing with the dangers of digital video, the
allure of the internet, and the frustrations of unrequited theater,
leading to a sense of closure as tenuous as the beginning of the new
millennium.
Readings at Lark Theater (2003), New Dramatists (2003). Commissioned by
Ma-Yi Theater Company.
WEATHER
An umbrella, preferably red
1M, 2W
Will wants to be a weatherman and bury his past. Kris wants to forecast
their future, but only sees murky clouds. But then Hai drops into their
lives…
Comissioned and produced by Sanctuary
Theater (2004) as part of Six Nights.
BEHIND THE MASQ
Set must evoke a Rap/Bunraku concert
4M, 2W
Welcome to the musical world of ‘Behind the Masq,’ the
hip-hop-electronic-grunge-Bunraku group with an underground cult-like
following. Led by frontman DMZ, and backed up by Bunraku puppeteer Akira
and the silky vocals of Sympathee, Behind the Masq is a band ready to
take you to the edge…the brink…the mystery that lies beneath our
masquerade.
Commissioned and produced by Ma-Yi
Theater Company (2004) as part of Savage Acts.
NUTHIN
Lots of cream pies, with lotsa cream
2M, 2W
A play about nothing.
Commissioned by Ma-Yi Theater
Company. Presented as a reading in Pavillions, as part of Savage Acts
(2004).
GRAVITY FALLS FROM TREES
Simple Set
2M, 1W (2 Asian-American, 1 multi-ethnic)
Isabella goes to the hospital because she is abnormally cold. Soon she
finds herself on a cloud with Isaac Newton and a guilt-ridden pilot. All
of them are in search of a Newton's "Fourth" Law, one that fuses emotion
and motion. Isabella finds that the shared event in their lives was the
tragic downing of Korean Air 007, an unfortunate political consequence of
the Cold War. While Isabella doesn't necessarily make better sense of the
event, she eventually breaks through the emotional freeze that she's been
suffering through, and finds a way to lighten the gravity of history.
Commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop First Light Program. Produced at
Asian American Theater Company and Dance Theater Workshop.
DRIZZLE AND OTHER STORIES
Simple Set
3M, 2W (All Asian-American cast)
A trilogy of one-acts based on short stories by Korean fiction writer
Hwang Sun Won. Each play employs spare language, with jagged situations
and conflicting ambivalent emotions. "Masks" portrays a world where the
rules dictate that two friends find themselves as enemies during a war.
"In a Small Island Village" involves a female journalist who finds that
language fails her in the harsh world of a remote fishing village in
Korea. "Drizzle" is about two real estate men having a coffee break that
turns into a discussion about business, war, and the ambivalence of doing
the right thing.
Second place in North West Asian American Theater One Act Play contest.
Workshop production at Ma-Yi Theater (2001). Developed at East West
Players, HBO New Writers' Showcase, Circle Rep Laboratory.
CLEVELAND RAINING
Set Involves a Volkswagen Bug (Does not have to be real)
2M, 2W (3
Asian-American, 1 Multi-Ethnic)
A Korean-American brother and sister living in the Ohio countryside: the
sister is a medical student who drives the interstate searching for their
father; the brother has dreams of a flood and begins building an ark out
of a Volkswagen bug. A lonely female motorcyclist and an oddball mechanic
enter their lives, while the brother and sister try to piece together the
fabric of their frayed family history. While the brother builds an engine
that runs off emotional loss, the sister finally uncovers the fragile
truth of her family, something both revelatory and sad.
1st Prize in Seattle Multicultural Playwrights Festival; published in
“But Still, Like Air, I’ll Rise” (Temple University Press). Produced at
East West Players, Asian American Theater Company & Thick Description,
North West Asian American Theater Company, San Diego Asian American Rep,
Yale Cabaret.
NEW WORLD
Simple Set
3M, 2W (Multi-ethnic cast)
A collection of one-act dark comedies, all dealing with the theme of
cultural colonization. NEW WORLD is a variation on the theme of a boat: we
see the conquerors, the conquered, and the modern neuroses that results.
Wonderful Life is a skewed vision of the Jimmy Stewart film; it plays with
subjectivity in the face of a violent crime. Raisins is a comedy about two
gangsters who’ve just screwed up a job and end up in a heated debate about
identity politics. Konishiki, Mon Amour involves a young woman’s obsession
with Sumo wrestling, Connie Chung, and Hostess dessert products. Change is
a monologue about an assimilated son and his estranged father—it leaps
between their points of view, shedding new perspective on both characters.
Commissioned by New York Shakespeare Festival/The Public Theater.
Produced at Immigrants Theater Project.