Lloyd Suh is a 2nd generation Korean-American playwright originally from Indianapolis, Indiana. He has been a resident playwright at New Dramatists since 2016, and has completed commissions and residencies with several notable theatres around the country included, but not limited to: Milwaukee Rep, Long Wharf Theatre, Arena Stage, Denver Center, and Guthrie with Mu. In addition to playwriting, Suh has served in leadership positions as the artistic director of Second Generation and Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers lab. He is also the Director of Artistic Programs at the Lark. In 2023, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play “The Far Country.”
More about Lloyd Suh:
https://ma-yitheatre.org/labbies/lloyd-suh/
His rise to playwriting at Indiana University Bloomington, and his cultural inspiration: https://news.iu.edu/live/news/31804-playwright-lloyd-suh-talks-college-days-at-iu#:~:text=Identity appears as a theme,Asian American identity and culture
A question that myself and others have posed about this play: “Is Wong Kids an Asian play? Or a play with Asian characters?” In an interview with TimeLine Theatre in 2022, before the premiere his play The Chinese Lady, Suh said that he is familiar with the history of Asian stereotyping, and tries to push back against those stereotypes in his work. He asks himself what stereotyping signifies when he includes them in his work, and how an audience perceives Asian characters. Why does there need to be stereotypical Asian language/props in a play for an audience to believe that it is an Asian story? Ma-Yi, the theater where this play was developed, has a mission to “push Asian American Theater beyond easily identifiable markers.” Wong Kids is an example of this push because the characters do not feed into stereotypes about what Asian American kids have to do/say in order for an audience to perceive them as Asian.
Ma-Yi Theater “About”: https://ma-yitheatre.org/about/
Link to Lloyd Suh Chinese Lady Interview: https://ma-yitheatre.org/labbies/lloyd-suh/
The premiere of The Wong Kids was commissioned and produced by Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN. It was developed by Ma-Yi Theater Company, where Suh is co-director, and first staged in 2013.
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More about Ma-Yi Theater Company
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Ma-Yi develops new plays that explore and affect Asian-American experiences while challenging the perceptions of what culturally specific theater should be. This company believes in producing forward thinking plays in order to break down barriers and increasing the understanding and appreciation of the cultural and ethnic diversity of our contemporary society. (Ma-Yi Theater “About”).
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