Jessica Huang

Jessica Huang

Jessica Huang is a playwright based in New York, from Minnesota. Her work has been commissioned by Audible, History Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Mixed Blood Theatre, Timeline Theater, Theater Masters and Theater Mu, and includes The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin (Barry and Bernice Stavis Award, Kilroy's List), Mother of Exiles (Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award, Kendeda...
Jessica Huang is a playwright based in New York, from Minnesota. Her work has been commissioned by Audible, History Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Mixed Blood Theatre, Timeline Theater, Theater Masters and Theater Mu, and includes The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin (Barry and Bernice Stavis Award, Kilroy's List), Mother of Exiles (Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award, Kendeda Prize Finalist), Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying, and Purple Cloud. She has been a member of the Civilians R&D Group, Page 73's Interstate 73 and Ars Nova Play Group, and has had fellowships at the Playwrights' Center and McDowell. She is a graduate of the Playwrights Program at Juilliard.

Plays

  • Mother of Exiles by Jessica Huang
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: experimental, fable/folktale + 1 more
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    Keyword: immigration, mixed race + 4 more
    Genre: experimental, fable/folktale, period
    Keyword: immigration, mixed race, climate change, global warming, language, ancestors
    In 1898 California, a pregnant Eddie Loi faces deportation. In 1998 Miami, her grandson Braulio accidentally summons her spirit while patrolling the border. In 2063 somewhere on the ocean, their descendants try to survive the climate crisis. An epic multigenerational tale of sacrifice, love and survival that spans 150 years in 90 minutes.
  • The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin by Jessica Huang
    Recommendations: 15
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: mixed race, hapa + 8 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, political
    Keyword: mixed race, hapa, immigration, daughters, fathers, names, home, acculturation, food, language
    During the Chinese Exclusion Act, Harry Chin, a Chinese national, entered the U.S. by buying forged documentation. Like other “Paper Sons,” Harry underwent a brutal detention and interrogation, and lived the rest of his life keeping secrets – even from his daughter. Told through the eyes of a middle-aged Chin, THE PAPER DREAMS OF HARRY CHIN reveals the complicated loves and regrets of this Chinese immigrant who...
    During the Chinese Exclusion Act, Harry Chin, a Chinese national, entered the U.S. by buying forged documentation. Like other “Paper Sons,” Harry underwent a brutal detention and interrogation, and lived the rest of his life keeping secrets – even from his daughter. Told through the eyes of a middle-aged Chin, THE PAPER DREAMS OF HARRY CHIN reveals the complicated loves and regrets of this Chinese immigrant who wound up in Minnesota. Through dreamlike leaps of time and space and with the powerful assistance of ghosts, the story of the Chin family reveals the personal and political repercussions of making group of people “illegal.”

  • Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying by Jessica Huang
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    6–7
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    Genre: adventure, fable/folktale
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    Keyword: climate change, global warming + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, fable/folktale
    Keyword: climate change, global warming, extinction, mixed race
    TRANSMISSIONS IN ADVANCE OF THE SECOND GREAT DYING tells an epic tale of grief and global warming through the intersecting lives of Earth’s human and non-human inhabitants in 2045. Katrina and her unborn baby head north in search of snow; Hugo seeks purpose in a world without resources; and after a series of unnatural events, recently widowed Carla is swept into a cosmic relationship with an ageless being that...
    TRANSMISSIONS IN ADVANCE OF THE SECOND GREAT DYING tells an epic tale of grief and global warming through the intersecting lives of Earth’s human and non-human inhabitants in 2045. Katrina and her unborn baby head north in search of snow; Hugo seeks purpose in a world without resources; and after a series of unnatural events, recently widowed Carla is swept into a cosmic relationship with an ageless being that challenges her understanding of time and extinction. Together with a young lynx and a swarm of locusts, their journeys become transmissions of hope and loss against the backdrop of planetary collapse.
  • Purple Cloud by Jessica Huang
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: mixed race, hapa + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy
    Keyword: mixed race, hapa, immigration, daughters, grandfather, fathers, names, home, acculturation, food
    When you’re hapa, you know deep down you’re greater than the sum of your many parts. In Purple Cloud, three generations of Huangs deal with the multifacets of their multiracial identities as – accompanied by four Jade Pieces – they embark on a mythical journey from China to Minnesota and back again. Through three intertwining stories, the Huang family acculturates: Grandpa Lee emigrates from Shanghai to America...
    When you’re hapa, you know deep down you’re greater than the sum of your many parts. In Purple Cloud, three generations of Huangs deal with the multifacets of their multiracial identities as – accompanied by four Jade Pieces – they embark on a mythical journey from China to Minnesota and back again. Through three intertwining stories, the Huang family acculturates: Grandpa Lee emigrates from Shanghai to America during the Sino-Japanese War; his son Orville deals with his confusion as a first generation Asian American; and his granddaughter fights for her Chinese-ness through the search for her true name.
  • Of Milk and Mirrors... by Jessica Huang
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: biography, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: mixed race, truth + 4 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, experimental, melodrama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: mixed race, truth, slipstream, Borges, meinong, noir
    A play about love that puts my real-life marriage on stage – and a play about truth that transforms the character of my husband into seven others (including writer Jorge Luis Borges and philosopher Alexius Meinong).
  • Zero-Infinity Flight Path by Jessica Huang
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama, experimental
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    Keyword: mountain, allegory + 5 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: mountain, allegory, belief, sacrifice, struggle, internal voice, wilderness
    Zero-Infinity Flight Path begins at the end of a journey to the top of a mysterious mountain. There, an ominous sacrifice will be performed for the salvation of humanity. The mission’s success lies in the hands of one young Girl, gifted with visions and a prophetic tongue. When after days of travel, the mountain’s summit finally appears, the Girl erupts with new language - language that seems in direct...
    Zero-Infinity Flight Path begins at the end of a journey to the top of a mysterious mountain. There, an ominous sacrifice will be performed for the salvation of humanity. The mission’s success lies in the hands of one young Girl, gifted with visions and a prophetic tongue. When after days of travel, the mountain’s summit finally appears, the Girl erupts with new language - language that seems in direct opposition to the task at hand. The rest of the party must contend with crises of doubt, questions of free will, and a dawning realization of who sacrifices what for whom.
  • Mermaids by Jessica Huang
    Recommendations: 19
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, experimental
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    Keyword: mermaids, crisis + 1 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: mermaids, crisis, ocean
    Cecilia and Don struggle to find hope and faith between the waves as the tide rolls into a rainy New England beach.
  • A Unicorn on 7th and Nicollet by Jessica Huang
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: Unicorn, Mary Tyler Moore + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy
    Keyword: Unicorn, Mary Tyler Moore, feminist
    Paying homage to Mary Tyler Moore is like honoring a unicorn, according to a professor at Macalester College. Well fine. A Unicorn on 7th and Nicollet shows just what it takes to turn the world on with a smile. And it’s not particularly happy about it.
  • The Journalists Creed: (Actual) emails from a (brief) career in news by Jessica Huang
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: biography, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: journalism, first love + 3 more
    Genre: biography, drama, experimental
    Keyword: journalism, first love, long distance relationship, truth, found text
    Written completely with "found text" - actual emails sent and received between the years 2005 and 2013 - THE JOURNALISTS’ CREED is a strange semi-autobiographical exploration of post-college career and first love. An experiment with representing truth and fact on stage.