HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO

Inside the FedEx box are two things: a 100% bona-fide-heart’s-desire-level wish and a suicide note. Hannah tracks the package back to Korea, where her grandmother recently jumped from the roof of the Sunrise Dewdrop Apartment City for Senior Living onto the wrong side of the Demilitarized Zone. Oops.
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HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO

Recommended by

  • Rachael Carnes:
    8 Apr. 2018
    A provocative — yet charming and accessible — inquiry into race, culture and family, this play has a brilliantly curious title, evoking a kind of gothic cautionary tale. The titular character has a major exam coming up to become a board certified pediatric neurosurgeon — “It’s a very important time for her,” as her father would say — but before she can sit for the test, Hannah learns that there’s trouble back home. Home is South Korea, a place Hannah barely knows. A beautiful play. I was fortunate to see its premiere at at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017.
  • Caro Asercion:
    8 Apr. 2018
    Jiehae Park’s “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo” merges the mythic and the modern in a dexterous and syncretic collision of time and space. The play takes on an almost Wonderlandian edge at times, but never to its detriment—Park keeps the story grounded (seamlessly!) through tight, polished characterization and meaningful familial relationships. A keen meditation on the power of folklore, legacy, coping with grief, and searching for a culture that was never quite yours to claim, “Hannah…” is an artfully-structured adventure from start to end to denouement and everywhere in between.
  • Eugene O'Neill Theater Center:
    12 May. 2017
    It is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's pleasure to recommend Jihae Park and their play Hannah and the Dread Gazebo as a finalist for our 2013 National Playwrights Conference. The play rose through a competitive, anonymous, multileveled selection process that took nearly nine months to execute. As one finalist out of hundreds of submissions, the strength of this play’s writing has allowed this work to prosper in such a competitive selection process.

Development History

  • Reading
    ,
    Williamstown Theater Festival (2015 Weissberger Award winner)
    ,
    2016
  • Workshop
    ,
    Ashland New Plays Festival Women's Invitational (Grand Prize)
    ,
    2016
  • Reading
    ,
    Local Lab
    ,
    2015
  • Workshop
    ,
    playwrights realm
    ,
    2015
  • Reading
    ,
    New Dramatists/Princess Grace Foundation
    ,
    2014
  • Reading
    ,
    Torrance Cultural Arts Center
    ,
    2013
  • Reading
    ,
    Leah Ryan Prize (Leah Ryan FEWW)
    ,
    2013
  • Reading
    ,
    East West Players
    ,
    2013
  • Workshop
    ,
    Ojai Plawrights Conference
    ,
    2013
  • Workshop
    ,
    Bay Area Playwrights Festival
    ,
    2013
  • Reading
    ,
    Abingdon Theatre
    ,
    2012

Production History

  • Professional
    ,
    oregon shakespeare festival
    ,
    2017