The community of national & local readers for the 44th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival enthusiastically recommends ARE YOU THERE TRUMAN? as a Semi-Finalist this season at Playwrights Foundation out of 755 plays. We were deeply moved by the artistic merits of the tonal balance between humor and sincerity. We're compelled by the play's promise, as it explores the internalized whiteness within queer communities. We hope this play is widely read, finds dedicated collaborators, and moves swiftly towards production. #BAPF2021

Garrett David Kim has created such a vulnerable, theatrical, and funny portrait of the milieu of lust, shame, self-consciousness, and ridiculousness that is gay sex and dating in this internet age. By choosing such a stereotypically “perfect” gay-for-pay porn star as the embodiment of desire and othering, Kim is able to look at race, sexuality, and gender from a highly theatrical and contemporary perspective. This play is a great read and one that I imagine would be a blast to see produced — on stage or, perhaps more appropriately, in a digital format!

This highly theatrical, open, and honest piece was a delight to read. It beautifully incorporates sharp satire and coming-of-age tropes into an eclectic and chaotically-coherent aesthetic. Kim so specifically and, with the keenest intersectional eye, explores the complexities of growing up and then being an adult as a multi-racial Asian-American gay man. At the same time, his story felt so relatable to anyone living in interlocking Venn diagrams of frequently marginalized identities. He tackles internalized and externalized racism and homophobia and how they intersect with desire, family--found and blood, and manages to end it all with hope. Gorgeous, hilarious!