←Recommendations of Acetone Wishes and Plexiglass Dreams

This play has achieved the impossible--taking an entire neighborhood and placing it on a one-set theatre stage. Each neighbor, gossip, auntie and uncle that cycles through Inky and Celina's world as they try to build their own small corner of Koreatown adds to the eccentricity and liveliness of the play (not to mention the hilarious pastor who is powerwalking and stretching outside). A true cultural gem of a play with iconic imagery of a single red painted nail for good luck.

ACETONE WISHES & PLEXIGLASS DREAMS patches up the empty cracks in your heart you didn't know you had sustained. Celina and Inky are one of the freshest romantic pairings I've seen in ages; these are no manic pixie dream lovers, carrying quirks for the sake of a personality. Instead, they are both the now-adult children of a gossiping neighborhood that loves them, and two lineages plagued by ghosts and regrets. There is room for both magic and hope in this tender, human celebration of Korean culture.

Beautiful and immensely theatrical play that looks at family baggage, inherited trauma, grief, recovery, and the complex meaning of "home." I just loved how all of the characters were rendered with depth and humanity and nuance, and these scenes containing small seismic character shifts coincided with some bold theatrical strokes in terms of visual design and double/triple/quadruple casting of the adults. There is a vivid sense of place provided even with very few actor bodies onstage. The tensions and growth between Celina and Inky (and within themselves) were majorly impactful while subtly-drawn. I'd love to see it produced!

Acetone Wishes and Plexiglass Dreams is one of those plays that ignites all your senses and leaves you deeply touched with a moving theatrical experience. This play is inviting, poignant, witty, gritty, and moving. When Celina and Inky find themselves rebuilding their futures in the same community of their childhood they also find that they're stuck between two opposing forces - the gossip and grief of both a community and their own families. I was fully invested from the first page to the last page.

This is a beautifully moving play with so much to connect to. The relationships are deeply defined and very powerful. The characters are witty and smart with sharp edges and soft hearts. A great exploration of how the ghosts of the past effect our present and our future and how the shape of every person's grieving process is unique. The expectations placed on Celina and Inky loom large but so does the love of their families, community, and each other.

Along with Esther Choi and the Fish that Drowned and Half of Chopsticks, Walters has crafted a theatrical universe that gets richer and richer with each individual play. Like those other plays, Acetone and Plexiglass is a ghost story about the spirits in our lives both living and dead. I'm so glad to have gotten to know Celina and Inky. Walters has created a pair of incredible characters that I am so glad are in each other's lives.

A journey through community pressure and gossip to shed the ghosts and start anew. Moving and well done.

InterAct Theatre Company developed ACETONE WISHES AND PLEXIGLASS DREAMS as part of our 8th Annual Core Playwrights Weekend in December 2020. In this witty and deeply emotional play, Stephanie explores the politics of the Korean American experience, as well as the more intimate pressures of parental/community expectation and shame--and does it all with deft double-casting, laugh-out-loud humor and heartwrending magic. We are proud to have contributed to the life of this piece.