Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters
Stephanie is a half-Korean, Philadelphia-based, hyphen-supporting playwright. Stephanie writes hyper contemporary, magical realism plays that are built on the pillars of laughter, curiosity and whimsy. She describes her work as "Charles Mee, David Henry Hwang, Twyla Tharp, Amy Tan, and Mariah Carey walk into a bar".
Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters is an InterAct Theatre Core Playwright, a...
Stephanie is a half-Korean, Philadelphia-based, hyphen-supporting playwright. Stephanie writes hyper contemporary, magical realism plays that are built on the pillars of laughter, curiosity and whimsy. She describes her work as "Charles Mee, David Henry Hwang, Twyla Tharp, Amy Tan, and Mariah Carey walk into a bar".
Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters is an InterAct Theatre Core Playwright, a graduate of The Foundry, and the Lead Artist on the Philly Asian Performing Artists’ Playwrights Project.
Her play, Esther Choi and the Fish that Drowned, was presented at the PlayPenn Conference. Esther Choi… was set to world premiere with Simpatico Theatre Company in 2020 but was postponed due to COVID-19. Stephanie is a playwright on the 2020 Kilroys List for Esther Choi.... Keep Me Posted received a staged reading at the 2018 Philly Asian American Film Festival. Are You My Father or the dream ballet of north korea, received a workshop and reading with PlayPenn, as well as a residency with Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists/Asian Arts Initiative. She is a two-time finalist for Unicorn Theatre’s In-Progress New Play Reading Series. She was a semi-finalist for Nashville Repertory Theater's Ingram New Works and received a nomination for the NNPN Smith Prize for Political Theatre. As Lead Artist of the Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists Playwrights Project, she led a two-weekend festival of plays written by local emerging Asian-American playwrights.
As Lead Artist of the Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists Playwrights Project, she will lead a two week long festival of plays written by local emerging Asian-American playwrights, the first of its kind in Philadelphia. I helped to found the Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists in an effort to create change and opportunity for AAPI performers and stories. I want to help fill the desperate need and incredible opportunity for Asian American actors to explore stories written for them and about their experiences and their cultural heritage by Asian American playwrights.
Additional plays have been produced and developed with Dragon’s Eye Theatre, Revamp Collective, Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival, and Philadelphia’s Future is Female Festival.
She has taught playwriting at Bucknell University, PlayPenn, Arden Theatre, and Theatre Exile. Stephanie is a proud graduate of Bucknell University, London Dramatic Academy, and CAP21. She is currently working on her MFA in Writing for Screen and Stage with Point Park University.
Stephanie is also a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association and Barrymore nominated actress.