Preston Choi

Preston Choi

Preston Choi is a Chicago-based playwright whose work focuses on social science fiction, Asian-American/mixed race/queer lives, and the horror of being alive. His plays include Happy Birthday Mars Rover (2022 Planet Earth Arts Playwriting Award, 2022 Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award), performing class (2021-2022 NNPN Bridge Program, 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series), A Great Migration or The...
Preston Choi is a Chicago-based playwright whose work focuses on social science fiction, Asian-American/mixed race/queer lives, and the horror of being alive. His plays include Happy Birthday Mars Rover (2022 Planet Earth Arts Playwriting Award, 2022 Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award), performing class (2021-2022 NNPN Bridge Program, 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series), A Great Migration or The Migratory Patterns of the North American Monarch Butterfly and the Development of Fatherless Sons (2021 Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award, 2019 NNPN National New Play Showcase, 2017 Agnes Nixon Award), and This Is Not A True Story (2018 CAATA ConFest). His plays have been developed with Interact Theatre, Sideshow Theatre, Artist at Play, Silk Road Rising, CAATA, The Passage Theatre, and Our Perspective. He received a BS in Theatre from Northwestern University and is currently a 2nd-year Playwriting MFA candidate at UC San Diego.

Plays

  • performing class by Preston Choi
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, satire + 1 more
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    Keyword: acting class, class and economic inequality + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, satire, tragedy
    Keyword: acting class, class and economic inequality, korean american, Asian American
    Working class Jung-Hee and Johnny, the cleaning lady mom to the delivery cyclist son, struggle to get by each day, helped/pitied by Amy, the formerly middle class down on her luck actor trying to catch her own break. A chance for upward mobility appears when Kevin, a rich school “friend” turned wannabe actor, hires Johnny to help him understand what it’s like to be poor so he can become a better actor. The...
    Working class Jung-Hee and Johnny, the cleaning lady mom to the delivery cyclist son, struggle to get by each day, helped/pitied by Amy, the formerly middle class down on her luck actor trying to catch her own break. A chance for upward mobility appears when Kevin, a rich school “friend” turned wannabe actor, hires Johnny to help him understand what it’s like to be poor so he can become a better actor. The dubious contract and dreams for changing Asian-American representation twist and test everyone caught in the trap of trying to rise above their current station, until the play ends. A dark dramedy, performing class is caught up in perfecting authenticity, Asian-American ambition, and what good is our love/obsession for working class stories.
  • Happy Birthday Mars Rover by Preston Choi
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: Mars, earth and space + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, science fiction
    Keyword: Mars, earth and space, environment, nature, science
    The Mars Rover sings Happy Birthday to itself as it searches for life on Mars as humans back on Earth search to understand what life is. A medley of snapshots, from cave people naming abstract concepts, bubbles that scream when popped, housewives battling existential dread, cows trying to get to heaven, and the last human on Earth collecting jars of hair. Happy Birthday Mars Rover is a darkly comedic and...
    The Mars Rover sings Happy Birthday to itself as it searches for life on Mars as humans back on Earth search to understand what life is. A medley of snapshots, from cave people naming abstract concepts, bubbles that scream when popped, housewives battling existential dread, cows trying to get to heaven, and the last human on Earth collecting jars of hair. Happy Birthday Mars Rover is a darkly comedic and whimsically morbid attempt to understand the human condition and life itself.
  • limp wrist on the lever by Preston Choi
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4–5
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 6 more
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    Keyword: dark comedy, conversion therapy
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, horror, melodrama, mystery/thriller, political, satire, tragedy
    Keyword: dark comedy, conversion therapy
    A queer trio's escape plan from a conversion camp takes a topsy-turvy turn in their face off with a straight laced counselor. limp wrist on the lever puts teens at the helm of self-righteous torture, comrades versus traitors, and can you ever be sure you’ve really changed someone’s mind?

  • A Great Migration or The Migratory Patterns of the North American Monarch Butterfly and Fatherless Sons by Preston Choi
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic + 1 more
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    Keyword: interracial, Asian American + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: interracial, Asian American, single mother, science, TED Talk, motherhood
    As Louise prepares for a TEDx Talk on the Migratory Patterns of the North American Monarch Butterfly, her three sons are on the hunt to find their father to avoid getting drafted into the Korean army. Part nature documentary, part TED Talk, A Great Migration maps one family's search for identity, unity, and a destination they are reluctant to embrace.
  • This Is Not A True Story by Preston Choi
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy + 6 more
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    Keyword: Orientalism, metatheatrical + 2 more
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, mystery/thriller, satire, tragedy
    Keyword: Orientalism, metatheatrical, suicide, asian
    The heroine of Madame Butterfly completes her tragic suicide, only to wake up trapped in a never ending loop of her story. Then Miss Saigon is born thrusting another heroine into the deadly cycle, until a mysterious office woman throws the world out of balance. This Is Not A True Story unravels the history of Orientalist art, theatre, and the danger of fiction becoming reality.
  • You Will Get Used To It by Preston Choi
    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 5 more
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    Keyword: dark comedy, office life + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, horror, mystery/thriller, satire, tragedy
    Keyword: dark comedy, office life, kafkaesque, ensemble
    On the ninth floor of a nondescript building there's a gaping hole in the wall oozing a dark liquid, with what sounds like crying coming from deep inside. But it's not your job to pay attention to that, that's Pat's job. A Kafkaesque dark office comedy on the bureaucracy, inevitability, and mental fatigue of suffering.