Jeesun Choi

Jeesun Choi

Jeesun Choi is a transnational Korean playwright and physical theatre artist. Her plays move through diaspora, (im)migration, and transnationalism to reveal the joy and agony of the human condition. Selected plays: BUST (Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab); Lost Coast (Playwrights Realm's Ink'd Festival, Nashville Rep’s Ingram New Works, reading at New York Theatre Workshop); Manuka (EST/Youngblood Podcast...
Jeesun Choi is a transnational Korean playwright and physical theatre artist. Her plays move through diaspora, (im)migration, and transnationalism to reveal the joy and agony of the human condition. Selected plays: BUST (Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab); Lost Coast (Playwrights Realm's Ink'd Festival, Nashville Rep’s Ingram New Works, reading at New York Theatre Workshop); Manuka (EST/Youngblood Podcast); The Seekers (Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Woodward International Playwriting Prize Semifinalist, Bushwick Starr Reading Series). She is currently the Writing Fellow at Playwrights Realm, Librettist Fellow at American Opera Project, a member of EST/Youngblood, and a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop. In 2020, she was awarded Artist of Exceptional Merit by Asian American Arts Alliance. MFA Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre, Dell’Arte International. jeesunchoi.com

Plays

  • BUST by Jeesun Choi
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: Great Recession, Model United Nations + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, period
    Keyword: Great Recession, Model United Nations, socio-economic clash, international high schools
    Sein fights for the leadership of her Model United Nations team. An economist gives one last lecture. Fish Grandma goes to the bank. Meanwhile, the global market teeters on the brink of collapse. BUST explores the money in our wallets, the illusions it buys, and the future it promises.
  • Lost Coast by Jeesun Choi
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental
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    Keyword: forest, rural + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: forest, rural, poverty, immigration, California Wildfires
    In a coastal forest in northern California live Sheila, Pru, Angel, Gigi, Nara and Joon, isolated from society, quietly struggling in the shadows of a growingly oppressive world. When a wildfire burns down a nearby town, and a new person (Stephen) joins their commune, their lives start to unravel as the force of change pushes them to leave, confront their fears, and sacrifice the little they have. This seven-...
    In a coastal forest in northern California live Sheila, Pru, Angel, Gigi, Nara and Joon, isolated from society, quietly struggling in the shadows of a growingly oppressive world. When a wildfire burns down a nearby town, and a new person (Stephen) joins their commune, their lives start to unravel as the force of change pushes them to leave, confront their fears, and sacrifice the little they have. This seven-protagonist play explores what community and compassion mean in the face of irrevocable change.
  • The Seekers by Jeesun Choi
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: immigration, deportation + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, movement/physical
    Keyword: immigration, deportation, friendship, climate change, international
    Ilhan is a Somali high school student living in Minneapolis on the verge of deportation when she is visited by figures from far-flung places: the Arctic, European fringes, and an African refugee camp. They draw her into an unseen and forgotten world that exists just beyond reality and appeal to her for the sanctuary of their souls. When the letter from the immigration office arrives, Ilhan decides to pursue her...
    Ilhan is a Somali high school student living in Minneapolis on the verge of deportation when she is visited by figures from far-flung places: the Arctic, European fringes, and an African refugee camp. They draw her into an unseen and forgotten world that exists just beyond reality and appeal to her for the sanctuary of their souls. When the letter from the immigration office arrives, Ilhan decides to pursue her own freedom. A poetic drama on displacement, environment, and freedom.
  • Manuka by Jeesun Choi
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, period
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    Keyword: business, korean american + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, period
    Keyword: business, korean american, family, Immigrants, Los Angeles
    Sungho flunks out of college and his business-savvy mother is worried. But his business-savvier father turns up out of nowhere with the greatest idea he's ever had. This could be the answer to all of their prayers.