Xiaoyan Kang

Born and raised in China, Xiaoyan Kang started writing plays in English while studying under Philip Gotanda at Berkeley. Her plays often explore marginalized communities in China and the intersections of Chinese and American identities. She is particularly interested in the power dynamics across class, gender, and generations, as well as the ways technology shapes identities and relationships.

She is currently a member of EST/Youngblood and Boston Court Pasadena’s Playwrights Group, and a recipient of South Coast Repertory’s Elizabeth George commission. Her plays have been developed with The Playwrights Realm, Great Plains Theatre Commons, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Et Alia Theater. She is a runner-up for the Jane Chambers Award, a finalist for the Alliance Theatre/Kendeda...

Born and raised in China, Xiaoyan Kang started writing plays in English while studying under Philip Gotanda at Berkeley. Her plays often explore marginalized communities in China and the intersections of Chinese and American identities. She is particularly interested in the power dynamics across class, gender, and generations, as well as the ways technology shapes identities and relationships.

She is currently a member of EST/Youngblood and Boston Court Pasadena’s Playwrights Group, and a recipient of South Coast Repertory’s Elizabeth George commission. Her plays have been developed with The Playwrights Realm, Great Plains Theatre Commons, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Et Alia Theater. She is a runner-up for the Jane Chambers Award, a finalist for the Alliance Theatre/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, and a regional winner of the BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition. Her short plays have been produced at The Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival and 24 Hour Plays: Nationals. MFA: Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Scripts

To Kill a Pig

by Xiaoyan Kang

Synopsis

A 55-year-old woman spends her day watching a deaf group in a Starbucks, until a man named Panda DMs her about face-changing opera.

A 55-year-old woman spends her day watching a deaf group in a Starbucks, until a man named Panda DMs her about face-changing opera.

Sister

by Xiaoyan Kang

Synopsis

A 30-year-old woman returns home to her teenage sister and stepmother after three years apart. What should be a joyful reunion quickly cracks under long-buried tensions and the absurdity of social media.

A 30-year-old woman returns home to her teenage sister and stepmother after three years apart. What should be a joyful reunion quickly cracks under long-buried tensions and the absurdity of social media.

The Words of Ants

by Xiaoyan Kang

Synopsis

The visit of an uninvited woman changes Yan's life forever. As the last natural inheritor of a secret women’s language, Yan embarks upon a journey to preserve it from disappearance, but at what cost?

The visit of an uninvited woman changes Yan's life forever. As the last natural inheritor of a secret women’s language, Yan embarks upon a journey to preserve it from disappearance, but at what cost?

The Obituary

by Xiaoyan Kang

Synopsis

It is summer 2008. Beijing is hosting the Olympic Games. Singapore is celebrating another National Day. An ex-pilot is dying. A girl is studying for the SAT. From here, a woman’s past starts to unfold.

It is summer 2008. Beijing is hosting the Olympic Games. Singapore is celebrating another National Day. An ex-pilot is dying. A girl is studying for the SAT. From here, a woman’s past starts to unfold.

Bound

by Xiaoyan Kang

Synopsis

Sangya sympathizes with her grandmother who stumbled into her fate with a pair of bound feet. Very soon, Sangya finds herself bound in a predicament where she has to choose between her academic dream and her father, a prisoner at a faraway labor camp.

Sangya sympathizes with her grandmother who stumbled into her fate with a pair of bound feet. Very soon, Sangya finds herself bound in a predicament where she has to choose between her academic dream and her father, a prisoner at a faraway labor camp.