Seayoung Yim

Seayoung Yim

Seayoung Yim (SHEE young) is a playwright and educator from Seattle. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Brown University, ’22.5, where she is a recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Graduate Fellowship in Theater Arts. She was a 2021 Playwriting Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and has an upcoming residency at Hedgebrook. Her play Jar of Fat won the 2022 Yale Drama Series prize and second...
Seayoung Yim (SHEE young) is a playwright and educator from Seattle. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Brown University, ’22.5, where she is a recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Graduate Fellowship in Theater Arts. She was a 2021 Playwriting Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and has an upcoming residency at Hedgebrook. Her play Jar of Fat won the 2022 Yale Drama Series prize and second place for the Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award at The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). She has been a finalist for the Scratchpad Reading Series at Playwright's Realm and the Bushwick Starr Reading series. At Cafe Nordo, her play, Persimmon Nights, enjoyed a sold-out run in July 2018. Her first full-length play, Do It For Umma, was directed by Sara Porkalob premiering at Annex Theatre in 2016 to sold-out audiences, winning both the People’s Choice Award for Outstanding New Play at Theater Puget Sound’s Gregory Awards and Seattle’s Gypsy Rose Lee Award for Excellence in Local Playwriting. Her plays have been produced by Seattle Public Theater’s Education Program, The Horse in Motion, Theatre Battery, Pony World Theatre, Mirror Stage, Live Girls! Theater, UW School of Drama, The 14/48 Projects, SIS Productions, Theater Off Jackson, and the Seattle Fringe Festival. www.seayoungyim.com

Plays

  • Jar of Fat by Seayoung Yim
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    9–18
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    Genre: adventure, comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: Asian American, korean american + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, fable/folktale
    Keyword: Asian American, korean american, Fatphobia, Beauty and Aging
    Synopsis: In a fantastical fairytale world, two Korean American sisters are deemed too fat to fit in their family grave. Will the sisters’ close bond survive under the pressure of their community and fretful parents, who will spare no effort to get them tinier? Jar of Fat is an absurdist comedy that explores desire, ugliness, and beauty.

    Content warning: fat shaming, fatphobia, body dysmorphia,...
    Synopsis: In a fantastical fairytale world, two Korean American sisters are deemed too fat to fit in their family grave. Will the sisters’ close bond survive under the pressure of their community and fretful parents, who will spare no effort to get them tinier? Jar of Fat is an absurdist comedy that explores desire, ugliness, and beauty.

    Content warning: fat shaming, fatphobia, body dysmorphia, and emotional and physical violence.
  • golf girl by Seayoung Yim
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: global capitalism, Korea Wave + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, satire
    Keyword: global capitalism, Korea Wave, korean american, Surrealism, racism
    Blackwolf Run Golf Course, Wisconsin. Rising star Golf Girl is retracing the path of legendary golfer Park SeRi’s historic 1998 US Women’s Open win. Golf Girl and her dedicated father, Golf Dad, have toiled their whole lives for this moment—the chance to win a career-making championship. But when bizarre encounters and grotesque phenomena frustrate her efforts at each hole, Golf Girl begins to wonder what her...
    Blackwolf Run Golf Course, Wisconsin. Rising star Golf Girl is retracing the path of legendary golfer Park SeRi’s historic 1998 US Women’s Open win. Golf Girl and her dedicated father, Golf Dad, have toiled their whole lives for this moment—the chance to win a career-making championship. But when bizarre encounters and grotesque phenomena frustrate her efforts at each hole, Golf Girl begins to wonder what her life might be like just beyond the green. This is not a realistic play about golf.

  • Do It For Umma by Seayoung Yim
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 5 more
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    Keyword: korean american, feminist + 2 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, melodrama, mystery/thriller, parody/spoof, satire
    Keyword: korean american, feminist, Hamlet, Asian American
    In this surreal comedic detective story, the ghost of Hannah’s recently deceased mother returns to haunt the Korean convenience store she once ran with an iron fist, shaming, cajoling, and needling her daughter into avenging her extremely suspicious death. While Hannah’s older brother shirks off familial duties in favor of a romantic tryst with the local dry-cleaning maven, Hannah embarks on an epic mission to...
    In this surreal comedic detective story, the ghost of Hannah’s recently deceased mother returns to haunt the Korean convenience store she once ran with an iron fist, shaming, cajoling, and needling her daughter into avenging her extremely suspicious death. While Hannah’s older brother shirks off familial duties in favor of a romantic tryst with the local dry-cleaning maven, Hannah embarks on an epic mission to piece together the clues that will lead her to Umma’s killer. Featuring a chorus of ajummas and a healthy dose of revenge, Do It for Umma is an absurd tragicomedy about a young woman trying to gain her mother’s approval and protect her family’s honor in the strangest of circumstances.

    7F, 1M
  • Persimmon Nights by Seayoung Yim
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: Asian American, korean american + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, melodrama, period
    Keyword: Asian American, korean american, 1960s, Los Angeles
    Synopsis

    Set during the first large scale wave of Asian American Immigration in The Persimmon Grove, a lurid nightclub, a brash young Korean immigrant rises to great heights in his ethnic enclave while balancing two lovers and many debts in the 1960s/70s. At the top of his game, he risks it all.

    4F, 1M
  • Untitled Play About Institutional Racism the Nonprofit Industrial Complex by Seayoung Yim
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, political + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, political, satire
    Does anyone know anyone on the funding committee? Who wants to participate in the office weight-loss challenge? Where are we supposed to print now that the copy room is for mothers to pump? Are there enough people of color in the brochure stock photography? And who keeps eating Antonio’s organic goat yoghurt he has to buy on the other side town? These questions and more pepper this satire of non-profit life.