Kim's Convenience playbill

PL AYBILL KIM’S CONVENIENCE

Kim’s Convenience Ins Choi

( Canada 2012 )

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a pproxim at e ru n ni ng t im e: 1 hou r a nd 25 m i nu t es t her e w ill be no i n t er m ission

ARTIST NOTE: PAUL SUN-HYUNG LEE Back in 2011 while rehearsing Kim’s Convenience for the Toronto Fringe, Ins and I used to half joke about the “what ifs”? We’d try to top each other with outlandish (to us anyways) scenarios regarding response to our little Fringe show. What if the show was a smash hit and people had to line up for hours to get a ticket? What if we had theatre companies fighting to re-mount it as a main stage show? What if the show was a critical success and it went on a National Tour? A World Tour? What if? It was almost as if we were daring ourselves to shoot for the stars because deep down, we all knew the immense potential this show had.

With every remount, Kim’s Convenience continues to grow in the most amazing ways. It remains an absolute joy to perform. Of course it helps when you’re working with some of the finest actors, directors, producers, production and stage management teams this country has to offer. We have all become family through this show and it has been an honour and privilege to work with such talented and committed artists and craftspeople.

This show has been a complete blessing and gift for me. It’s allowed me to fulfill many of my dreams and for that, I will be eternally grateful.

“Yah, potential. Could be best, I always dream like that. Could be best.” - Appa

I think that line fully sums up what my experience on Kim’s Convenience has been.

Potential. Dreams. The best.

From the first time Ins asked me to read for Appa all those years ago I have always believed Kim’s Convenience was special. I sincerely hope you do too.

Okay, seeyou.

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Appa in Kim’s Convenience

A MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR As Paul says, so many dreams have come true with this production. For Soulpepper to be able to take a show like this across Canada is a dream come true. It is also a dream come true that a show with this phenomenal success was written by a graduate of our Academy, directed by another graduate and designed by two other graduates.

Kim’s Convenience is a play about family and this is a production very much about family.

Welcome, Albert Schultz, Artistic Director

p roduc t ion s p on sor

CREATIVE TEAM

KIM’S CONVENIENCE

CAS T Ins Choi

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee

Jung

Appa

Grace Lynn Kung

Andre Sills

Janet

Jean Yoon

Umma

Rich, Mr. Lee, Mike, Alex

Production Weyni Mengesha

Lorenzo Savoini

Director

Lighting Designer

Albert Schultz

Thomas Ryder Payne

Remount Director

Ins Choi

Playwright

Ken MacKenzie

Set & Costume Designer

Sound Designer

Sean Baek

Fight Director

Kelly McEvenue

Alexander Coach

Kat Chin

Stage Manager

Neha Ross

Assistant Stage Manager

SOULPEPPER PRODUC T ION Jacqueline Robertson-Cull

Head of Hair & Makeup

Geoff Hughes

Cutter

Janet Pym

Wardrobe Coordinator

Sidra Cruz

Dresser

Greg Chambers

Props Builder

Barbara Nowakowski

First Hand

s p e c i a l t h a n k s: L i z a pau l , t h e Gr a n d T h e at r e , L on d on .

Kim’s Convenience was originally produced as part of the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival at the Bathurst Street Theatre. It won the New Play Contest, the Patron’s Pick and went on to be part of the Best of Fringe Uptown Festival at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts. The play premiered in 2012 at Soulpepper, receiving the Toronto Theatre Critics award for Best New Canadian Play, being published by House of Anansi Press and spawning a 2013/2014 Canadian National tour. The original cast included Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jean Yoon, Esther Jun, Andre Sills and Ins Choi. It was designed by Ken MacKenzie, directed by Ins Choi, stage managed by Kat Chin and produced by Leon Aureus and Ins Choi.

i l l u s t r at ion : b r i a n r e a

BACKGROUND NOTES

Kim’s Convenience began as a vignette for an event at fu-GEN Theatre. Director Nina Lee Aquino, among others, felt there was more to be mined: a story rooted in this city but not often portrayed on our stages. A story needing to be told. With Aquino’s encouragement and guidance, Ins Choi set out to create a full-length play.

But first he acted at the Stratford Festival, won a place in the Soulpepper Academy, and became a father twice over. The play grew slowly, gaining supporters as it went. Choi’s faith community at Grace Toronto Church, for example, funded a week-long workshop. When Kim’s Convenience was finally submitted to the Fringe Festival New Play Contest in 2011, it won. The subsequent production and extension were sold out. Soulpepper saw a chance to champion a new work that celebrates a completely Torontonian story. Our audiences took Kim’s to their hearts; this is its third remount in 3 years. Having already been to London, over the next 18 months it will continue across the country going to Port Hope, Calgary, Hamilton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. Not bad for a vignette.

While not autobiographical this play is grounded in a thorough knowledge of the milieu. In fact, Choi originally wanted to stage it in an actual convenience store. “You got that smell,” he says.

“You got that convenience store smell, the dust, the grime, the bell...” That idea didn’t come to pass but this tender, funny and surprising script evokes the setting brilliantly anyway, giving the play a powerful integrity and authenticity. One of its many pleasures is the “behind the scenes” look we get at this staple of our economy.

From the 1980s, when the Kim family of the play moves into Regent Park, Koreans have been a fixture in Toronto convenience stores. In the enormously appealing character of Mr. Kim, or Appa (father), we see the smarts, courage, resourcefulness, and humour these immigrants brought with them. Through his customers and perhaps most vividly through his children, we also see Mr. Kim’s prejudices, hopes, fears and longings. He is a fully rounded, richly realized creation, and a gift for any actor. Listen to Mr. Kim on the subject of who’s stealing and who isn’t. Watch him deal with other businessmen.

His daughter may speak better English but she has her hands full in an argument with her tough-

minded Appa. Mr. Kim’s all too familiar difficulty is he has knowledge but no one to pass it on to: neither of his children will take over the business when he retires. They have other dreams – desires Mr. Kim and his wife’s hard work and sacrifice have helped make possible.

One of the script’s most revealing aspects is its portrait of Regent Park. The closeness and pride among those who live there is perhaps most simply and beautifully summed up in Mr. Kim’s response to the idea of closing his store, “This community need me.” The gentrification now underway may improve some buildings, there’ll be certainly be more pricey condominiums but what will happen to the people who have called this community home for years? What will happen to the small businesses that have so faithfully served them? Through this one family, their business, and their loyal clientele, Ins Choi has given us a hilarious, touching glimpse of a corner of our own world. Here. And now.•

biography Ins Choi is an actor and a playwright who was born in Korea, grew up in Scarborough and now resides in Toronto. Ins joined Soulpepper as part of the 2009/2010 Academy and has performed on stage in Alligator Pie (2012), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011), Death of a Salesman (2010, 2012), (re)Birth: E.E. Cummings in Song & Window on Toronto (2010, 2011). Kim’s Convenience, Ins’ first play, was originally produced as part of the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival where it won the New Play Contest and the Patron's Pick award. The play then went on to an enormously successful run in 2012 at Soulpepper, receiving the Toronto Theatre Critics award for Best New Canadian Play, being published by House of Anansi Press and spawning a national tour that began in London, ON and will travel to Port Hope, Calgary, Hamilton, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver. He is currently working on a few projects including a one person show entitled Subway Stations of the Cross.•

Background Notes by Paula Wing

THANK YOU FOR AT TENDING!

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Soulpepper Theatre Company is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (pact), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (tapa) and Theatre Ontario, and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Scenic Artists and Set Decorators employed by Soulpepper Theatre Company are represented

by Local 828 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. •

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