INTERMISSION 15 minutes with ...
Julia Cho
Julia Cho and I met some years ago when she came through South Coast Repertory
for a reading of one of her commissioned plays. In 2002, she was back for Pacific
Playwrights Project and a Friday afternoon reading of her ’99 Histories’ that I sadly
missed. It was not until her second Pacific Playwrights Festival reading, ‘The Piano
Teacher’ in 2006, that I finally heard her stage voice. It was fearless, far-thrown,
and probing. Kate Whoriskey staged the play's world premiere earlier this year in a
production starring Linda Gehringer. It is now slated for a Vineyard Theatre off-
Broadway bow. Meanwhile, Nick Hormann staged Julia’s ‘B.F.E.’ at Pasadena City
College in 2007 and now the West Coast premiere of her ‘Durango’ arrives at East
West Players under Chay Yew’s direction. Though we haven’t been able to really
share an intermission together, the wonder of email allowed the following exchange
to take place in final days of September 2007.
Julia Cho
Julia Cho and I met some years ago when she came through South Coast Repertory
for a reading of one of her commissioned plays. In 2002, she was back for Pacific
Playwrights Project and a Friday afternoon reading of her ’99 Histories’ that I sadly
missed. It was not until her second Pacific Playwrights Festival reading, ‘The Piano
Teacher’ in 2006, that I finally heard her stage voice. It was fearless, far-thrown,
and probing. Kate Whoriskey staged the play's world premiere earlier this year in a
production starring Linda Gehringer. It is now slated for a Vineyard Theatre off-
Broadway bow. Meanwhile, Nick Hormann staged Julia’s ‘B.F.E.’ at Pasadena City
College in 2007 and now the West Coast premiere of her ‘Durango’ arrives at East
West Players under Chay Yew’s direction. Though we haven’t been able to really
share an intermission together, the wonder of email allowed the following exchange
to take place in final days of September 2007.
CRIS GROSS As a writer, how do you see the other two aspects serving the creators at this time
in theater history? Obviously there would be examples of every kind of treatment and quality. But, as
a writer who is fairly well established, do you see theater support or critical sensitivity as a bigger
challenge in the birth of a new play?
JULIA CHO I think having the support of a theater is fairly crucial to any playwright. You can only
do so many readings and workshops; if you want to grow as an artist, you have to have
productions to learn from and commissions that support you while you write. There are some
theaters that do this kind of work incredibly well: South Coast Rep, for instance, commissions more
new writers than any theater I know of. But the challenge is that there aren't more of these theaters.
There are brights spots: Playwrights Horizons in New York is getting a lot of publicity now because
they have a season devoted to new work by mostly emerging writers. But while I love that they're
doing this, part of me wishes it wasn't such an anomaly. Shouldn't there be many theaters who
devote their seasons to new work by new writers? Why should this stand out? Shouldn't it be the
norm?
CRIS GROSS Speaking only for yourself, were you a born artist who found theater as your outlet?
Or did theater inspire you to become an artist so you could participate in its creativity somehow?
JULIA CHO I'm about the least likely playwright possible. I did not grow up in a family of artists. I
did not grow up watching theater. But when I saw my first play, I found the experience absolutely
searing. I guess I was born with something in me that responds to theater -- to this day, nothing
pierces me more than a great play. But I often think how easily I could've gone without ever knowing
that theater moves me so much. Sometimes, being a playwright seems like such an accident. It was
simply a matter of the right ticket being put into my hand at the right time.
I'm not sure if I'm a born artist, but I think I was born with a couple of qualities that make being an
artist possible. For one, I'm able to spend hours completely absorbed in my own thoughts. This
doesn't make me a lot of fun, but it does enable me to cobble together made-up worlds, word by
word. I also have a really strong imagination. In fact, the people and places I imagine can sometimes
feel more real to me than real people and places. Again, this doesn't make me great company, but it
does help me get into other people's heads -- a crucial skill for a person who has to write in other
people's voices.
CRIS GROSS Three and a half years ago, prior to your first full production, a reporter asked you,
"As a writer, what sort of legacy might you want to leave?" To which you replied, "In my dreams, I
would love to be a woman of letters and write across genres: non-fiction, essays, novels, poems.
I'd love to be a real writers' writer. I'd want to be remembered for a body of work that reflects what it
was like to be human at this moment in time. And I would want to leave a legacy of activism.
Somehow, I want to make a difference and combat all the hate and racism in this world with
kindness and compassion. I'm just not sure how to do that yet."
Have the last three years' success strengthened or altered that view?
JULIA CHO I still feel very much that I would like to write in a variety of genres. And I still carry
around this feeling of wanting to be a real writer someday; I suspect I'll feel like that no matter how
much I've written. And I'd still love to be an activist somehow. But I'm still not sure how to do that.
CRIS GROSS I believe a work of art is not limited by the intentions of the artist, nor is it elevated by
them. I wonder if you would agree, and if you are ever surprised by what emerges from your work,
even as late as while you're watching a production after it's up and running.
JULIA CHO I'm not surprised if meanings emerge from my work that exceed what I intended; in
fact, I count on it. My plays are realistic enough that there is some core story being conveyed: it's
not "anything goes."
But I actually love it when people come to me with interpretations or themes I didn't even know were
there. I also think the best work definitely feels like it exceeds me. It's hard to explain...it's almost as
if some of the plays are bigger than I am. They tap into something larger. But instead of it being
self-aggrandizing, it can actually be quite humbling.
in theater history? Obviously there would be examples of every kind of treatment and quality. But, as
a writer who is fairly well established, do you see theater support or critical sensitivity as a bigger
challenge in the birth of a new play?
JULIA CHO I think having the support of a theater is fairly crucial to any playwright. You can only
do so many readings and workshops; if you want to grow as an artist, you have to have
productions to learn from and commissions that support you while you write. There are some
theaters that do this kind of work incredibly well: South Coast Rep, for instance, commissions more
new writers than any theater I know of. But the challenge is that there aren't more of these theaters.
There are brights spots: Playwrights Horizons in New York is getting a lot of publicity now because
they have a season devoted to new work by mostly emerging writers. But while I love that they're
doing this, part of me wishes it wasn't such an anomaly. Shouldn't there be many theaters who
devote their seasons to new work by new writers? Why should this stand out? Shouldn't it be the
norm?
CRIS GROSS Speaking only for yourself, were you a born artist who found theater as your outlet?
Or did theater inspire you to become an artist so you could participate in its creativity somehow?
JULIA CHO I'm about the least likely playwright possible. I did not grow up in a family of artists. I
did not grow up watching theater. But when I saw my first play, I found the experience absolutely
searing. I guess I was born with something in me that responds to theater -- to this day, nothing
pierces me more than a great play. But I often think how easily I could've gone without ever knowing
that theater moves me so much. Sometimes, being a playwright seems like such an accident. It was
simply a matter of the right ticket being put into my hand at the right time.
I'm not sure if I'm a born artist, but I think I was born with a couple of qualities that make being an
artist possible. For one, I'm able to spend hours completely absorbed in my own thoughts. This
doesn't make me a lot of fun, but it does enable me to cobble together made-up worlds, word by
word. I also have a really strong imagination. In fact, the people and places I imagine can sometimes
feel more real to me than real people and places. Again, this doesn't make me great company, but it
does help me get into other people's heads -- a crucial skill for a person who has to write in other
people's voices.
CRIS GROSS Three and a half years ago, prior to your first full production, a reporter asked you,
"As a writer, what sort of legacy might you want to leave?" To which you replied, "In my dreams, I
would love to be a woman of letters and write across genres: non-fiction, essays, novels, poems.
I'd love to be a real writers' writer. I'd want to be remembered for a body of work that reflects what it
was like to be human at this moment in time. And I would want to leave a legacy of activism.
Somehow, I want to make a difference and combat all the hate and racism in this world with
kindness and compassion. I'm just not sure how to do that yet."
Have the last three years' success strengthened or altered that view?
JULIA CHO I still feel very much that I would like to write in a variety of genres. And I still carry
around this feeling of wanting to be a real writer someday; I suspect I'll feel like that no matter how
much I've written. And I'd still love to be an activist somehow. But I'm still not sure how to do that.
CRIS GROSS I believe a work of art is not limited by the intentions of the artist, nor is it elevated by
them. I wonder if you would agree, and if you are ever surprised by what emerges from your work,
even as late as while you're watching a production after it's up and running.
JULIA CHO I'm not surprised if meanings emerge from my work that exceed what I intended; in
fact, I count on it. My plays are realistic enough that there is some core story being conveyed: it's
not "anything goes."
But I actually love it when people come to me with interpretations or themes I didn't even know were
there. I also think the best work definitely feels like it exceeds me. It's hard to explain...it's almost as
if some of the plays are bigger than I am. They tap into something larger. But instead of it being
self-aggrandizing, it can actually be quite humbling.
| THEATER TIMES DIALOGUE / JULIA CHO |
Julia Cho wrote her first play in
eighth grade about a motley group
of people stranded in a bomb shelter
during nuclear fallout. No one at the
time foresaw Julia would go on to
be a playwright, least of all herself.
Hailing from the suburbs of
Southern California and Arizona,
Julia pursued theater education
consisting mainly of Andrew Lloyd
Webber musicals and bad
Shakespeare. Luckily, a class trip to
New York and a chance encounter
with John Guare’s 'Six Degrees of
Separation' changed all that.
Fascinated with the forces and
choices that determine who we are,
Julia often writes about good people
who mean well but do not-so-good
things. She strives to write with
brevity, honesty, humor and a dash
of poetry. She has received a New
York Foundation for The Arts grant,
residencies at Seattle
Rep/Hedgebrook’s Women
Playwrights Festival and The
MacDowell Colony, and was a
finalist for a Susan Smith Blackburn
Prize. Her play BFE won the 2004
Weissberger Award. She has received
commissions from Ma-Yi Theatre,
New York Theater Workshop, South
Coast Repertory and the Mark Taper
Forum. Julia is a graduate of
Amherst College and has degrees
from UC Berkeley, NYU and The
Juilliard School.
-- New Dramatists
eighth grade about a motley group
of people stranded in a bomb shelter
during nuclear fallout. No one at the
time foresaw Julia would go on to
be a playwright, least of all herself.
Hailing from the suburbs of
Southern California and Arizona,
Julia pursued theater education
consisting mainly of Andrew Lloyd
Webber musicals and bad
Shakespeare. Luckily, a class trip to
New York and a chance encounter
with John Guare’s 'Six Degrees of
Separation' changed all that.
Fascinated with the forces and
choices that determine who we are,
Julia often writes about good people
who mean well but do not-so-good
things. She strives to write with
brevity, honesty, humor and a dash
of poetry. She has received a New
York Foundation for The Arts grant,
residencies at Seattle
Rep/Hedgebrook’s Women
Playwrights Festival and The
MacDowell Colony, and was a
finalist for a Susan Smith Blackburn
Prize. Her play BFE won the 2004
Weissberger Award. She has received
commissions from Ma-Yi Theatre,
New York Theater Workshop, South
Coast Repertory and the Mark Taper
Forum. Julia is a graduate of
Amherst College and has degrees
from UC Berkeley, NYU and The
Juilliard School.
-- New Dramatists
