PUBLIC STUDIO is a performance series dedicated exclusively to developing the work of emerging writers. In a laboratory environment, writers will be in rehearsal with actors and a director, incorporate bare bones design elements, and open the process to an audience over a series of performances. More than a reading or workshop, but not a full production, this middle step affords early career writers the important opportunity to deepen their experience of working collaboratively over an extended rehearsal period and to see their work staged in front of an audience.

Members and Partners: $15
Non-Members: $15 plus fees*

Public Studio: WILD GOOSE DREAMS

April 6 - April 15@Shiva Theater

Wild Goose Dreams by Hansol Jung

WILD GOOSE DREAMS is a new play by Hansol Jung (Among the Dead). Minsung is a “goose father,” a South Korean man 

whose wife and daughter have moved to the United States for a better life. Deeply lonely, he escapes onto the internet and 

meets Nanhee, a young defector forced to leave her family behind in North Korea. Amidst the endless noise of the modern 

world, where likes and shares have taken the place of love and touch, Minsung and Nanhee try their best to be real for each 

other. But after a lifetime of division and separation, is connection possible? 

Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (Violet, Chinglish, The Outer Space) directs this strikingly original play about two people, and 

two cultures, forced to choose between family and freedom. PUBLIC STUDIO was founded with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Time Warner Foundation. Continued support for Public Studio is provided by The Time Warner Foundation. The Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Development Fund at The Public Theater supports the creation and development of new plays.

Public Studio presents

WILD GOOSE DREAMS

Written by Hansol Jung

Directed by Leigh Silverman

Featuring Cindy Cheung (Digital Minsung’s Wife, Chorus); Stephanie Hsu (Digital Minsung’s Daughter, Chorus); Sandra Oh 

(Nanhee); and James Yaegashi (Minsung)

Scenic Design by Wilson Chin

Costume Design by Ntokozo Fuzunina Kunene

Lighting Design by Brian Tovar

Sound Design by Joanna Lynne Staub

Music Composition by Paul Castles

Korean Songs by Jongbin Jung

The Public Theater

425 Lafayette Street

New York, NY 10003

General Info: 212.539.8500

Tickets: 212.967.7555

About the Play

Amidst the cacophony of an over-saturated social media airspace filled with chatter, coded messages and advertisements, Nanhee, a North Korean defector who has left her family behind, and Minsung, a South Korean “goose father” whose family has left him behind, hook-up. As they each attempt to assuage their fears, loneliness and alienation from family, the miracle of their quiet intimacy begins to make its own sound. Performed by actors with a live choir, this darkly humorous story of survival deploys multi-sensory modalities to evoke humanity at a breaking point.

“I have never written about Korea. I could never find a way to write Korean people in English. At Royal Court and I was encouraged to write in Korean, and then translate it back to English. I found a way to articulate a kind of language that straddled between the English vocabulary and Korean imagery. English rhythms of speech with Korean tempo of thought. And unwittingly this project began as an experiment to clash two things that don’t seem to belong together: North and South, Korean and English, noise and quiet, isolation and love. In that clash, I believe I re-discovered, and was touched by the tiny but magnificent beauty of connection between two very lonely people.”

 

About the Playwright

Hansol Jung is a playwright and director from South Korea. Plays include Cardboard Piano (Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville), No More Sad Things (co-world premiere at Sideshow Theatre, Chicago and Boise Contemporary Theatre), Among the Dead (Ma-Yi Theatre), Wolf Play, and Wild Goose Dreams. Commissions from Playwrights Horizons, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant with Ma-Yi Theatre and a translation of Romeo and Juliet for Play On! at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. 

Her work has been developed at the Royal Court, New York Theatre Workshop, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, O’Neill Conference, Lark Play Development Center, Salt Lake Acting Company, Boston Court Theatre, Bushwick Starr, Asia Society New York, and Seven Devils Playwright Conference. She is the recipient of the Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop Fellowship at the Lark, 2050 Fellowship at New York Theater Workshop, MacDowell Colony Artist Residency, and International Playwrights Residency at Royal Court. Her plays have received the Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award (Among the Dead), Honorable Mention from the 2014 Arch and Bruce Brown Playwriting Competition (Cardboard Piano), and was named 2014 finalist for the Ruby Prize (No More Sad Things). She has translated over thirty English musicals into Korean, including Evita, Dracula, Spamalot, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, while working on several award winning musical theatre productions as director, lyricist and translator in Seoul, South Korea. Jung holds a Playwriting MFA from Yale School of Drama, and is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Theatre Writers Lab.