Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi (2011)

TW: Physical Violence, Racial/Queer Humor, Asian Slur

 

SYNOPSIS

            We’re introduced to the convenience store with Appa advertising a new Korean energy drink to a customer that’s buying a scratcher and discuss the cultural importance of using certain names for items when others are technically still correct. Appa teaches Korean history at every opportunity and still dislikes Japanese things after their occupation of Korea to the point of having his daughter call the police on an illegally parked Honda. An old friend drops by to offer Appa an exit strategy. Lots of condos are going up in the area and Walmart is planning to swoop in. Mr. Lee offers Appa enough money to retire with but he would rather have Janet inherit the store to keep his legacy alive despite her adamant refusal to do so. The police arrive soon after and the officer turns out to be an old friend of Appa’s runaway son that his daughter had a crush on. Janet and Officer Alex leave for an impromptu lunch date while Umma rendezvous with their son at church on it’s last meeting. Jung is dissatisfied with his life choices and Umma encourages him to do what’s necessary for his young son, to find fulfillment in family. When Alex and Janet return Appa gives his approval by physically forcing Alex to ask Janet to marry him and soon after Jung arrives at the store after a fifteen year absence. Jung gives Appa a picture of his grandson and begs for a job. Appa gives him the entire store.

 

CHARACTERS

Appa – 59, First Gen Korean-Canadian, Thick Korean-Canadian Accent

Umma – 56, First Gen Korean-Canadian, Thick Korean-Canadian Accent

Jung – 32, Second Gen Korean-Canadian

Janet – 30, Second Gen Korean-Canadian

Rich – Young Adult, Black Kenyan (Actor Traditionally also Plays Mr. Lee, Mike, & Alex)

Mr. Lee – Black

Mike – Black Jamaican, Thick Accent

Alex – 32, Black

 

POSSIBLE MONOLOGUES

            Mr. Lee has the first traditional monologue asking Mr. Lee about his exit plan and offering him his card. It’s short but has a clear motive and use of tactics.

            Appa’s first true monologue is about profiling people to anticipate who will steal from the store and who won’t. The conversation starts because of a Black man wearing a jean jacket which Appa professes is a steal combo, but also believes fat Black girls never steal while fat White ones do. He covers brown and Asian as well as gay and lesbian people. The only purely positive stereotype is gay men and the only purely negative one is White guys. Every other stereotype has both steal and no steal categories. He also has a less risqué monologue where he argues with Janet trying to get her to take over the store. There are several multi-sentence lines of Appa’s that could be strung together for a lengthy dramatic monologue with a bit of dark humor at the end. He also has a rather sweet monologue telling Janet about a friend in LA that was good to Black customers and when riots broke out, those same customers protected his store. Because of that, Appa gives her relationship with Alex his blessing despite Alex not being Korean.

            Janet has a monologue explaining what happened to Jung that would work well for a short dramatic piece. She also has her monologue where she’s arguing with Appa about not wanting to take over the store and she tallies up how much he would owe her for helping out as often as she had for several years.

            Jung has a lengthy monologue that works alone if you start with his “I don’t like my life, Umma” line and can be cut down to a minute or 30 second monologue easy.

 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

            The play brings on comparisons to a modern Death of Salesman with a happy ending. The structure is very much like a classic with a breath of fresh air. There are serious moments with lots of comedic breaks much the same as everyday life that makes it easy to bond with the characters in the play. I can see why it sold out so quickly with each of its initial productions.

            Now that I’ve read the play, I’m excited to watch the Netflix adaptation. I prefer to read then watch because the series will expand of what’s in the script where normally when books get adapted they have to make lots of cuts to fit the new medium. I can’t wait to fall in love with these characters again.

 

Almost, Maine by John Cariani (2006)

TW:

 

SYNOPSIS

            Aside from the prologue, interlogue, and epilogue that each feature the same couple, every scene focuses on a different pair of actors. In the prologue we meet Ginette and Pete as they stargaze. Ginette confesses her love to Pete who takes quite some time to admit that he loves her as well. Ginette moves closer to him on the bench in an attempt to be as close as possible, which Pete says is actually as far away as she could possibly be from him. He says that she is technically as far west from him as possible. Ginette gets up to leave and realizing his mistake Pete reassures her that she is getting closer every step away she takes according to his analogy. She walks offstage and Pete is left alone.

            Her Heart features Glory, who has decided to pitch her tent in East’s yard so she can see the northern lights. She believes they’re torches held by the recently departed and wants a final goodbye to her recently departed husband even though he left her heartbroken, literally. She had to get a new heart and carries her broken one in a plastic bag which keeps ending up in East’s hands through a series of unintentional interactions. Glory sees herself as responsible for her ex’s death since he came to the hospital to get her back and when she denied him he ran out of the hospital and was hit by an ambulance. The scene ends with her saying goodbye to her husband, Wes, and greeting the repairman, East, who vows to fix her heart.

            Sad and Glad has Jimmy at a bar when he runs into his ex, Sandrine. He attempts to reconnect with her, but she’s forced to reveal that she’s at the bar for her bachelorette party and that she’s getting married in the morning. Jimmy tries to flag down the waitress and accidentally reveals his tattoo that reads Villian, but was supposed to say Villain. He thought he must be a villain for Sandrine to leave him, but is genuinely happy that she was found. As Sandrine leaves the waitress makes her way over and tells him to ask for her by name, Villian, pronounced like Jillian. Jimmy makes the connection as is glad that Villian found him.

            This Hurts opens with Marvalyn finishing up her ironing when she accidentally whacks Steve with her ironing board. He has congenital analgesia and can’t feel pain. Steve insists that if there’s no blood or discoloration, he’s fine. Steve lives with his brother and is making a list of all the things that can hurt him and the things he should be afraid of. One of the things on both of his lists is love which riles Marvalyn up and she ends up kissing him despite having a boyfriend that she “loves so much” despite how much they argue. Steve is confused by the action and embarrassed, Marvalyn tries to leave and whacks him with the ironing board again, this time causing him to feel pain.

            Getting It Back is about a woman trying to return all the love her boyfriend has given her in exchange for the love she gave him, since she’s running out of love for herself. She brings in several bags of his love and returns with a tiny pouch even though she insists that she gave him more love than that. Turns out she gave him so much love he couldn’t store it all and had to by a ring to hold all the love she had given despite dragging his feet for eleven years. Gayle accepts the ring and asks to keep Lendall’s love, which he’s happy to give. They kiss and hug.

            The interlogue follows intermission and just has Pete on the bench looking stage left where Ginette exited.

            They Fell features two Aroostook county boys, real men’s men. Chad insists he had the worst date because she couldn’t stand the way he smelled long enough to get out of her driveway. He’s sure that he wins and that he gets to plan what the two guys do tomorrow, but Randy reveals that he over tossed his date at a swing class and broke her face. Randy wins the contest and plans to do exactly what Chad wanted to do anyway. They lament dating and Chad professes that he’d rather spend his time with Randy instead of seeing women since Randy is the one thing in the world that makes him feel good and makes sense. Randy tries to cancel their plans and leave. Chad calls after him, but when he stands up his knees give out and he falls. Randy comes to help him and Chad admits that he just fell in love with Randy. Randy is upset and insists that Chad has crossed a line, but at the end up his rant, Randy’s knees buckle and he too falls. The men are on opposite sides of the stage and continue to stand and fall trying to get closer to each other to no avail.

            Where is Went starts with Phil asking his wife, Marci, if she’s mad, which she insists that she isn’t. They’ve just finished skiing and Marci is missing one of her shoes. Turns out Phil has forgotten their anniversary and Marci is very much upset and feeling like Phil isn’t paying enough attention and working too much. Phil insists that Marci keeps lying to him about what she’s feeling to the point that he feels out of place and overworks to be somewhere that makes sense to him. They’re finally honest with each other and admit that neither of them had any fun. That’s when Marci’s shoe drops from the sky and Phil retrieves it for her. She puts it on and drives away leaving Phil on the stage alone.

            Story of Hope has a woman arrive on a man’s doorstep. He’s half the man he used to be and Hope apologizes for barging into the wrong house. The last time she was there Danny asked her to marry him just before she was set to leave town for college. She said she’d have an answer for him in the morning but never told him. She goes to leave and the man says goodbye, but calls her by name. Hope realizes she had the right house all along, but that the way she left really took a toll on him. She ready to give him her answer when they hear a woman call Dan honey and asking who’s at the door. Hope leaves but confesses to the closed door that she did want to marry him.

            Seeing the Thing begins with Rhonda inviting Dave onto her front porch for the first time – a big deal. Dave presents Rhonda with a painting to commemorate how long they’ve been together despite Rhonda feeling iffy about calling them “together.” The painting is supposed to be a pointillism piece that you can’t look at directly to see the image. He explains that you have to trick it. Rhonda tries to hard and Dave insists on getting beers to relax and take her mind off of it but Rhonda refuses to let him in. She instead tries to guess what it is and asks for a hint. Dave’s hint is a kiss which makes Rhonda try to kick him off her property. Dave explodes that she’s as hung up as all her friends say she is and that he was wrong to think he could put in enough effort to woo her. She tries to give him a kiss – very new territory for her and likes it. Soon the two are comically stripping off tons of outer layers and rush into the room to enjoy each other and the audience finally sees that the painting is of a heart.

            Finally in the epilogue it starts to snow just as Ginette enters stage right having walked all around the world to finally be close to Pete.

 

CHARACTERS

Pete/Steve/Lendall/Man – 20-40, Man should be either very Short or very Thin

Ginette/Glory/Waitress/Gayle/Hope – 20-40

East/Jimmy/Chad/Phil/Dave – 20-40

Sandrine/Marvalyn/Marci/Rhonda – 20-40

 

POTENTIAL MONOLOGUES

            There are several lines where characters speak for an extended amount of time, but many of them reference things already established in the scene that would be difficult to execute out of context. You can slightly edit Lendall’s monologue explaining that Gayle gave him so much love he had to buy an engagement ring to contain it.

            Chad’s monologue where he realizes he’s in love with Randy is easier to work with the option of tagging on his later line where he explicitly says he’s fallen in love with him. Randy’s rant glosses over lots of key details and he never actually says he’s fallen in love with Chad also, so it’s not as strong a piece.

            Story of Hope is essentially a really long monologue where Hope explains her crazy situation of realizing she wanted to marry a man years after he proposed and she ghosted him. Dan of course has interjections, but they could easily be skipped. I highly recommend finding a piece of her word vomit to focus on to build a monologue that tells the story making cuts along the way. Nothing should need to be added to make a good monologue about her trying to find the man that proposed to her. I think ending it sad with her line asking what she was supposed to do would be a safe choice.

            Story of Hope also has Dan’s speech about dashing someone’s hope that would hold up pretty well.

 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

            I’ll forever think of Almost, Maine as the cheesy show high school’s would perform at one act competitions. At the same time this show is very endearing to me because of They Fell. It was one of my first positive experiences with gay representation and it amazed me that it had happier ending than I was used to, especially growing up in the Deep South.

            A lot of the play would still resonate with today’s audiences. It’s a cute show and the playwright knows it. The only thing that feels out of place is how often characters kiss each other unprompted. It makes sense in Seeing the Thing, but in Her Heart and This Hurts the characters are complete strangers. Cariani does explain that the show is supposed to be about people undergoing intense emotion, though, so if it’s played right the random seeming kisses could be justified. Steve also has a line where he talks about his pain sensors – “and because they’re immature, my development as a human being has been retarded, he says, >”. This is Steve talking about what his brother says about him. The R word is arguably being used in a medical sense and not as a slur, but I still think if the play had been written in 2021 it would have been phrased differently. Mostly I mention it as a warning that didn’t seem fitting to label as a trigger warning and my opinion on its use is very limited as an allistic person.

 

She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen (2011)

She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen (2011)

TW: Homophobia, Molestation Mention

 

SYNOPSIS

            On the night of Agnes’s college graduation she wishes to no longer be mundane and her wish is answered by her whole family dying in a car accident. While packing stuff up to move in with her boyfriend of three years she finds her younger sister Tilly’s Dungeon Master’s journal for a homebrew Dungeons & Dragons campaign and Agnes figures it’s the best chance she has to learn more about her late sister. She meets a friend of Tilly’s at a D&D shop that agrees to DM the campaign for her that thankfully includes Tilly’s paladin along with two other characters in her party, Lillith and Kaliope. The campaign is a quest for Tillius the Paladin’s soul, but the retired demon overlord Orcus has already traded her soul to the dragon Tiamat, arch nemesis of Tillius. Between D&D sessions Agnes spends a lot of time talking things over with her friend Vera that just so happens to be a guidance counselor at Tilly’s high school. After finding out the Tillius and therefore Tilly is a lesbian she meets the real-life version of Lillith who Tillius was dating in the game, though Lily is very much still in the closet even after having shared a kiss with Tilly in the real world. This prompts Agnes to pay better attention to the parallels of the game with Tilly’s actual life like the cheerleader succubus that represent the popular girls that bullied Tilly for her sexuality. When Lillith dies in the game Agnes nearly quits playing for good but Chuck, the DM, even invites Agnes to meet the actual people Tilly played with inspiring her to finish the quest. Agnes becomes an avid D&D player, gets married, and finds happiness.

 

CHARACTERS

Agnes – 24

Tilly – 15/16

Chuck – High Schooler

Miles – Mid 20s

Kaliope/Kelly – High Schooler, Kaliope has Full Mobility, Kelly has Cerebral Palsy and uses Forearm Crutches

Lillith/Lilly – High Schooler

Vera/Evil Gabbi/The Beholder – Mid 20s+/High Schooler

Narrator/Evil Tina/Farrah – High Schooler

Steve – High Schooler

Orcus/Ronnie – High Schooler

 

POTENTIAL MONOLOGUES

            The only true monologue is Agne’s when explaining to Vera just how little she actually knew Tilly. The narrator does have a few paragraphs of speech, but narration doesn’t work well for monologue work.

 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

            Perhaps it’s because this play was specifically recommended to me and I had high hopes for it, but reading it was disappointing. This show would be a field day for Costumes, Lights, and Props but the dialogue feels very juvenile. It’s set in the 90s, but “Yo” appears in the script too much to feel like casual period dialogue and characters at times feel like they’re talking with a forced Blaccent despite the play being written by an Asian man that wrote for Raya and the Last Dragon, not to mention how every single opportunity to make a sexual joke is pounced on no matter how out of place or cringy.

            As someone that enjoys D&D, I love the concept of the play and the themes that get explored, but for everything that gets touched on so much feels unresolved by the end of the play. Agnes’s whole family died in the car crash but the affect that her parents’ deaths have on her is never really mentioned. It feels like Nguyen didn’t want to include the parents as characters and saw the crash as an easy way to write them out.

            Then there’s the boyfriend. At no point in the play are his good qualities revealed. Miles is instantly jealous of Agnes spending time with someone else and assumes she’s cheating on him with a high schooler. Vera’s character spends most of her stage time talking about how horrible a boyfriend he is that it takes three years and her family dying for him to invite Agnes to live with him. In the game, Tilly literally imagines him as a blob monster, a gelatinous cube that dissolves the flesh of anything it touches to be specific. When Agnes argues about the way Tilly wrote him, the younger sister claims he touched her and then after shocked silence says that he didn’t but he might have. Agnes calls her on that not being funny and the two descend into bickering, but it’s a strange thing to include in the first place since everything that happens in the campaign is supposed to be Chuck narrating from her DM journal. The comment isn’t brought up again. Throughout the play it feels like Agnes is growing increasingly distant from Miles so it comes as a shock that the play ends mentioning that the two characters got married. It felt like they were setting up so many motifs for Miles to be toxic and not worth Agnes’s affections.

            This feels like it would be a great show for schools except for the number of overtly sexually comments and swearing. I have the 2016 version and I’m a but surprised that it wasn’t edited to be more school friendly, granted that’s not to say that a junior version doesn’t exist. The play as it currently exists isn’t my cup of tea, but that can easily just be me being more critical of it that it was intended to be taken. I do appreciate that Nguyen attempted to write characters that could be played by any race specifically for schools and community theatres. The play is overall a fun story of a young adult trying hard to understand someone through a medium that’s much more whimsical than the character is used to dealing with.