Mia Chung grew up in San Diego though her parents were born and raised in South Korea. Growing up with South Korean parents had a big influence on Mia’s fascination with the region and her style of writing. Before discovering her calling as a playwright, Chung worked as a sketch artist and screenwriter in LA. Chung talks about that time in her career as her lowest point. Looking for change, Chung took off to New York where we “sort of fell in love with theater.” She started ushering at off-Broadway playhouses and decided to write a one-act play, just for kicks, , and “It felt like I’d found my medium,” said Chung. Her first crack at playwriting set the tone for her work to come: the play, We Spend Our Lives, was about two middle-aged Korean sisters.

While investigating this new career path, Chung met and married her husband. They moved together to Berkeley, where he was a professor, and then moved onto D.C. where Chung interned at Arena Stage. When her husband took a position at Brown University in 2008, Chung enrolled in a graduate playwriting program there, first as a guest and then full time. Her thesis play took a look at some major events of 2009: Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two Asian American journalists were captured at the North Korean border and Jaycee Dugard, who had been kidnapped as a child and held against her will for 18 years, was discovered in Northern California. This thesis play would ultimately become her award winning play, You for Me for You.

You for Me for You remains Mia Chung’s only published work to date. However, she has several other pieces of work that have been workshopped or offered a staged reading. You for Me for You investigates Chung’s internal questions about why her parents had written North Korea off, why North Korea hadn’t yet fallen apart and when would it all fall apart? Chung’s works often investigate the many facets of power- the power of family, the power of the oppressor, the power of what makes us all do what we do.

Sample Audience:

This play would be ideal for High School students- especially Sophomores and Juniors. There are several types of activities that could open up conversation groups and investigation into this play. Below I’ve included a few different activities that relate around some of the play's different themes.

Identity:

1) Identity chart: On a piece of chart paper will be five statements or descriptors (These can be whatever descriptors you feel would work best in your classroom)

a. Ancestry b. Religion c. Gender d. Neighborhood e. Race

2) Students will take five note cards from the teacher and on each card write their answer to each of the descriptors. Note: Students will be informed from the start that these answers will be allowed to remain private if they wish.

3) Teacher will ask students how they feel about defining themselves with these five characteristics. Which characteristics are external? Internal? Both?

4) Teacher will tell students to take away one of the cards. If you could only define yourself by four of them, which four? How did it feel to take it away? Was making the one card decision easy?

5) Repeat this process until there is only 1 card left.

Discussion Questions:

What did you notice about this process?

Why do you think you picked the last card you picked? Is that last card something other people can tell about you or is it something private?

Ask if anyone would be open to sharing some of their card choices; which one they got rid of first, which one they kept till the end, which decision was the hardest, etc. Why did they make those choices?

Power/ Oppression:

1) Students will divide into pairs and decide who will start as A and B.

2) Player A will hold the palm of their hand in front of Player B’s face.

3) Player B will imagine that they are hypnotized by Player A’s hand and will follow in anywhere it goes, keeping the same distance between their face and the palm at all times.

4) After a set time the two players will switch leader roles.

5) Post activitiy questions: How did this activity feel? What did you prefer- leading or following? How does this activity relate to power?

Discussion Questions:

How does power play a part in this play?

How does power influence Government?

Where do you see power in your everyday lives?

Propaganda:

1) Discuss what propaganda is

2) What types of American propaganda do we see every day?

3) Divide students into pairs

4) Give them a list of characters from the play

5) Ask them to decide what types of propaganda they think each character might reflect- Negative, positive, country pride, fear?

Discussion Questions:

How is propaganda related to power?

Why does propaganda work?

How do you use propaganda in your regular life?

THE ORPHAN OF ZHAO

(an adaptation of the classic Chinese drama)

The streets of Jin are awash in the blood of the noble Zhao Clan. The vicious slaughter ignites a succession of individual acts of virtue and sacrifice—as the hope for retribution and a return to a humane social order is pinned to the survival of a baby boy. The eternal swing of the pendulum of justice—powered by the momentum of personal courage—resounds in this new adaptation of a stirring and resonant Chinese classic.

Produced by Brandeis Theatre Company (Mar 2008). Read at Mu Performing Arts “New Eyes” Festival (Jan 2009).

CATCH AS CATCH CAN

The Phelans and the Lavecchias grew up in each other’s homes in a tight-knit middle class community, sharing the good times and the bad together. But when Tim Phelan comes home with some news, a shifting crisis is set in motion that tests the bonds and identities of each member of this extended family. The play employs the theatrical convention of character doubling in an unconventional way to help us look again at the roles we play when at home with family.

Workshopped in July 2015 at the Huntington Summer PlayLabs.

WE SPEND OUR LIVES

Mrs. Song asks her sister, Mrs. Kim, for money.

Received a workshop production at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (2004).

SKIN IN THE GAME

Three of “the best and the brightest” prepare to take their places in life.

Read at The Civilians’ R&D Group reading series (2011)

THIS EXQUISITE CORPSE

Solbi moves from Korea to New Jersey with her GI husband and their son. The effort to build a life and make friends—as well as learn English—has literally split Solbi into pieces. She is even alienated from her own tongue. This surreal “chorus” of Solbi's struggle to express themselves despite misinterpretation and cultural appropriation.

YOU FOR ME FOR YOU

Premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in association with Ma-Yi Theatre Company (2012); second production at Company One (2013). UK premiere at The Royal Court (2015). Regional premieres at Mu Performing Arts Center (MN) and Portland Playhouse in 2016.

Workshopped and read at Playwrights Realm, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, Inkwell/Page to Stage Festival, Washington DC (2011); Icicle Creek/ACT, Seattle (2011).