Original post date: March 20, 2023
End of October 2022, I submitted “My Korean Canadian Friend” to the Ontario Arts Council. I worked on the play endlessly for the past 6 years. It started as a monodrama and developed to a full length play. It went through 19 drafts (this is considered A LOT) to get to where it is now.
My journey with “My Korean Canadian Friend”:
- Developing it as a monodrama and performing it at York University
- Developing it after I graduated. Creating a full length draft
- Submitting it to different writing groups and grants… and getting rejected
- Performing scenes at Fresh Ink, Soulpepper Theatre
- Almost giving up on the piece, but continued with the encouragement and support of my friends
- Working with 3 different Korean Cultural Consultants to make the piece more culturally authentic
- Winning Digital New Play at Toronto Fringe and spending several months to produce an online production
- Receiving the OAC Theatre Projects grant
- Spending the past year to finalize the script. Seeing how much it has evolved since the first draft
I feel incredibly fulfilled. I feel like I can truly say that I was able to accomplish this because of my efforts over the past few years. If it weren’t for that, it wouldn’t have grown to this extent. I’m immensely gratefully and appreciative to all my friends and colleagues who have joined me on this journey. I’m also appreciative of all the opportunities I’ve had thanks to this piece.
While this chapter has ended, I’m excited for what’s next to come.
Ngọc Hân (Rebecca) Trần 