In a new country, finding a community can be hard. Immigrants feel like they don’t belong among a majority culture and it might be difficult for them to assimilate in a place where there is a language barrier and the customs are hard to learn.
Lloyd Suh, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and playwright of “The Far Country” and “The Chinese Lady,” is introducing Bay Area residents to his play “The Heart Sellers” for the first time. The play has a three-way co-production with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Aurora Theatre Company and Sacramento’s Capital Stage. The opening night at TheatreWorks will be April 5.
The play will explore the dynamic of two women – Luna from the Philippines and Jane from South Korea – as they learn together how to survive in the United States as new residents. Both women feel isolated as their husbands work, leaving them alone in a town that views them as “different.” Jennifer Chang, the director of “The Heart Sellers,” said the story takes place in an anonymous city in 1973 following the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, where immigrants were allowed to live in the United States without any quotas or biases. Chang said audiences will resonate with the strong need for human connection and the fears of feeling like an outsider.
“I think we witness a friendship happen in real-time,” Chang said. “We are watching them share their experiences because it is common to build a relationship and share our hopes and dreams and realizing things that are scary for them may also resonate in this moment in our American timeline. Having a community is the most powerful way to survive challenges in your life.”
Chang said in the Bay Area, it is common to be familiar with the accents of the women, but in places where they have performed like in Milwaukee, people are exposed to the culture of the characters for the first time. She said it is very powerful to hear the cross-cultural experiences of Asian Americans and other immigrant communities wherever they perform.
“For us to empathize with them and to hear their struggles of what it means to be an immigrant has been a beautiful aspect of this story and something that feels very universal,” Chang said. “We’ve had so many people since the Milwaukee days, which has a large Polish American community, tell us the women reminded them so much of their grandmother or mother where it captured their feelings of isolation and the stories they would talk about.”
Nicole Javier, who has played Luna since the play’s first incarnation in Milwaukee, said people will learn it is possible to find friends in unlikely places. The women form a close bond despite their differences in personalities and food but learn to appreciate what they can offer to each other. Javier said the play will get heavy at some moments with tears to be expected, but will catch people by surprise with its humor.
“It’s the perfect play for the Bay Area and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do it here,” Javier said. “The play is being produced all over the place, but it was important to me to be able to do it here so that most of my family could see it. It’s interesting. Growing up in the Bay Area, I never felt othered until I left.”
For more information about the play, to view times and to buy tickets ($34-$54), visit theatreworks.org/mainstage/heart-sellers.
