David Johann Kim
As a young actor, David fell hard for new play development while working with powerhouse dramaturgs Mame Hunt (at Berkeley Rep) and Morgan Jenness ( NYSF’s New Works Now Festival and NY Theatre Workshop’s Dartmouth retreat). Mabou Mines’ Ruth Malaczech asked David to be part of the writers group when she was devising A Drop In The Oceanin residence at New York Theater Workshop. Les Waters selected him to be part of the devising team for their Joint Stock-style production, Act 3 Sc 2 of Life at UC San Diego. He later lead Watts Village. Theatre Company in the Joint Stock process for their production of B-Flight. His plays TWO STOP and PANG SPA were awarded the 2022 Los Angeles New Play Project Award and Grant. EST/LA and Chalk Rep’s joint productions of both plays were also awarded a Venturous Theatre Fund Grant. TWO STOP was work-shopped in 2023 at The Inkwell Theater. PANG SPA was a semifinalist for the 2018 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Ashland New Play Festival and Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the final round of Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation Playwrights Program.
David spent the first half of his career in the theatre primarily as an actor. He originated lead roles in new plays including Han Ong’s Reasons To Live..., Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Innocent Erendira, Milton Murayama’s All I Asking For Is My Body, Larry Yep’s Dragonwings, Alan Cook’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East Of Eden, Lynn Manning’s Up From The Downs, and Jessica Hagedorn’s Holy Food. He performed at theatres on both coasts including: The Public Theatre, NY Theatre Workshop, The Lark, Mabou Mines, Repertorio Espanol, La Mama ETC in NYC and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theatre, Asian American Theatre Co. and El Teatro Campesino in California.
He holds an MFA from UC San Diego and is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights Union, Circle X Theatre Co's 2023 Evolving Playwrights Group, Chalk Rep’s Writers group, Playwrights ThinkTank, EST/LA’s Playwrights Unit and is a co-founder of EST/LA’s Ignite Project. He recently taught playwriting at Loyola Marymount for 3 semesters.
David would like to dedicate these plays to his late parents, Untae and Priscilla Kim. How fortunate my siblings and I were to have you! Thank you, forever.