ABOUT
Nina Ki (xe/she/they) is a Queerean (Queer + Korean) American playwright living in Brooklyn. Xe graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2008 with a BFA in Dramatic Writing, and xer plays have been read, recorded, and presented nationwide, including with Clubbed Thumb, Ma-Yi Theater Company, MCC Theater, The Parsnip Ship, Yale Summer Cabaret, and Queens Theater. Xer play “Moon Bear” was given special consideration for the Relentless Award, and xer play “Ravage” was a finalist for the Playwrights Realm's Fellowship. Xe was also an inaugural member of The Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writer's Group and a former member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writer's Group, and is currently a member of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group and Ma-Yi's Writers Lab.
FULL-length plays
RESCUES a dramedy about chosen family and, of course, dogs.
Rin - closed off and still coping with the loss of Rin’s previous dog, Baby - takes on the responsibility of caring for a special needs dog named Hannibal. Can the two open their hearts to one another, to become the family they both need - or will all the trauma they've experienced get in the way?
A DEMON INSIDE a fantastical drama with a dab of Asian horror.
Rory, an elderly hoarder, lives alone, visited only by her daughter Julia. Then one day, she finds a locket in the dump that is haunted by a demon. The demon begins taking over Rory's mind and home, and Rory comes to believe it is the spirit of her other (deceased) daughter, Franny. The demon demands that Rory give it her soul - wracked with guilt, Rory acquiesces, until an encounter with Julia forces Rory to make a decision about whether to live in the present, or die with the ghosts of the past.
The Living Room Theater, 2017
MOON BEAR a fantastical queering of a traditional Korean folktale.
Silver and Richie are siblings without parents. As the two grow up, they cling to one another as each other's family, and help one another navigate their positions as social outsiders - Silver as a genderqueer weirdo, and Richie as a drug dealing gangbanger. In a parallel world, Bear is ousted from his tribe and through a gesture of filial piety, is turned by Hwanung, a gay Korean god, into a human woman. S/he is then coerced into being Hwanung's pregnant beard, and has Hwanung's child. As family bonds begin to disintegrate, and the god-world begins to crumble, Silver and Bear must redefine home for themselves, to find power through the magic of stories.
Brave New World Repertory Theatre, 2019
RAVAGE a fantastical drama about vampires.
Yuli, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and self-ascribed teenage vampire hunter, moves from California to New York after what she believes was a run-in with a powerful vampire. The incident leaves her physically and emotionally scarred, and without her sister, who Yuli believes has been kidnapped. Closed off and alone, she slowly begins to open up to her therapist and a friend at school - as these relationships deepen, she is haunted by visions of her sister calling for her, begging Yuli to rescue her, and the vampire, who promises to find and come for her as well. Yuli begins to suspect her neighbor of being the same vampire who injured her and abducted her sister. When she breaks into his apartment to find her and confront him, she comes face to face instead with the fractured remnants of her past.
New Normal, 2020
GUMIHO a (possibly) two-person drama about the Asian lesbian "scene."
Kam, queer Korean adoptee and former reality TV star, has just been broken up with by her longtime girlfriend. She quickly re-immerses herself in the alcohol- and lust-fueled world of the Los Angeles queer scene, where she uses and is used by women, and has sex without the burden of intimacy. Though a series of casual hookups, Kam moves from enjoying these casual hookups to questioning her value as a person - and finally reaches rock bottom in the form of a moment of intimacy with the one person who has always loved and believed in her: her best friend, Hyun-Joo.
TAE-MONG (BIRTH DREAM) an inter-generational Korean American drama.
Jimmy, Jinho, and Yoon are three generations of Korean men who have emigrated to America. In the present, Jimmy, a gangbanger and new father, dreams of making money through drug dealing to open up his own martial arts studio. In the past, Jinho, Jimmy's father, aspires to be a singer and guitarist. Yoon, Jinho's father, wants simply to be given the chance to learn. Enmeshed in a cycle of alcoholism and abuse, each struggles against their filial duties and responsibilities as jangsons (oldest sons) and their own hopes and dreams for themselves. In the end, Jimmy must decide whether to continue the cycle, or forge ahead in his own version of the American dream.
**Access some of these scripts on New Play Exchange!
short plays
BROKEN ENGLISH a bilingual memory play (7 pgs).
Kyle, a gay Korean man, looks back on the past and his struggle to reconcile his version of the American dream with his mother's.
I LOVE YOU a terse drama (10 pgs).
Charles, a teenage boy, asks his father to tell him he loves him - but his father says men don't say "I love you" to each other.
DELPHINIDAE an anthropomorphic comedy (11 pgs).
Jimmy wanders through the forest, accidentally coming into a territory protected by a mutant dolphin of the One Spotted Flipper clan.
PRIMARY COLORS an experimental Korean American drama (20 pgs).
Sick, a Koreatown gangbanger, Mina, a pastor's kid and artist, and Isobel, a Korean adoptee, explore what it means to them, to be queer Korean women. A cacophony of truth.
RANGER a drama about two brothers and a dog (12 pgs).
Luis and Tommy discover that their father has sold their dog Ranger to a man who lives up north. Younger brother Tommy reveals that he has money saved up, money that could buy their dog back. But Luis has other ideas: he wants to use the money to escape the small town that he's always hated. Can he say goodbye to everything he's ever known, including the brother who loves him?
GAWI an Asian horror-style experimental drama (12 pgs)
Yuri, a Korean American female, is haunted by a Gawi demon - and her experiences with whiteness - throughout her life.
ONE SMALL STEP a sci-fi comedy with aliens, clowns and, yep - a dog (11 pgs)
Delilah, who is in the throes of a midlife crisis, is in the process of putting her dog William Jones down when she discovers that Earth is being invaded by aliens, and it is up to her to save the human race.
KIMCHI SLAP a comedic Korean American whodunnit (11 pgs)
Local Korean mafioso Brian Park conducts a series of interviews with people named Kim Seonwoo, trying to get to the bottom of a mysterious incident involving his favorite grandmother - and also practices his English.
THE LONELIEST NUMBER an eerie horror short (10 pgs)
One wants their reflection, Eno, to talk to them - but Eno refuses, only copying what One says.
**Access some of these scripts on New Play Exchange!
HAVE A LISTEN!
GirlTales Podcast
This is Where We Go
American Playbook I Love You
Scawy Howwow Theatre
PROJECTS
DONGURAMI
A documentary exploring the lives and experiences of L/T/GQ Korean people living in California.