Diana Son

Diana Son
Born Diana Miae Son
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania US
Ethnicity Korean-American[1]
Education New York University
Occupation Playwright
Producer
Writer
Years active 1998-present
Known for Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Southland
Blue Bloods
Notable work Stop Kiss
Spouse(s) Michael Cosaboom
Children 3

Diana Miae Son is a playwright,[2] television producer, and writer.[3] She is known for her work on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Southland, and Blue Bloods.

Early life

Son was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Dover, Delaware.[4] Son said that it was a very small town with very few Asian-Americans.[5] Son has an older brother, Grant Son.[1]

Son's father, Yong Sup Son, and mother, Soon Chum "Ruby" Son, were both from Korea.[1][6] Son's mother came to the United States in 1963.[1] Son said her parents met in Philadelphia, where her father was a student at the College of Pharmacy and her mother was an exchange nurse at Lankenau Hospital.'"[6] They moved to Dover in 1967, where they owned and operated the Town Drug Store in the Milford Shopping Center in Milford, Delaware.[1] Son said she grew up working in the drug store.[3]

Son's mother had six sisters in Korea. The storyline for her 1996 play, BOY, was based on the family adopting a male cousin, "because you had to have a male in the family."[5] BOY is a story in which a young girl's parents decide to raise her as a son. The girl grows up thinking she's a boy.[5]

Son said that she knew she wanted to be a writer when she was 9 years old.[7] Son credits a 1983 senior class trip in high school where she saw Joseph Papp's production of Hamlet at the Joseph Papp Public Theater / New York Shakespeare Festival for her inspiration to be a playwright.[6][8] The performance was notable because Diane Venora starred in the lead role of Hamlet, the first woman to play the role.[8] The Public was the first theater she had been to, and Hamlet was the first play she saw.[9]

Son studied Dramatic Literature at New York University.

Career

When Son was a senior in college she interned at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, an off-off Broadway theatre and cultural institution.[5]

Theater

For eight to 10 years, she wrote and produced her short plays in the downtown area of Manhattan, until Stop Kiss debuted.[5]

Son's first play was called Wrecked On Brecht and was published in 1987.[10]

Son's play, BOY, premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in 1996 and was directed by Michael Greif. In 1998, her play Fishes premiered at New Georges in New York City.

Son wrote the short play, R.A.W. ('Cause I'm A Woman), which explored how men look at Asian-American women.[5]

Son's full length debut Stop Kiss was critically acclaimed.[11][12] The play was produced Off-Broadway in 1998 at The Public Theater in New York City. It was extended three times.[13] The play's initial run featured Jessica Hecht, Saul Stein, Sandra Oh, Saundra McClain, Kevin Carroll, and Rick Holmes. Son met Oh—who has participated in readings of every play by Son since they met—in 1995 in Los Angeles while involved in the New Works Festival.[14]

After the first night's performance of Stop Kiss, Son said that along with many phone calls of congratulations, a great irony was that she had to complete her freelance work writing Star Trek trivia questions for the Sci-Fi channel website.[5] Son said it was the end of her having to do "copyediting, proofreading, waitressing, and temping"—which she had had to do to support herself before Stop Kiss.[5] The play features two women who kiss on the street, and are "grievously injured" in an attack.[5] Themes include LGBT / gay bashing and identity.

Stop Kiss has been produced by hundreds of theaters since its initial run.[8] In 2014, Stop Kiss was produced at the Pasadena Playhouse where it made the Los Angeles Times' "Best of 2014" list.[15]

In 2006, Son wrote Satellites, a play Sandra Oh starred in that was directed by Michael Grief at The Public Theater.[14][16][17] Son said she wrote the part in Satellites with Oh in mind.[14]

On the diversity of her casting process, which is also why she says she likes living in New York City: "I don't know anybody who lives in New York and only knows white people."[5] Son says that when she is involved in the New York based productions, "it is easy to cast actors of color who are excellent actors and perfect for the roles."[5]

Television

Son says that "writing for TV is, in some ways, a very natural progression for a playwright because TV, at least, more so than film, the writer can be a powerful person, a producer position.... Also in TV you can achieve things through dialogue, whereas in screenwriting it's always like 'let me see it, let me see it.'"[5] Son has said she can't make a living as a playwright, you have to have a day job.[5]

Son has worked in television since 2000, starting out as a story editor for The West Wing.[18] She was a Playwright in Residence at the Taper during this same time.

Son worked on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as well as Southland and Blue Bloods (TV series).[19]

Upcoming projects

In March 2015, an ABC series Son Co-Executive Produced and wrote episodes for called American Crime created by John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, will air.[20]

At the 2015 TCAs, NBC ordered the pilot for Love is a Four Letter Word.[21] Love is a Four Letter Word will be produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Red Arrow’s US scripted arm, Fabrik Entertainment (The Killing, Burn Notice).[22] The series "explores what happens when race, sexuality and gender roles collide when three diverse couples put modern marriage to the test."[23] Son will write and executive produce with Mikkel Bondesen and Kristen Campo.[23]

Personal life

Son has taught playwriting at Yale University and New York University.[10] As of 2015, Son is the Playwrighting Program Chair of the Dramatists Guild of America's Fellows Program, a mentorship and support program for both playwrights and musical theater writers.[24] She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Women in Theatre and the Writers Guild of America, East. Son is an alumna of New Dramatists.[10] Son said she has written much of her work (plays and television) at a non-profit urban writer's colony called The Writers Room in Greenwich Village.[25]

Son lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband Michael Cosaboom and their three boys, the youngest of whom are twins.[14][18][26] Son met Cosaboom, an Interactive Telecommunications Program major, when she worked at NYU in that department.[6]

Son said she became more interested in her Korean-American roots since her first pregnancy. "My husband is Caucasian, and when you're pregnant, you start wondering what your kid is going to look like," she said. "I found myself hoping that my child would have slanty eyes. That really surprised me."[14] "I have Korean parents, but they didn't teach me to speak Korean, and they didn't expose me to Korean culture," Ms. Son said. "So I wondered what I'm passing on to my kid. Do I have anything to offer him? That became something to explore in Nina and Miles [characters in her play, Satellites], who are disconnected from their cultures."[14]

When she was 18 years old, home from Christmas break, her first semester at NYU, Son's mother had a stroke (a massive cerebral hemorrhage), which she witnessed. Her mother suffered severe brain damage. Son said that with her plays she began to realize that what interests her is when an irreparable event happens in a moment and that changes everything. It is rooted in this pivotal experience with her mother.[5]

Son said that once she established that she was serious about writing—and wouldn't starve—her parents were very supportive: Son said they said: "As long as you do something, do it well."[5]

Filmography

Awards and grants

Works and publications

Short plays

Full length plays

Essay

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Son, Soon Chum". Delmarva Obits. 15 December 2003. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "Biography - Diana Son". American Theatre Wing. February 2006. Archived from the original on 16 June 2006. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Back to Work" (VIDEO). The New York Times. 14 February 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  4. ↑ "Diana Son". The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 2001. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 Winer, Linda (6 June 2003). "Diana Son" (VIDEO INTERVIEW). Women in Theatre: Dialogues with Notable Women in American Theatre (CUNY TV) (League of Professional Theatre Women). Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Yurgaitis, Daniel (11 December 2006). "Director's Notes on the NSU Theatre presentation of Stop Kiss". Northern State University. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  7. ↑ Son, Kaitlyn (1 March 2014). "Interview: Diana Son, Writer and Producer". LIME Magazine. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Sherman, Howard (December 2009). "The Play That Changed My Life (Working In The Theatre #385)" (VIDEO INTERVIEW). American Theatre Wing. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Chapin, Ted (16 February 2006). "ATW's Working in the Theatre #341 The Playwright (Winter 2005-06)" (VIDEO INTERVIEW - PANEL). American Theatre Wing. CUNY TV. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Phillips, Jean (14 February 2011). "The Life of Diana Son (So Far): Diana Son Biography". Asian American Theatre. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  11. ↑ Brantley, Ben (7 December 1998). "Theater Review; Comic in Spirit, Serious at Heart". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  12. ↑ Saltzman, Simon (27 January 1999). "New York Review: `Stop Kiss'". U.S. 1 Newspaper. Archived from the original on 16 December 1999. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  13. ↑ Sommer, Elyse (5 December 1998). "A CurtainUp Review: Stop Kiss". CurtainUp. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 Zinoman, Jason (18 June 2006). "Candor as a Cure for Writer's Block". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  15. ↑ McNulty, Charles (19 December 2014). "Charles McNulty's best stage shows of 2014". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  16. ↑ Harrah, Scott (21 June 2006). "Sandra Oh helps put ‘Satellites’ back in orbit". The Villager 76 (5). Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  17. ↑ Rooney, David (18 June 2006). "Review: ‘Satellites’". Variety. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Son, Diana (11 May 2011). "How a Nice Playwright Like Me Starting Plotting Murder". Writers Guild of America, East. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  19. ↑ Son, Diana (8 June 2011). "Location, Location, Location". Writers Guild of America, East. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  20. ↑ LeBleu, Monique (12 November 2014). "Stopping the hate with laughter and a kiss at the Playhouse". Courier (Pasadena City College). Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  21. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (15 January 2015). "NBC Orders 2 Drama Pilots: 'Curse of Fuentes Woman,' 'Love Is a Four Letter Word'". Variety. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  22. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (15 January 2015). "Silvio Horta Magical Latino Family Drama, Marriage Show Get NBC Pilot Orders". Deadline.com. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Goldberg, Lesley (15 January 2015). "'Ugly Betty' Creator's Latino Drama Gets NBC Pilot Pickup". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  24. ↑ "Fellows Program". Dramatists Guild of America. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  25. ↑ Son, Diana (20 May 2011). "What Do You Get When You Put Writers in a Room…". Writers Guild of America, East. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  26. ↑ Son, Diana. "Write On - Author Archive: Diana Son". Writers Guild of America, East. Retrieved 17 January 2015.

External links