←Recommendations of Half of Chopsticks

Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize HALF OF CHOPSTICKS by Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters as a Semi-Finalist for the 2022 Premiere Play Festival. HALF OF CHOPSTICKS rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to become one of 35 semifinalists out of 655 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by the subversion of expectations for a ghost on stage, the fast-paced dialogue, and its clear dramatic question around issues of identity, community, and assimilation. Our congratulations and thanks to Stephanie.

A lovely play about family and so much more. The use of the ghost of the deceased father is a marvelous device to illuminate generations and loss and grievances that take determined work to resolve. The play and these determined characters do that work, and it's wonderful to behold.

Half Of Chopsticks I Highly Recommend this play to be read!!!! This is an incredible play about family and culture!!! This story shows how humans handle grief and pain does not go away. It will over time and it helps to have a good circle of people around you. This play definitely helps you understand humans in a better light and what it means to be a family.

One of my favorite scripts I’ve read this year by far! Walters does an amazing job detailing the relationships between her characters and giving others an insight about what it was like to grow up in K-Town. This play is a must read because it will leave you feeling inspired and start conversations!

Half of Chopsticks is a powerful play that deals with family and personal identity in a beautiful way. Once you begin to read you won't be able to stop, and personally, I read it more than once because the story that Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters created is simply addicting. You go on journeys with the characters and connect with them personally throughout the play. It leaves you inspired and sparks conversations that you don't want to stray away from. Overall, an amazing play that everyone should read.

A powerful journey towards understanding identity and working through family trauma. Moving and well done.

Playwrights Foundation highly recommends HALF OF CHOPSTICKS, which excelled to the Finalist round (top 35) for the 44th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival out of 755 plays. Our community of readers felt this play best represented the mission of our festival. This work engaged us, inspired us, moved us, and was an outstanding example of transformative storytelling. Our local Bay Area Literary Council commends HALF OF CHOPSTICKS as a compelling, relevant, cathartic new work which should be produced now. Congratulations! #BAPF2021

Leave it to Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters to write a play about family trauma and identity that is unlike any play that treads these often traveled waters in the theatre. This is a ghost story where the magic is just understood as being something normal. It's a play that doesn't have a neat happy ending but concludes the way it needs to. People don't forgive and forget but they make space in their lives to understand each other a little more.