Ella Talerico, Studio’s Artistic Producing Fellow, interviewed Jesse Jae Hoon, playwright of Do You Think I’m Annoying? which will be featured in the inaugural New Pages, New Stages Festival.
ELLA: So how did you fall in love with playwriting?
JESSE: I’ve always loved theater. But I really fell in love with playwriting it in my late twenties. After graduating, I worked in new play development as an actor and got to watch writers like Julia May Jonas develop work over several years. It was deeply inspiring.
ELLA: What do you enjoy specifically about the craft?
JESSE: Plays aren’t bound to one narrative structure. Every play demands its own form based on its themes and characters. I see playwriting as the most expansive and imaginative narrative art. Industry and institutional limits aside, theater remains one of the most egalitarian and pure forms of artistry we have. Other art forms are increasingly shaped by corporate ownership.
As a political writer, I write because I have something to say. Theater lets me be provocative and incisive in ways that film and TV, monopolized by corporate interests, often can’t. There’s hierarchy and censorship in theater too, but it’s inherently more democratic.