David Johann Kim
Lecturer of Theatre Arts | Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES
Lecturer of Theatre Arts
Biography
Both of David’s plays, Pang Spa and Two Stop, were awarded the 2022 Los Angeles New Play Project Award and Grant. Two Stop was recently workshopped 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 fell hard for dramaturgy when working on new plays as an actor 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 Ocean in residence at NYTW. Les Waters selected David to be part of the devising team for their Joint Stock-style production, Act 3 Sc 2 of Life at UC San Diego. He holds and MFA from UC San Diego and is a member of The Dramatists Guild, Playwrights Union, EST/LA’s Playwrights Unit, Chalk Rep’s Writers group, Playwrights ThinkTank and cofounder of EST/LA’s Ignite Project.
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.
