The Language Archive

Julia Cho is at home at South Coast Repertory

By Karen Wada

The Los Angeles Times

April 2, 2010

Eight years ago, Julia Cho came to South Coast Repertory for the first time. She was a novice author, still in grad school, and excited to have her play, “99 Histories,” read at the Pacific Playwrights Festival.

Her visit was “amazing,” she recalls. “I couldn’t believe they were going to fly me to Costa Mesa from New York and put me up in a hotel, let alone put on my play.”

The experience also proved to be “a little intimidating,” she says. “I was glad to be there, but I wasn’t sure I belonged with all the older, more established playwrights.”

Times have changed.

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It is my pleasure to announce the first two productions at the Steinberg Center for Theatre in the 2010-2011 Season will be The Language Archive, written by Julia Cho and directed by Mark Brokaw at the Laura Pels Theatre, and Tigers Be Still, written by Kimberly Rosenstock and directed by Sam Gold in the Black Box Theatre as part of the Roundabout Underground.

Julia recently won the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Language Archive. She has written a poignant comedy about a man whose life is devoted to the study of language, and what happens when words fail him just as he needs them the most. I am excited to have Associate Artist and Roundabout favorite, Mark Brokaw, at the helm of this wonderful play. The Language Archive was commissioned by Roundabout, so we are particularly proud to be bringing the play to a full production here.

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A conversation with Artistic Director Todd Haimes about the Fall 2010 season at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre and new subsidiary rights for Roundabout.

Q. How do you determine if a play should be in the Roundabout Off-Broadway venue or a Broadway venue? What is it about The Language Archive that suggests it should be in the Laura Pels Theatre?

A. Each show in our season is given specific consideration as to which theatre would best suit the production as a whole in a process that includes the playwright and director of the play. I’ve always thought of the Laura Pels Theatre primarily as our home for new plays. Over the years, we’ve found that some more intimate revivals, such as Suddenly Last Summer and Streamers, have also been well-suited to that space. But overall, that theatre is meant to be the space for new plays by established artists. With The Language Archive in particular, the scale and feel of this theater will work beautifully. This is an elegant, deeply emotional play, and I think that it will benefit greatly from having an audience that is never very distant from the characters on stage.

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