Director's Note
Thank you for coming to john & jen!
Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald’s two-hander is packed with history, grief, and love—themes that are acutely, unmistakably Asian. I’ve long imagined what it would mean to make john & jen Asian and let its story unfold against the fertile historical grounds of Asian American identity.
During the 1960s, when the first act of our show takes place, the Hart-Celler Act opened the floodgates for immigration to the United States, most prominently from Asia. In its wake, the concept of “Asian American” began to take shape. This era also saw the escalation of the Vietnam War, a conflict that forced Asians across the world into direct confrontation—Vietnamese troops fighting against Asian American and South Korean allies of the United States. Amidst this chaos, John and Jen wrestle with their Americanness in different ways: John seeks assimilation, while Jen longs to escape.
On a personal level, Jen’s fierce, all-consuming devotion mirrored my own experiences with Asian American women. Raised by an unrelenting single mother and a tenacious older sister, I couldn’t believe this musical existed—it felt like it was written for me. To that end, this process has been more introspective than any I’ve undertaken before. Our rehearsal room became a space of reckoning, where our personal experiences met artistic exploration and play. At its core, this production is an homage to the resilience and creativity that carried me through childhood. Thank you to everyone who brought it to life—especially Sam Ahn, who saw promise in my vision from the start and remained steadfast beyond words. 磊
