Stephanie Kyung
Sun Walters ’11
Drama Queen
Barrymore award-nominated actor Walters is a playwright and teaching artist in Philadelphia. She describes her plays as “Charles Mee, David Henry Hwang, Twyla Tharp, Amy Tan and Mariah Carey walk into a bar.” Her works have been developed with InterAct Theatre Company’s Core Playwrights, the Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists and PlayPenn. Walters, a theatre major, has led workshops and seminars for Bucknell students and online playwriting workshops during the pandemic.
Photo: Kate Raines/Plate 3 Photography; WikiCommons
What is your dream work to adapt into a Hollywood movie with an unlimited budget?
a. An Amy Tan novel
b. A David Henry Hwang play
c. A biopic about your favorite K-pop star
b. A David Henry Hwang play
c. A biopic about your favorite K-pop star
I’m writing a draft of a feature that’s kind of a Nora Ephron rom-com with a K-pop remix to it. After the success of Crazy Rich Asians and To All the Boys I Loved Before, why can’t I be next? The representation of Asian Americans in film — falling in love, making waves at work, living their lives — that’s change in Hollywood that I want to be a part of.
In a world with unlimited time, what side project would you like to do?
a. Create an artists’ retreat for young Asian American creatives
b. Build thriving theatre programs in every Philadelphia elementary school
c. Be the head writer for a hit TV show
b. Build thriving theatre programs in every Philadelphia elementary school
c. Be the head writer for a hit TV show
Empowering people to weaponize their art is a project I’ll always have unlimited time for!
Who is your dream collaborator, living or dead?
a. Gabriel García Márquez
b. Ali Wong
c. Mariah Carey
b. Ali Wong
c. Mariah Carey
I mean — have you read her book? Did you see Always Be My Maybe? I’d hitch my wagon to Ali Wong any day of the week!
4. You’ve just won a Tony Award. Where do you and your cast go to celebrate?
a. Hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant that only you know about
b. Most popular megaclub in Koreatown
c. Mansion of an art-world patron who’s out of town — you have the door key because you’re plant-sitting!
b. Most popular megaclub in Koreatown
c. Mansion of an art-world patron who’s out of town — you have the door key because you’re plant-sitting!
Kiss your plants goodbye, Joanna Gaines. I forgot to water them because I was busy practicing my acceptance speech!
If you could be instantly great at another art form, which would you pick?
a. Painting
b. Dancing
c. Singing
b. Dancing
c. Singing
Professor Er-Dong Hu, I’m really sorry I couldn’t keep up at Bucknell.
Which Bucknell professor, class or other experience had the most influence on your creative work today?
Professor Anjalee Hutchinson, theatre, helped push me to write my own story, before I even knew I was interested in writing. Professor Stephanie Larson, classics, taught me that women have been writing poetry and influencing artistic change in the world since antiquity. Professor Meenakshi Ponnuswami, English, planted a love of modern and contemporary playwrights of color that I never knew I needed at the time.