Diana Son

Last updated
Diana Son
Born
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Education New York University
Occupation(s)Playwright, producer, writer
Years active1998–present
SpouseMichael Cosaboom
Children3

Diana Miae Son is an American playwright, [1] television producer, and writer. [2] She is known for her work on American Crime , Law & Order: Criminal Intent , Southland , and Blue Bloods . She, along with Brian Yorkey, has also served as the showrunner for 13 Reasons Why .

Contents

Early life

Son was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Dover, Delaware, [3] which Son has described as a very small town with very few Asian Americans. [4] Son has an older brother, Grant Son. [5]

Son's father, Yong Sup Son, and mother, Soon Chum "Ruby" Son, were both from Korea. [5] [6] Son's mother came to the United States in 1963. [5] She had six sisters in Korea. [4] Son's parents met in Philadelphia, where her father was a student at the College of Pharmacy (now the University of the Sciences) and her mother was an exchange nurse at Lankenau Medical Center. [6] They moved to Dover in 1967, where they owned and operated the Town Drug Store in the Milford Shopping Center in Milford, Delaware. [5] Son grew up working in the drug store. [2]

Son credits seeing Joseph Papp's production of Hamlet at the Joseph Papp Public Theater and New York Shakespeare Festival on a 1983 high school senior class trip for her inspiration to be a playwright. [6] [7] Diane Venora starred in the lead role of Hamlet. [7] Hamlet was the first play she saw, and it was her first visit to a theater. [8]

Son studied Dramatic Literature at New York University. When she was a senior in college she interned at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, an off-off Broadway theatre and cultural institution. [4]

Theater

Son's first play was called Wrecked On Brecht and was published in 1987. [9] For eight to 10 years, she wrote and produced short plays in the downtown area of Manhattan. [4] Her play BOY premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in 1996 and was directed by Michael Greif. The storyline for BOY is based on Son's mother's family adopting a male cousin. [4] It is a story in which a young girl's parents decide to raise her as a son. [4] In 1998, her play Fishes premiered at New Georges in New York City. Son wrote the short play R.A.W. ('Cause I'm A Woman), which explores how men view Asian American women. [4]

Her first full-length play, Stop Kiss , debuted in 1998. [4] It was critically acclaimed. [10] [11] The play was produced Off-Broadway in 1998 at The Public Theater in New York City. It was extended three times. [12] The play's initial run featured Jessica Hecht, Saul Stein, Sandra Oh, Saundra McClain, Kevin Carroll, and Rick Holmes. Son met Oh—who has participated in readings of every play by Son since they met—in 1995 in Los Angeles while involved in the New Works Festival. [13] The play features two women who kiss on the street, and are "grievously injured" in an attack. [4] Themes include gay bashing and identity.

After the first night's performance of Stop Kiss, Son realized she would no longer have to do "copyediting, proofreading, waitressing, and temping"—jobs she took to support herself before the play came out. [4] It has since been produced by hundreds of theaters. [7] In 2014, Stop Kiss was produced at the Pasadena Playhouse, where it made the Los Angeles Times' "Best of 2014" list. [14]

In 2006, Son wrote Satellites, a play Sandra Oh starred in that was directed by Michael Greif at The Public Theater. [15] [16] [17] [13]

Television

Son has worked in television since 2000, starting out as a story editor for The West Wing. [18] She was Playwright in Residence at the Taper during the same period. She has also worked on Law & Order: Criminal Intent , Southland , and Blue Bloods. [19]

Recent work

In March 2015, Son began work on the ABC series American Crime . [20] At the 2015 TCAs, NBC ordered the pilot for Love is a Four Letter Word. [21] It will be produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Red Arrow’s U.S. scripted arm, Fabrik Entertainment. [22] Son will write and executive produce with Mikkel Bondesen and Kristen Campo. [23]

Personal life

Son has taught playwriting at Yale University and New York University. [9] As of 2015, Son is the Playwriting Program Chair of the Dramatists Guild of America's Fellows Program, a mentorship and support program for playwrights and musical theater writers. [24] She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Women in Theatre, and the Writers Guild of America, East. Son is an alumna of New Dramatists. [9] Son has written much of her work (plays and television) at the non-profit urban writer's colony The Writers' Room in Greenwich Village. [25]

Son lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband Michael Cosaboom and their three boys, the youngest of whom are twins. [13] [ failed verification ] [18] [26] Son met Cosaboom, an Interactive Telecommunications Program major, when she worked at NYU in that department. [6]

Son has said her parents are very supportive of her writing career. [4]

Filmography

YearTitleNotes
2000 The West Wing Story Editor (2 episodes)
2004-2008 Law & Order: Criminal Intent Supervising Producer (23 episodes), Co-Executive Producer (22 episodes), Co-Producer (22 episodes), Producer (21 episodes); Teleplay (13 episodes), Story (12 episodes), Written by (1 episode); Executive Story Editor (17 episodes)
2010 Southland Consulting Producer (6 episodes); Story (1 episode), Written by (1 episode)
2012 NYC 22 Co-Executive Producer (12 episodes); Written by (1 episode)
2013 Do No Harm Consulting Producer (12 episodes); Written by (1 episode)
Jo Teleplay (2 episodes)
2010-2014 Blue Bloods Co-Executive Producer (13 episodes), Consulting Producer (10 episodes); Written by (4 episodes), Story (1 episode)
2015Love is a Four-Letter WordExecutive Producer; Writer
2015-2016 American Crime Co-Executive Producer (20 episodes); Written by (2 episodes)
2017 13 Reasons Why Executive Producer (13 episodes); Teleplay (2 episodes)
Law & Order: True Crime - The Menendez Murders Consulting Producer (8 episodes); Written by (2 episodes)
2018-2019 Dirty John Co-Executive producer (7 episodes), Consulting producer (1 episode); Written by (1 episode)

Awards and grants

Works and publications

Short plays

Full length plays

Essay

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Guare</span> American playwright and screenwriter (born 1938)

John Guare is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation.

Theresa Rebeck is an American playwright, television writer, and novelist. Her work has appeared on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, in film, and on television. Among her awards are the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award. In 2012, she received the Athena Film Festival Award for Excellence as a Playwright and Author of Films, Books, and Television. She is a 2009 recipient of the Alex Awards. Her works have influenced American playwrights by bringing a feminist edge in her old works.

Rebecca Gilman is an American playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tina Howe</span> American playwright (1937–2023)

Mabel Davis "Tina" Howe was an American playwright. In a career that spanned more than four decades, Howe's best-known works include Museum, The Art of Dining, Painting Churches, Coastal Disturbances, and Pride's Crossing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa</span> American writer (born 1973)

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is a Nicaraguan American playwright, screenwriter, and comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the television series Glee, Big Love, Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. He is Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheila Callaghan</span> American dramatist

Sheila Callaghan is a playwright and screenwriter who emerged from the RAT movement of the 1990s. She has been profiled by American Theater Magazine, "The Brooklyn Rail", Theatermania, and The Village Voice. Her work has been published in American Theatre magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lydia R. Diamond</span> American playwright (born 1969)

Lydia R. Diamond is an American playwright and professor. Among her most popular plays are The Bluest Eye (2007), an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel; Stick Fly (2008); Harriet Jacobs (2011); and Smart People (2016). Her plays have received national attention and acclaim, receiving the Lorraine Hansberry Award for Best Writing, an LA Weekly Theater Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the 2020 Horton Foote Playwriting Award from the Dramatists Guild of America.

Eduardo Oscar Machado is a Cuban playwright living in the United States. Notable plays by Machado include Broken Eggs, Havana is Waiting and The Cook. Many of his plays are autobiographical or deal with Cuba in some way. Machado teaches playwriting at New York University. He has served as the artistic director of the INTAR Theatre in New York City since 2004. He is openly gay.

Eulalie Spence was a writer, teacher, director, actress and playwright from the British West Indies. She was an influential member of the Harlem Renaissance, writing fourteen plays, at least five of which were published. Spence, who described herself as a "folk dramatist" who made plays for fun and entertainment, was considered one of the most experienced female playwrights before the 1950s, and received more recognition than other black playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance period, winning several competitions. She presented several plays with W.E.B. Du Bois' Krigwa Players, of which she was a member from 1926 to 1928. Spence was also a mentor to theatrical producer Joseph Papp, founder of The Public Theater and the accompanying festival currently known as Shakespeare in the Park.

Adrienne Kennedy is an American playwright. She is best known for Funnyhouse of a Negro, which premiered in 1964 and won an Obie Award. She won a lifetime Obie as well. In 2018 she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanya Barfield</span> American playwright

Tanya Barfield is an American playwright whose works have been presented both nationally and internationally.

Susan Miller, recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, is perhaps best known as the author/performer of the critically acclaimed one woman play, My Left Breast and as Executive Producer and writer for the award-winning web series Anyone But Me. For her work on the web series she won the first Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing Original New Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracey Scott Wilson</span> American dramatist

Tracey Scott Wilson is an American playwright, television writer, television producer, and screenwriter. She graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and from Temple University with an MA in English Literature.

Melissa James Gibson is a Canadian-born playwright based in New York.

Bathsheba "Bash" Doran is a British-born playwright and TV scriptwriter living in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Gunderson</span> American dramatist

Lauren Gunderson is an American playwright, screenwriter, and short story author, born in Atlanta. She lives in San Francisco, where she teaches playwriting. Gunderson was recognized by American Theatre magazine as America's most produced living playwright at Theatre Communications Group member theaters in 2017, and again in 2019–20.

Craig Pospisil is an American playwright, musical bookwriter and filmmaker. He has written nine full-length plays and musicals, mostly comedies, and more than 40 short plays and musicals.

Sheri Wilner is an American playwright.

Arlene Hutton is an American playwright, theatre artist and teacher. She is best known for a trio of plays, set during and after the Second World War, known as The Nibroc Trilogy. The initial play of that trilogy, Last Train to Nibroc, was the first play to transfer from FringeNYC to Off-Broadway. Other works for which she is known include a one-act dramatic work about the aftermath of a sexual assault, I Dream Before I Take the Stand; a one-act musical drama set among the members of a Shaker community in the 19th century, As It Is in Heaven; and a Holocaust-themed work, Letters to Sala, based on actual documents. She has also created plays for young audiences.

Janine Nabers is an American playwright and television writer.

References

  1. ↑ "Biography – Diana Son". American Theatre Wing . February 2006. Archived from the original on 16 June 2006. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Back to Work" (Video). The New York Times . 14 February 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "Diana Son". The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 2001. Archived from the original on 2015-01-18. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Winer, Linda (6 June 2003). "Diana Son" (Video interview). Women in Theatre: Dialogues with Notable Women in American Theatre. No.  CUNY TV. League of Professional Theatre Women. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Son, Soon Chum". Delmarva Obits. 15 December 2003. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Yurgaitis, Daniel (11 December 2006). "Director's Notes on the NSU Theatre presentation of Stop Kiss". Northern State University . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 Sherman, Howard (December 2009). "The Play That Changed My Life (Working In The Theatre #385)" (Video interview). American Theatre Wing . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  8. ↑ Chapin, Ted (16 February 2006). "ATW's Working in the Theatre #341 The Playwright (Winter 2005–06)" (Video interview – panel). American Theatre Wing . CUNY TV . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 Phillips, Jean (14 February 2011). "The Life of Diana Son (So Far): Diana Son Biography". Asian American Theatre. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  10. ↑ Brantley, Ben (7 December 1998). "Theater Review; Comic in Spirit, Serious at Heart". The New York Times . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  11. ↑ Saltzman, Simon (27 January 1999). "New York Review: 'Stop Kiss'". U.S. 1 Newspaper. Archived from the original on 16 December 1999. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  12. ↑ Sommer, Elyse (5 December 1998). "A CurtainUp Review: Stop Kiss". CurtainUp. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 Zinoman, Jason (18 June 2006). "Candor as a Cure for Writer's Block". The New York Times . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  14. ↑ McNulty, Charles (19 December 2014). "Charles McNulty's best stage shows of 2014". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  15. ↑ Brantley, Ben (19 June 2006). "Settling Down on Shaky Ground, in Diana Son's 'Satellites'". The New York Times . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  16. ↑ Harrah, Scott (21 June 2006). "Sandra Oh helps put 'Satellites' back in orbit". The Villager . 76 (5). Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  17. ↑ Rooney, David (18 June 2006). "Review: 'Satellites'". Variety . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  18. 1 2 Son, Diana (11 May 2011). "How a Nice Playwright Like Me Starting Plotting Murder". Writers Guild of America, East . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  19. ↑ Son, Diana (8 June 2011). "Location, Location, Location". Writers Guild of America, East . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  20. ↑ LeBleu, Monique (12 November 2014). "Stopping the hate with laughter and a kiss at the Playhouse". Courier. Pasadena City College. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  21. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (15 January 2015). "NBC Orders 2 Drama Pilots: 'Curse of Fuentes Woman,' 'Love Is a Four Letter Word'". Variety . Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  22. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (15 January 2015). "Silvio Horta Magical Latino Family Drama, Marriage Show Get NBC Pilot Orders". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  23. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (15 January 2015). "'Ugly Betty' Creator's Latino Drama Gets NBC Pilot Pickup". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  24. ↑ "Fellows Program". Dramatists Guild of America . Archived from the original on 14 February 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  25. ↑ Son, Diana (20 May 2011). "What Do You Get When You Put Writers in a Room..." Writers Guild of America, East . Retrieved 17 January 2015.[ permanent dead link ]
  26. ↑ Son, Diana. "Write On – Author Archive: Diana Son". Writers Guild of America, East . Retrieved 17 January 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.