ARTISTIC STATEMENT

In a time when we know that race and class matter, it doesn’t make it easier for us to have conversations with those who are different or who have different beliefs. My plays show the humanity and similarities between individuals: the ability to be loved in the face of pain, and desperately trying.  If we can come to love characters that are not like ourselves, perhaps we can come to love individuals who are different too.

I write plays in order to be brave. When I  incorporate a song, choreography or wandering trips through emotional memories, it allows the audience and myself to mourn and heal. It is a reminder that beauty, hope and laughter persist. Art is not just a mirror for our world but it also serves as a place of reflection and regeneration. To heal, in my mind, is a brave brave act.

VICTORIA CHONG DER

Victoria Chong Der has written for several Bay Area companies. In addition to being a member of the four-year Playwrights Foundation’s Resident Playwright Initiative, Victoria is a PlayGround Resident Playwright and 2014 Fellow. She has also written scripts and produced plots for several game companies. She has a BA in Creative Writing from Oberlin College. She is currently spending her time trying to hone her craft and write work that she loves. If you’ve never tried, it’s really hard!

Recent full-length plays include Echoes, a feminist play about microaggressions and the pain that lies in our bones, Silly Ways to Mourn, a magical realism play that still hasn’t quite come together but will speak fantastically about the godliness in humans once complete, and Like Me, a play about child sex trafficking in Oakland.