Celine Song

ENDLINGS

This title is now available worldwide.

ENDLINGS

By Celine Song

DRAMA

On the Korean island of Man-Jae, three elderly haenyeos—sea women—spend their dying days diving into the ocean to harvest seafood. They have no heirs to their millennia-old way of life. Across the globe on the island of Manhattan, a Korean-Canadian playwright, twice an immigrant, spends her days wrestling with the expectation that she write “authentic” stories about her identity. But what, exactly, is her identity? And how can she write about it without selling her own skin?

Production Information

Cast of Characters
(4W, 1M)
HAN SOL — a haenyeo in her 90s
 
GO MIN — a haenyeo in her 80s
 
SOOK JA — a haenyeo in her 70s
 
HA YOUNG/VOICE — a Korean-Canadian Manhattanite in her late 20s
 
WHITE HUSBAND — husband to Ha Young in his late 20s
 

STAGE MANAGERS should be played by the production’s actual white male stagehands.


Casting Note:

No one speaks with an accent, except the one that is natural for the performer herself.
Most ideally, elderly Korean women will play the haenyeos.
Ideally, elderly Asian women of any ethnicity will play the haenyeos.
Less ideally, younger Asian women will play the haenyeos.
Even less ideally, elderly Asian men will play the haenyeos.
Under not so ideal circumstances, younger Asian men will play the haenyeos.
Under no circumstances will any of these four roles be played by someone who is not Asian.
No exceptions.
 

Place: 만재 Man-Jae Island and Manhattan Island


Time: Present day



Author

Celine Song

CELINE SONG's play ENDLINGS received its world premiere in 2019 at American Repertory Theater, and it had its New York premiere in 2020 at New York Theatre Workshop. It has been named a finalist for the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and it was selected for the 2018 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. The play was also included on the 2017 Kilroys list. Celine is a member of the Public Theater’s...[FULL BIO]