Courtesy of Suzu Sakai

The one-woman show “Moonie” ran this past weekend at the Yale Cabaret and featured Stefani Kuo ’17 DRA ’24.

Kuo, in collaboration with director Jisun Kim DRA ’22, who is currently pursuing her doctorate, worked together to put on the show. Kuo played approximately 10-12 different characters to represent a mother-daughter relationship and what it is like to be a woman in America. She described the solo show as encompassing “comedy, heartfelt and womanhood.” The play ran for three nights at the David Geffen School of Drama’s performance venue, the Cab, as part of its 56th “Sandbox” season. 

“What the designers, the creative team and Kuo were able to do to expand the space while maintaining the intimacy of the storytelling felt like the perfect fit with our vision for the season,” said co-artistic director of the Cab, Kyle Stamm DRA ’25. 

Stamm and fellow artistic director Doaa Ouf DRA ’25 were “excited” about the potential of a one-woman show in the Cabaret space, and Stamm described the journey as a “road trip.”

The story centers around Moonie, a 30-year old woman who makes an optimistic goal to go on 100 dates to find love, especially as her Taiwanese mother puts pressure on her to get married. 

In order to tell the story, Kuo wears many hats — literally. To differentiate characters, she changes jackets, hats, locations and even her voice. 

“In a one-person show, you have to imagine a lot, and you’re not given a whole set of information,” said Kuo.

Kuo’s relationship with Kim has developed over their years at Yale.

When Kim first arrived at the School of Drama, she said that she recognized “another Asian dramaturg” in Kuo and “resonated” with her work right off the bat. They soon became good friends and have worked together on several shows since.

For this particular show, Kim wanted to ensure that all the beautiful characters, locations and moments were “effectively portrayed,” she said, and she thought a lot about how to represent specific moments in the story.

At first, Kuo was intrigued as to why one-woman shows are written and why audiences watch them. Thus, she decided to try it herself.

Aside from storytelling, Kim and Kuo took the show as an opportunity for Asian Americans to take the stage. Kim, a Korea native, shared that she hadn’t seen any actors “that looked like [her]” on the stage.

“Representation is really important to imagine what it’s like to be in this world and that’s what theater and other art forms allow,” she said.

Kuo, a Hong Kong and Taiwan native, shared this sentiment and expanded on the importance of telling stories that were “specific” to her experience, even though it may not be generalizable to Asian communities. 

Both collaborators appreciated that they were able to use the Cabaret space to tell their story.  Kim expressed  “hope and possibility” for audience members to see themselves on the stage as well.  

Kuo and Kim will be presenting more of their collaborative work at the spring 2024 Carlotta Festival.