THE PAPER DREAMS OF HARRY CHIN

By Jessica Huang

During the Chinese Exclusion Act, Harry Chin, a Chinese national, entered the U.S. by buying forged documentation.
Like other “Paper Sons,” Harry lived the rest of his life keeping secrets—even from his daughter. Told through the eyes of
a middle-aged Chin, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin reveals the complicated loves and regrets of this Chinese immigrant.
Through dreamlike leaps of time and space and with the powerful assistance of ghosts, the story of the Chin family
reveals the personal and political repercussions of making groups of people “illegal.”

“Huang’s superb storytelling keeps us engaged with this complex, and all
too timely, tale.”
—City Pages

“A remarkably poetic work…The beautiful dreams and poetry of the script
by Jessica Huang, clash with racist realities in mid-century America and
create a haunting play.”
—The Weekly View

“At once a mystical, memory-filled, pragmatically painful, and harshly
truthful tale…Ms. Huang…[has] created a unique story-telling style
which is fresh and compelling”
—A Seat on the Aisle

Production Notes

POET — Chinese man, age can range from 17 to 40.
Also plays IMMIGRATION OFFICER.
BOSS — Latino man, late 20s-30s. Also plays INTERROGATOR.

 PLACE: Something open, something flexible — something that can flow between a small apartment, a restaurant kitchen, a ship, a detention center, a courtroom, a garage. Something with levels so several of these places can exist at once.

 Time: 1970

Author

Jessica Huang

Jessica Huang is a playwright and librettist whose plays include: The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin (Barry and Bernice Stavis Award), Mother of Exiles (Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award) and Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying (EMOS Ecodrama prize). Her audioplay Song of the Northwoods is available on Audible. She is developing an original television show with WBTV. She has commissions with Manhattan Theatre Club, Timeline Theater, TheaterWorks, History Theatre and Theater Mu. She is a three-time Playwrights' Center fellow, and has been a member of Ars Nova Play Group, Civilians R&D Group and Page 73's Interstate 73. She is a graduate of the Playwrights Program at Juilliard...[FULL BIO]