Luna and June, meet each other in a supermarket in a mid-sized city. They are the only two Asian faces in the entire grocery store. Each recently has come to America with their medical student husbands and are feeling isolated, faced with an entirely different culture and an unfamiliar holiday: Thanksgiving.
It’s 1973 and their husbands will be working through the night. Luna who is from the Philippines invites Jane from Korea to join her in cooking a turkey. Both are incredibly homesick. Actually that’s where the audience will meet the two, as Luna opens the door to her apartment.
The Heart Sellers by playwright Lloyd Suh depicts the immigrant experience, something Suh gleaned in part from conversations with his own mother. The play’s title comes from the Hart-Celler Act which granted new paths to U.S. citizenship for people from Asia, Africa and other non-European nations. Also known as the Immigrations and Nationality Act of 1965, it eliminated restrictive, nationality-based immigration quotas.
It’s hard to imagine how Stages theater could have timed this better given what is going on in our country right now with immigration and citizenship. The one-act with about a 90 minute running time, stars Mai Le and Alexandra Szeto-Joe.
New York-based Miranda Cornell is directing. She recently worked as associate director of The Outsiders—winner of four Tony Awards in 2024, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical—currently playing on Broadway. This is her first time in Texas which she called really exciting. “As a young director it’s really important to broader your horizons outside of New York and work with different people.”
“I love this play. It’s a beautiful love letter to friendship, to trying to figure out oneself in a new place. It’s just a really gorgeous portrayal of two young women in their fullness. I think what’s so great about this play is it’s a true character study of these two women.
“Loyd Suh is one of our greatest Asian American playwrights. He’s produced all over the country. One of his plays, The Chinese Lady, has been produced in almost every major regional theater. He also has a play The Far Country which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2023 which was about the Chinese Exclusion Act.”
Cornell has set the play specifically in Omaha, Nebraska. “In doing a lot of research, I really drawn to the Asian immigrant communities I was looking where folks might be more isolated and not have a community to tap into. And that led me to how Luna and Jane’s husbands are first year residents in medical school and I was also looking at cities that had teaching hospitals that were accepting residencies of Asian immigrant students through the Hart-Celler act at the time. And that’s how I landed in Omaha.
In the play when Luna and Jane meet, they are wearing matching coats. “That alone is enough to draw Luna who is the more boisterous, dramatic outgoing of the two to invite Jane to her apartment,” Cornell says. ” Their skills in English vary.” While attempting to cook a turkey they talk about what it’s like to live in this country, she says.
As much as this country projects the idea that it was built by and is welcoming to immigrants, as this Cornell and this play points out, not everyone has a soft landing. Jane is even more isolated, she mostly stays at home watching TV and she doesn’t know how to drive.
Asked who this should appeal to, Cornell says, everyone. She recommends it as especially well suited now that Valentine Day’s season is upon us.
“This play is funny. For all of its heavy themes, it is so funny and really tender and touching.”
Performances are scheduled for January 31 through February 23 at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at The Gordy, 800 Rosine. For more information, call 713-527-0123 or visit stageshouston.com. $34-$79.
