Jeremy Gerard / Deadline
News about the departure of Hawaii Five-O co-stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Parkfound its way to New York Saturday night. Korean-born playwright and actor Ins Choi scored bigtime with his play Kim’s Convenience, which had its debut at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theater and has gone on to vie with Schitt’s Creek as Canada’s most popular sitcom as it heads into its sophomore season. In residence this month at New York’s Signature Theatre Center, Soulpepper has been presenting Kim’s Convenience, a multicultural, mulitgenerational dramedy set in a Toronto convenience store, along with several other shows, and has been garnering positive notices.
The company also offers a Soulpepper Cabaret after the shows each night. Last night, Choi took to the stage to perform his poem “Mine Eyes,” about the casting travails faced by Asian actors, first dedicating the semi-rap to Kim and Park, whose departures from the CBS series come amid accusations of longstanding pay disparity in the cast. The performance – punched home by the refrain “true story” as Choi wove stories of his own experiences as an actor with “lean eyes” auditioning for films and television roles – was recorded by Howard Sherman, a frequent videographer of New York theater events.