Milwaukee Rep's 'The Heart Sellers' wins national best new play of year award

A play the Milwaukee Repertory Theater commissioned and premiered last season has won a major award for best new play of the year.

Lloyd Suh's "The Heart Sellers," a stunning and touching comedy about two immigrant wives who bond while spending Thanksgiving together, has won the 2024 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award given to the most outstanding script that premiered in a professional production outside of New York City in 2023.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater performed Suh's play Feb. 7-March 19, 2023, at the Stiemke Studio. Jennifer Chang directed the production, which featured actors Nicole Javier and Narea Kang.

"The Heart Sellers" title is a homophone for Hart-Celler, the informal name of The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, sponsored by Sen. Philip A. Hart and Rep. Emanuel Celler, which opened up immigration here to people beyond the previous narrow list of favored western European countries.

In Suh's play set in 1973, Jane, from Korea, and Luna, from the Philippines, are married to first-year medical residents who work all the time, leaving them lonely and bored in their modest apartments. When Luna sees Jane in the grocery store on Thanksgiving, she impulsively invites her over to make a turkey together, which neither knows how to do.

Suh's parents emigrated here from Korea. In a pre-performance interview, he said he drew on their experiences and the experiences of his friend's parents of their generation.

The award to Suh includes a $25,000 prize.

Validating both the Rep and ATCA's judgment, "The Heart Sellers" has already received or been scheduled for several productions around the country.

Steinberg/ATCA also honored a second play that premiered in Wisconsin last year, "I Carry Your Heart With Me" by Jennifer Blackmer, which was produced by Third Avenue Playworks in Sturgeon Bay. Blackmer's play explores the conflicts of a woman who held a top-secret post during the Vietnam War. As one of two runners-up, Blackmer will receive a $7,500 prize.

Both premieres were among the 47 new works staged during the first-ever World Premiere Wisconsin festival in 2023.

The ATCA also presented its M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for emerging playwrights to Jennifer Vosters for her play "Songs Without Words," which premiered at the Milwaukee Fringe Festival.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rep's 'The Heart Sellers' wins national best new play of year award