Lighting the Stacks
My new historical drama for the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central 100 celebration, performed by students from five LAUSD schools at the Mark Taper Auditorium, with a living history museum hosted by my YOKA students.
Middle School Theater · Los Angeles
Theater for the kids who don’t think it’s for them.
I’m a theater teacher, playwright, and Emmy- and Eisner-nominated writer. I built the theater program at Young Oak Kim Academy from scratch: first-timers find a way in, and serious students train to professional standards.
Emmy & Eisner nominated
Program built from zero
District curriculum adoption
Arts foundation grant
The Program
Built from an empty room
Two years ago, Young Oak Kim Academy — a Title I middle school in Pico-Union and Koreatown — didn’t have a theater program. Now it has four separate classes: Intro to Theater, Advanced Theater, a mixed class where returning students mentor new ones, and a technical theater track.
My students are diverse, many are multilingual, and plenty walk in sure they’re “not a theater kid.” The work is about giving them a room where taking a risk is safe, and then watching them outgrow their own expectations.
The work runs on a professional process: auditions, table reads, rehearsal schedules, and real production roles on stage and backstage. Students who want to keep going leave ready for high school arts programs, and the technical theater track is built as a pathway with three local high schools.
Curriculum
Adopted at the district level.
Funding
Arts foundation grant secured.
Students
100–200 students each year.
The Ember Thief
Gods, Man, and Really Bad Decisions
My comedic adaptation of the Prometheus and Epimetheus myth, written for and performed by my students. Produced in 2026 with 25 students: a cast of 15 and a crew of 10.
Ask about licensing the script →
Preview of The Ember Thief ScriptNot for performanceRead the preview (PDF)
3 lessonsTeach The Ember ThiefGreek chorus, Titans, and the two brothers, in a unit that gets students ready to watch the show.See the lesson plans
Coming Dec 12, 2026
Arts Gala Highlights
Open the video in a new tabTeaching
How I teach
Grounded in Spolin, Stanislavski, and Boal, shaped by Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and project-based learning. I’ve taught sixth graders on their first day of theater, worked alongside high school casts at the Mark Taper Auditorium, and led professional development for fellow LAUSD teachers.
Lesson plan
Theatre of the Oppressed in the middle school classroom
Using Boal’s techniques to help students rehearse real-world responses to the pressures in their community.
View lesson →Unit
Middle school monologues
Students write and perform original monologues drawn from their own voices, languages, and lives.
View unit →Unit
Radio drama
Voice, sound design, and storytelling for students who aren’t ready to be seen yet, but are ready to be heard.
View unit →Workshops
For festivals, conferences & teachers
- [Workshop title 1] — [one-line description]
- [Workshop title 2] — [one-line description]
- [Workshop title 3] — [one-line description]
Before the classroom
A career in story
Before teaching full time, I spent years as a comic book, TV, and film writer and producer, earning Emmy and Eisner nominations. My graphic novel Tumor is in development as a screen adaptation.
That professional writers’ room is what I bring to the classroom: real deadlines, real collaboration, and the belief that every kid has a story worth telling.
BFA, Writing and Directing for the Stage and Screen, Emerson College · California teaching credential · M.S. in Education, Educational Technology (in progress), Cal State East Bay
Let’s make something.
Available for workshops, festival teaching, conference sessions, and script licensing.