Press Release: The Heart Sellers

LAUGHTER AND THE QUEST FOR CONNECTION TAKE CENTER STAGE WITH SOUTH COAST REPERTORY’S PRODUCTION OF THE HEART SELLERS BY LLOYD SUH

Heartwarming comedy is one of America’s most produced plays

COSTA MESA, Calif. (Oct 3, 2025)—South Coast Repertory (Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Suzanne Appel) brings to life one of America’s most produced plays with the heartwarming comedy The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh. Directed by Jennifer Chang, the story about two immigrant women finding connection and friendship after one serendipitous meeting takes the Julianne Argyros Stage Oct. 26-Nov. 16.

The Heart Sellers features Nicole Javier (Luna) and Narea Kang (Jane), reprising the roles they originated in the play’s 2023 world premiere. Since that production, The Heart Sellers has become one of the most sought-after plays in the country. It made American Theatre’s most produced plays list for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 theatre seasons and was No. 9 on CultureVulture’s most produced plays list for the 2024/25 theatre season.

“I am a huge fan of Lloyd Suh and The Heart Sellers has been in our queue for a couple of years,” Ivers said. “It’s a story about the themes in our season: finding place, friendship, family, joy amidst isolation and loneliness. It’s smart and warm, poignant and inspiring.”

The Heart Sellers marks the award-winning Suh’s SCR debut. It captured the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association Award for Best New Play in 2023, which was presented at SCR during the 2024 Pacific Playwrights Festival. Also in 2023, Suh was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for The Far Country.

Production and engagement support for The Heart Sellers is provided by The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, which awarded SCR a Social Impact Theatre grant award to create critically important conversations both in the theatre and in the broader community.

One of those engagement activities is The Longest Table, to be held Saturday, Nov. 8 from 5-7 p.m. on SCR’s Ela’s Terrace. Free and open to the public, The Longest Table is a community event bringing people together for a shared potluck-style meal and meaningful conversation. For more information on The Longest Table, visit https://www.scr.org/other/the-longest-table/

““The Heart Sellers is fundamentally about the joy we find in gathering together and making new friends,” Appel said. “We look forward to bringing our many communities in Orange County together around this show and for The Longest Table, a free potluck on our terrace on Saturday, November 8 at 5 p.m.”

The Play

We meet the women—one Filipino, one Korean—during their chance meeting at a supermarket on Thanksgiving Day, 1973. Longing for connection, Luna invites Jane to her apartment. While their medical-resident husbands work through the night, the women bond over life in America, the families they left behind and how to cook a frozen turkey.

The Heart Sellers gets its title from the landmark Hart-Celler Act of 1965, which abolished the national origins quota system for immigration. Among several changes, it gave preference to professionals with special skills and to relatives of citizens. The women we meet in the story are married to medical resident studying in the U.S.

Suh wrote The Heart Sellers during the pandemic and has said that while history and politics gave the play its name, at its heart, it is a comedy about friendship and connection.

“I think at the foreground of everything here is that these are two people who want to make a friend. They want to entertain each other, they want to make each other feel safe, they want to make each other have a good time so they can make a real honest connection,” he said. “And so, all the comedy comes from intention … wanting to make the other person laugh, wanting to feel what it feels like to laugh when you’ve been sitting in an apartment all alone for four months. That’s why I think it’s primarily and principally and chiefly very much a comedy.”

Broadway World agreed, calling Suh’s heartwarming comedy “a laugh-aloud love letter to friendship.”

The Playwright

Celebrated for his ability to capture the voice of immigrants as he brings their oft-forgotten stories to life, Suh’s awards include the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, The Horton Foote Prize and the Guggenheim Fellowship. The Dramatists Guild named him one of its “50 to Watch.”

Suh’s works have been produced across the United States and internationally, including at Atlantic Theater Company, The Public Theater, Alliance Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Company, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and with PCPA, at the Guerrilla Theatre in Seoul, South Korea.

The Indianapolis native holds a BA in English from Indiana University and an MFA from the New School for Social Research. He has taught playwriting at Princeton, where he serves as Professor of the Practice, Columbia and Hunter College.

The Director

One of the most respected theatre directors in the country, Chang (@iamtherealchanginator) returns to SCR after helming the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families production of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon in 2020. She also directed the 2022 Pacific Playwrights Festival reading of Bite Me by Eliana Pipes. Chang directed the 2023 world premiere of The Heart Sellers at Milwaukee Repertory Company. She also directed the production at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Aurora Theatre Company and Capital Stage.

Chang’s award-winning credits include Vietgone at East West Players (LADCC Award for Best Direction) and Primary Trust at Barrington Stage (Berkshire Theatre Critics Association Award for Outstanding Direction and TheatreWorks Hartford Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Production). Other select credits include the world premiere of What Became of Us (Atlantic Theater Company), the West Coast premiere of Suh’s The Far Country (Berkeley Repertory), and recently, A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Pasadena Playhouse).

Chang is currently an associate professor at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and is recognized for her skill in new play and musical development. She holds residencies at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Berkeley Rep’s The Ground Floor, the Geffen Playhouse, the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Center Theatre Group, among others.

The Cast

Javier (@nicjavi) returns to SCR after playing numerous roles in the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families production of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon in 2020. No stranger to Orange County, Javier earned her BFA in Theatre Performance at Chapman University. Along with her role as Luna at Milwaukee Rep and on the production’s Northern California tour, Javier’s regional credits include The Book of Will, Animal Farm, A Christmas Carol, Metamorphoses and All’s Well That Ends Well (A Noise Within), The Glass Menagerie (San Francisco Playhouse) and Mrs. Christie and tokyo fish story (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), Javier’s TV credits include “Nemesis” (Netflix) and “Bosch Legacy” (Amazon).

Kang (@nareakang) also makes her SCR debut after performing Off-Broadway in Cymbeline (National Asian American Theatre Company), Madonna col Bambino (Ars Nova and New Ohio Theatre) and Salty (Lyra Theatre). Regionally, she also appeared as Jane in The Heart Sellers at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and in Suh’s The Chinese Lady (Denver Center) and The Hard Problem (American Conservatory Theatre). Kang’s TV credits include “Law and Order: SVU” and HBO’s “Betty.”

The Creative Team

The design and creative team includes Tanya Orellana, set design; Anthony Tran, costume design; Pablo Santiago, lighting design and Melanie Chen Cole, sound design. Adrian Trujillo Centeno is the dramaturg. Casting is by The Telsey Office (Brian Sutow, CSA and Rose Bochner, CSA); Maisie Chan is the production manager, Darlene Miyakawa is the production stage manager, and Kyrsten Goodrich is the assistant stage manager.

The Heart Sellers received generous support from Season Producers Harmon & Lea Kong and Honorary Producers Samuel and Tammy Tang and The Directors Circle.

Tickets are now on sale and range in price from $36 to $139, with additional discounts available for educators, seniors and students. Tickets may be purchased online at www.scr.org or by phone at (714) 708-5555. More information is available at www.scr.org.

Special Events

• Post-Show Discussions:
  • Actor Conversations with members of the cast: Sunday, Nov. 2, Wednesday, Nov. 5 and Thursday, Nov. 13.
  • Community Conversation, a presentation and discussion surrounding a theme specific to The Heart Sellers: Sunday, Nov. 9.
  • Inside the Season: Saturday, Nov. 8 from 10:30 a.m.-noon. Led by members of SCR’s literary staff, this lively 90-minute session includes in-depth interviews with cast members and artists from the production staff, revealing secrets and offering insights into The Heart Sellers. Tickets are $14 and may be purchased in advance or at the door.
• ASL Interpreted Performance: Saturday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.

Location: South Coast Repertory is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the David Emmes/Martin Benson Theatre Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Parking is available on Park Center Drive, off Anton Boulevard.

2025-26 Upcoming Productions: The Heart Sellers, Oct. 26-Nov. 16, 2025; Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, 45^th Anniversary, Nov. 29-Dec. 28, 2025; God of Carnage, Jan. 23-March 21, 2026; Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Jan. 24-March 21, 2026; Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale, Feb. 20-March 8, 2026; Eat Me, April 12-May 3, 2026; Fremont Ave., April 25-May 23, 2026; Hershey Felder, BEETHOVEN, June 10-21, 2026. The annual showcase of new works, the Pacific Playwrights Festival, runs May 1-3, 2026.