REFLECTIONS ON
KIM’S CONVENIENCE
From Stage to Screen

Albert Schultz
Founding Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre
Executive Producer of Kim’s Convenience, the TV Series

I am sitting behind a set at a studio in downtown Toronto, watching a scene take shape on a monitor behind the set of Kim’s Convenience, the television series. On the other side of the wall is a creative army of actors, technicians, and craftspeople.

Sitting on my right are two men, Ins Choi and Ivan Fecan, one who was once my student and one who was once my boss, and both of whom have become valued friends and collaborators. Now all three of us are wearing audio headsets, sitting in classic canvas folding chairs with the words “Executive Producer” emblazoned on the back.

Pinch me.

So many people wanted to help Soulpepper bring Kim’s Convenience to the small screen. The play’s mixture of funny and heartwarming make it a perfect fit for television, and the fact that it speaks so eloquently to the first-generation experience makes it such an emblematic story for twenty-first-
century Canada. We always felt that the CBC was where this show belonged, but we needed the perfect partner to help us get it there.

I met Ivan Fecan many years ago when I was a young actor with a big break at the CBC, where Ivan was in charge. He had approved me to be the new addition to the already well-
established cast of Street Legal, the network’s leading series. Before he went off to build CTV into a national network, Ivan supported me in many ventures at the CBC. About a decade ago, when Ivan was still with CTV, we worked on another project together and it was at this time that Ivan and his wife, Sandra Faire, became involved philanthropically with Soulpepper. I had always admired Ivan and knew him to be tremendously smart and passionately Canadian.

One fateful day I invited Ivan to witness the first run-through of Weyni Mengesha’s beautiful production of Kim’s Convenience. From that moment on he has been the show’s biggest supporter and, with his great team at Thunderbird, Ivan has been instrumental in realizing Soulpepper’s ambition and Ins Choi’s dream.

I like to imagine Ins watching the first episode of this series with his parents and his children. I imagine the pride of his parents, who brought him to this country when he was a year old and who will be watching their son’s stories told to a country full of people just like them . . . people who took extraordinary risks in coming to Canada . . . people who worked remarkably hard to build a life for their family and, in doing so, built a nation.