Jean Yoon
Actor, Playing the Role of “Umma” in Kim’s Convenience, the TV Series

All together, hold hands.

The refrain of the hymn Umma sings translates back from the Korean into English with unsettling directness: “Without love, there is no meaning . . . Without love, there is nothing at all.” Every misguided squabble Appa picks with Janet, every day the Kims labour at the store, every disappointed aspiration for something better for their children is rooted in love. Umma reminds us of the cost of their life in Canada: “No weekend, no vacation, no time off, no retirement . . . Why? For you? He choose that way for you . . .” The play acknowledges the devotion and suffering of our parents’ experience and offers the experience back to us as comedy with redemption and forgiveness. We witness Appa, through sheer force of love, surrender his pride and his anger to embrace his real dream, the only dream worth having — the love and integrity of his family, his wife and children, and his grandchildren — whatever path they choose.

I am deeply grateful to Ins Choi for writing this play, for his talent, for his devastatingly precise comedic observation, for his compassionate vision. I am grateful he asked me on board for Fringe show, grateful the show went on to grow through Soulpepper Theatre’s support, grateful our story is now a television comedy series.

The story keeps on going . . .

As an actor, the television series offers me an opportunity to explore Umma when she is younger, more hopeful, still undeterred from her plan to marry off her children to good Christian-Korean partners with post-doctorate degrees. She’s not yet defeated, not yet touched by regret. This Umma is as vigorous and comically out of step with her children’s values as her husband. She goes on adventures of her own and has tender, nuanced, and rich relationships with family and friends. I spent all yesterday learning the B-52s song “Love Shack” and the Sonny and Cher classic “I Got You Babe” in preparation for upcoming scenes. Need I say more?

And every day I am on set, I think again of my own family, my beautiful mother and my kind and stoic father; the kind and quirky ajimas I have met on my travels; my grandparents — and I reach deep into all that love, all that family history, to make art.

How blessed am I.

You, me, Appa, Janet. All together. Hold hands.

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee
Actor, Playing the Role of “Appa” in Kim’s Convenience, the TV Series

Gratitude. Of all words that I could use to describe my experiences with Kim’s Convenience, “gratitude” is the one word that keeps springing to mind. As I write this, we’re almost at the halfway point of shooting episodes for Season One of the television series and I am living in a dream. I wake up every morning excited about the day ahead and what new adventures the Kim family will embark on, and I return home exhausted and overjoyed by the work we’ve done. In many ways it’s hard to believe we’ve come this far — from when I first got involved, reading a couple of scenes for the Toronto Diaspora Dialogues back in 2005; the numerous workshops over the next five years; premiering at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2011; opening Soulpepper Theatre’s 2012 season; embarking on a Canadian national tour from 2013 to 2015 to the cities of London, Port Hope, Calgary, Hamilton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Edmonton, and five Toronto productions; and now filming the series produced by Thunderbird Film, Soulpepper Theatre, and airing on CBC.