It was then that I began receiving emails from commercial producers and artistic directors of Toronto theatre companies, who were interested in mounting my play. Soulpepper was the best fit. Soulpepper’s founder and artistic director, Albert Schultz, wanted the play to open the company’s 2012 season. Everybody was available except Andre Sills, who had to honour a previous contract for another show. So we auditioned all the available amazing black actors in Toronto and arrived at Clé Bennett. When I was asked about a director, I immediately proposed Weyni. This time, her schedule was open.

On December 19, 2011, we began rehearsals for Kim’s Convenience at Soulpepper Theatre Company. Weyni began with a ritual: each of us would share a personal object and the story of what had got us into theatre. (Those objects are hidden in our set.) We rehearsed six days a week, eight hours a day, for three weeks. Every Wednesday night, we ate Korean, Ethiopian, or Jamaican cuisine, and on Saturdays we brought sweet treats to the rehearsals. The show opened at Soulpepper on January 19, 2012.

It’s Thursday, February 2, 2012, 7:30 p.m. I’m sitting on a couch in the green room at Soulpepper Theatre. Nancy, the stage manager, just gave us the thirty-minute call. I’m tired . . . I should get ready . . . Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, who plays Appa in the show, is sitting beside me playing some game on his iPad. Esther Jun, who plays Janet, walked in and asked something about hosting our closing night party. Jean Yoon, who plays Umma, just sat down. Actor Clé Bennett, who plays four roles in the show, came in and dropped a bunch of sweet potato chips that he discovered recently, and which we all love. (Everybody gets up to hug Clé. He just brings that out in all of us.) Natalie, the dresser, is doing a crossword puzzle at the table. Kat, the assistant stage manager, walked by tweeting something. Nancy is now knitting a baby blanket for the soon-to-be-born baby of Ken Mackenzie, the set designer. Everyone has now vacated the room to get ready for the show . . . I’m alone in this room writing on my laptop now. I’ve been alone in some room writing on my laptop for the past six years, dreaming of this. Chipping away at this unrelenting script, wrestling with these characters, laughing and weeping as I find myself in the story, can’t help but feel sad knowing that the Kim’s Convenience file titles on my laptop end here.

kc.2006.05.FinalDraft2.cwk

kc.2006.fugenPotluck.cwk

kc1.2007.now.cwk

kc2.2007.09.27.DiasporaDialogues.cwk

kc3.2008.06.28.fugen.megapotluck.cwk

kc5.2009.04.22.cwk

kc6.2009.05.20.GraceChurch.cwk

kc.2010.Autumn.Fringe.NewPlayContest.pdf

kc.2011.04.01.Fringe.cwk

kc.2011.07.03.Fringe.cwk

kc.2011.12.07.soulpepper.postreading.rtf

kc.2012.01.12.soulpepper.rtf

kc.2012.02.11.anansi.doc

In our opening week, Kim’s Convenience sold out its entire thirty-eight‒show run in the two-hundred-seat Michael Young Theatre. Soulpepper is bringing the show back in May, and we plan to tour it across Canada and around the world . . . honoured and humbled. As if a pack of wild rhinos trampled a path before me, knocking down all the barriers and smoothing every rocky place . . . I should get ready . . . Not many people in the arts have faith in God anymore. But I do and I thank God for having faith in me. Enough faith to let me play . . . I should get ready . . .