In 2016, the playwright Sarah Gancher discovered she was following a group of Russian trolls on Facebook. Their username was Blacktivist, and they were paid by the Russian government to spread disinformation about the US presidential election. Gancher found this fascinating. She started thinking about the trolls all the time—what they ate, how they talked—until she realized why she was so interested. “They’re playwrights,” she said. “Like me.”

A few years after moving to the United States, Hansol Jung started writing a play about a lonely man in Seoul.

Kally Patz profiles Kathy Ng, discussing how the playwright’s upbringing in Hong Kong and malleable interpretation of the body fueled her chaotic-good play, Happy Life

by Kally Patz

It’s a specific road they’re traveling, strange and precarious. But with the playful mood in the car—the family’s gags and eccentric bits—it often feels like a road anyone could ride. In Hit The Road (2021), Panah Panahi has created a road trip movie about immigration, a tragedy that bounces along with the jubilance of a Hollywood blockbuster.