A few weeks ago I had the immense privilege to catch the first reading of author Carolyn Huynh’s first play at Los Angeles Theatre Center. I’ve loved Huynh’s writing since I read her first novel, The Fortunes of Jaded Women. Huynh has this beautiful way she’s able to combine the energy of a family epic with reality TV level drama and comedy into a touching story about women. And as expected, her foray into playwriting was just as delightful as her books.
In It’s Harder Than It Looks, at Josie’s mother’s funeral, three eccentric women crash the service, claiming to be her mother’s badminton group. Determined to understand her mother’s secret life and her mysterious death, Josie joins the badminton group. Meanwhile, the ghost of Josie’s mother appears with a plan to get Josie to live a little.
Artists at Play Neighborhood Project
Carolyn Huynh’s play, directed by Jennifer Chang, was commissioned through Artists at Play’s Neighborhood Project. With a focus on creating new work that explores different Asian diasporic enclaves in Los Angeles, the inaugural Artists at Play Playwrights Group has been commissioned to write plays that will highlight the vibrant stories and histories of our local “Little Asia” neighborhoods and the communities who live and thrive there.
These playwrights will spend 2025 writing their plays in residence with AAP, meeting monthly in a peer-guided writers’ group led by Nicholas Pilapil (playwright of AAP’s world premiere God Will Do The Rest), and will be paired with community-based partners for cultural and community dramaturgy. All of this will culminate in staged readings of their new plays in 2026.
From Novels to the Stage
Huynh’s storytelling jumps from novel writing to playwriting seamlessly. This play has the exact same brand of touching intergenerational family stories that make you cry and laugh your heart out at the same time. She is deeply skilled at writing a cast of women who are all uniquely different, but together take up a chaotic life of their own, really highlighting the love and care that flourishes in groups of women. Seeing the writing translate from novel to the stage, I’ve realized my favorite aspect of Huynh’s writing is the tug of emotional weight amid chaos. No one does it quite like her.
It’s Harder Than It Looks carries another special element that parallels Huynh’s novel writing: focusing on Asian enclaves and diaspora bubbles. Much in the same way that the ensembles of women take on a life of their own together, the Asian enclaves in Huynh’s stories are always given room to breathe as their own. In all of her stories, there is a deep love and respect for these sacred spaces that are only able to manifest out of a critical understanding that these enclaves are hard built by every single person who inhabits them. It’s absolutely no surprise that Artists at Play wanted Carolyn Huynh on this project.
Having the chance to see the first reading of It’s Harder Than It Looks after having loved Huynh’s novels for so long was such a cool experience. It feels like I got a chance to glimpse an important moment in the transformation of Huynh’s craft turning from novelist to storyteller. I know, I know, novelists tell stories. But there’s a difference between writing a novel and using writing as just a vessel to communicate a story and to understand the world.
Stories have shaped civilizations long before writing even existed. Humans passed down knowledge through oral tradition and through stories. It’s how we learned about and shaped the world around us. It’s how we kept each other safe and how we built networks of connection. It is such a delight to watch writers grow into their storytelling, truly becoming artists, and seeing It’s Harder Than It Looks feels like watching that shift happen in real time.
Upcoming from Carolyn Huynh
Carolyn Huynh is also trying her hand at a new genre in her upcoming dystopian literary story, Fetal Position, releasing on December 8. I just got an advanced copy this week and I can’t wait to dive in!
If you live in Los Angeles, keep an eye out for future productions of It’s Harder Than It Looks later this year. Artists at Play playwrights are still workshopping their plays for future staged readings in the fall.
