New Trier English teacher wins $30,000 Prize
Nonprofit 3Arts awards prize to multitalented teacher David Rhee
English Teacher, actor, writer and Token Theater founder David Rhee has been awarded 3Arts grant prize of $30,000
English teacher David Rhee has inspired many students during his tenure at the school. But there is much more to Rhee than just teaching; he has a long career in theatre.
His work has been recently celebrated by 3Arts who awarded him $30,000 to spend on his future theatrical endeavors.
All my work is about telling Asian American stories. From the time Chinese Americans or Asian Americans first came to this country
— David Rhee
3Arts is a nonprofit organization that supports “Chicago’s women artists, artists of color, and deaf and disabled artists who work in the performing, teaching, and visual arts,” according to their website. Rhee was considered from a pool of 125 artists and was selected, along with 9 others, to receive the award.
“It was a comprehensive thing about what I’ve done over the past 22 years, from being on Broadway, all the way to getting my MFA at NYU, to writing plays in Chicago, to starting a theatre company in Chicago,” said Rhee.
In 22 years, Rhee has gone from educator to actor and back to educator. He starred on Broadway in the Tony Award winning play “Thoroughly Modern Millie” from 2002 to 2004. Rhee’s acting career extends beyond Broadway. He recently founded the Token Theatre with Wai Yim in 2017. Together, the two set out with the goal of more fully realizing the voices and stories of Asian Americans in popular culture.
“All my work is about telling Asian American stories. From the time Chinese Americans or Asian Americans first came to this country,” said Rhee. “The whole point of Token Theater, and everything that I do is to say, no, no, no. Here’s our story.”
For centuries, stories of Asian Americans were told by non- Asians. Rhee sets out to make others recognize that these are not their stories.
“We never tell our own stories. So what’s happened since then, since Chinese first immigrated to America, is that our stories have been told about us. So you have stories like ‘Miss Saigon’, that was written by two white men, you have ‘The King’ and I that was written by two white men,” said Rhee. “And then you start to realize that the narrative that’s been told is through the lens of white people, not us.”
Rhee sets out to destroy decades worth of anti-Asian bigotted propaganda that has permeated our media involving Asians.
After reading and taking edits and suggestions from his creative writing students last Friday, Rhee hosted his students to watch the first draft reading of his play, “the feet of God,” at Timeline Theater. His play, true to Rhee’s ideals, focuses on Asian American History told within the framework of a Christ-like figure, Chang, that runs a theater company.
At the end of the reading, Rhee spoke with the crowd who applauded him in creating a complex story that encapsulates the Asian American Experience. Rhee dedicated this reading to his creative writing students at New Trier.
