Wendy Dang on creating ‘WHAT THE PHỞ?’
BY WENDY DANG
Playwright Wendy Dang is so proud to have the world premiere of WHAT THE PHỞ? at Plan-B! She is an Equity actor, playwright, and author (as Rainie Dang). She is also the owner of The Dang Bakery and one of the founders of Época: An Acting Class For People of Color. Wendy's acting credits include R+J: STAR CROSS'D DEATH MATCH, BALD SISTERS, and EGRESS (Salt Lake Acting Company), FOURTEEN FUNERALS (The Purple Rose), and the films MARRY CHRISTMAS, MISTLETOE MIXUP, and THE LADIES ROOM. Member, Plan-B's Theatre Artists of Color Writing Workshop.
As the child of Vietnamese immigrants, I struggled to find romantic, happy endings I connected with in the safe-haven I discovered at Hunter Library in West Valley City. Whether it was in the books I read, or DVDs I watched, I never saw myself in any of the stories.
As I grew up and continued to read beautiful books in the romance section, secretly falling in love with fictional cowboys and yearning after Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon in "Sense and Sensibility," none of these stories reflected my own experiences. None of the beautiful women I read about or watched, with their long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, made me feel like I could be coveted and loved the same way they were.
When I did see a Vietnamese author's name on the cover of a book, it was a tragic story about the war, loss, and sacrifice. Even though I knew this was an important time during American and Vietnamese history, it wasn't the ONLY important thing about us, and I was angry about the lack of interpersonal stories and Vietnamese joy in the books I was reading. I still have not seen a single movie or TV show with a Vietnamese-American woman as the lead.
I was well into my adulthood when a friend recommend The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, and it was the first romance book I read that told a Vietnamese story and never mentioned the war. In the book, Michael had a tumultuous relationship with his dad, and Stella had a hard time connecting with people. A simple, spicy story healed the angry parts of my heart and I began to make more of an effort to diversify what I was reading. These books made me feel like I could be loved, and seeing myself in these stories made me yearn for more.
A frustrating read of a famous Romantasy book pushed me over the edge of reader to author, actor to playwright. I felt the story was so boring and the female main characters were so one-dimenaional, it made me believe that If I wanted more spicy stories of curvy, intelligent, Vietnamese women, wouldn't other people want it, too? If I wasn't finding plays that were rom-coms and centered Vietnamese joy, couldn't I just write one?
I first set out to write books I wanted to read, and when I published Sweet Thing: A Holiday Novella, it was so loved, I pushed to complete my first full-length novel, Miss Nguyen's Bodyguard, a few years later. I was determined to signal to everyone like me, the young woman at Hunter Library all those years ago, that if they saw my name, Dang, on a book with "Nguyen" in the title, that it would be a Vietnamese story, it was a romance, and it had a happy ending.
The success of my first two romance novels made me brave enough to write WHAT THE PHỞ? I put everything I wanted to see into this story: Two Vietnamese leads falling in love, living through overbearing, filial piety, never mentioning the war, and packing in as many romance book tropes as possible.
Chelsea Chen & Austinn Le in the Script-In-Hand Series reading of WHAT THE PHỞ? by Wendy Dang (February 2026), both of whom are reprising their roles in the world premiere (March 2027).
Workshopping the play with Plan-B's Script In Hand series gave me clarity, feedback, and support I seriously needed as a first-time playwright.
It's bittersweet to learn that the challenges I faced with my own parents, which loosely inspire the conflict in WHAT THE PHỞ? are unfortunately more universal than I would have thought. In specifying the pain of loving a family that demands so much from you, I learned the heartache, resentment, forgiveness, love, obligation and tornado of conflicting emotions exists in all cultures. We are all in the same boat, and unfortunately, the boat is riddled with holes that we are all patching up in our own time, in our own way.
This play could only come from a place of great healing. I would never have been able to laugh through the fun bits and cry through the sad ones if I hadn't begun the process with my own relationships years ago. My family has shown incredible progress in changing, maturing, and apologizing, and I, in turn, have done the same.
The path to reconciliation is long and hard, but I am on the journey. The same cannot be said for many others, so I hope WHAT THE PHỞ? can offer some closure for those who do not have it as an option.
TICKETS
WHAT THE PHỞ? by Wendy Dang receives its world premiere as Plan-B's 18th episode of RADIO HOUR, a co-production with KUER's RadioWest, on Wednesday, December 16, 2026 at 11am and 7pm. You are the live studio audience! Please click here for details and tickets!