Russ Tutterow and Will Cooper (Jade Heart)

Jade Heart

I went to Chicago Dramatists to speak with Senior Network Playwright Will Cooper and Artistic Director Russ Tutterow about the world premiere of JADE HEART. Abandoned as an infant on a pile of vegetables, a Chinese girl is adopted by an unmarried, American woman and grows up in a white, middle-class American home with only half a jade heart as a clue to her identity. We focused on the complex nature of the story, which on the surface appears to be a search for her Chinese mother, whereas in reality, is a search for identity.