Playwright Julia Cho (Durango, The Language Archive) returns to The Public with a taut new drama about a teacher and student desperate to change the narrative of who they are and how their story ends.

Gina was warned that one of her students would be a problem. Eighteen years old and strikingly odd, Dennis writes violently obscene work clearly intended to unsettle those around him. Determined to know whether he’s a real threat, Gina compels Dennis to attend her office hours.

But as the clock ticks down, Gina realizes that “good” versus “bad” is nothing more than a convenient illusion, and that the isolated young student in her office has learned one thing above all else: that for the powerless, the ability to terrify others is powerful indeed.

Neel Keller (The Nether, Forever) directs this inventive, penetrating new drama about a single day that could end in tragedy or hope — and the endless possibilities in between

Do you think you would know if someone is about to commit a mass atrocity? What exactly is the type of person who would commit such an act? How far would you go to connect to another human being you believe to be in trouble? These are questions presented in Office Hour, an intense and provocative drama by playwright Julia Cho. Directed by Neel Keller and playing at the Public Theater, Office Hour is a meditation on gun violence and the perceived power of human connection. At the start of the play, English adjunct professor Gina (Sue Jean Kim) is warned by her colleagues David (Greg Keller) and Genevieve (Adeola Role) about a particular student. Dennis (Ki Hong Lee) has been writing some really disturbing things in their classes. Violent, rape-filled imagery, full of sexually deviant acts like incest and necrophilia. The teachers are worried because, as evidenced by his writing, he appears to be a troubled person. He won’t talk in class, barely says a word in one-on-one meetings, and is always wearing a hoodie and sunglasses. He “fits the profile” of a mass shooter and they’re concerned. Now that Dennis is in her class, they believe Gina, who shares Dennis’s Korean-American backgrou …Read more