Reviews

Acting Reviews

"prefer not to answer...or other", 2019:
Chicago Theatre Triathlon: "Even though Nina is a force to behold and Park brings down the house with her stone-cold rage and piercing sass, she's also desperately trying to connect with her child."

"The Hundred Flowers Project", 2014:
Dueling Critics: "Mia Park shines as the power-drunk director, and she’s ably supported by the rest of the cast."
Around The Town Chicago: "Mia Park gives a wonderful performance as Mel: alternatively deranged, brutal, competent and charismatic."

"My Asian Mom", 2012:
TimeOut Chicago: “Eight Turkey Sandwiches,” which Park wrote and performs, captures the tragedy of North Korean oppression and the gnaw of survivors’ guilt in a food-preparation ritual that stuns with its poignancy."
Chicago Reader: "Appropriately, it's the Asian moms who steal this show...What Park can do, though, is stand on her head. And for the last minute of 'Eight Turkey Sandwiches', she does."
Chicago Theatre Minority Report: "Park’s honest performance reveals her experience as an Asian woman in today’s society as compared to the women of her ancestral lineage. In heartbreaking fashion, Park details how her grandmother risked her life escaping North Korea on foot."
Chicago Theater Beat: "Park then reveals her unique self with tattoos and a vegan’s distaste for turkey. The literal headstand was a great climax!"

Mia was interviewed as creator and producer of My Asian Mom:
Wai-Tawaiin?
Outside the Loop Radio
WGN Radio

"Family Devotions", 2011:
Chicago Tribune: "There are some decent actors in Jenn Adams' enthusiastic production — Mia Park, Eliza Shin, Gordon Chow and several others..."
Around The Town Chicago: "...the delightful and often comic relief in the show played by Mia Park and Kaori Aoshima"
Chicago Theater Beat: "...the expressive Aoshima and Park, who portray the play’s main source of laughs."
Chicago Theater Addict: "The two elder sisters (Kaori Aoshima and Mia Park) are severe but also funny..."
Windy City Times: "The cast is uniformly excellent, fearlessly immersing themselves in personalities nowadays largely relegated to ethnic stereotype. Special mention, however, is due the courageous Mia Park, whose intractable Ama is a saber-toothed Tiger Mom dispensing policy as draconian as that of the totalitarian states she now purports to deplore."
Center Stage Chicago: "Take, for example, the strong performances led by Mia Park (Ama) and Kaori Aoshima (Popo), who play the family’s fiercely stubborn matriarchs. The duo never misses a beat in delivering the hilarious black comedy that fuels the play’s continuity. The cast impresses with strong characterizations and ultimate devotion to their craft. The honest dialogue performed with truth and conviction is compelling."
Chicago Now: The actresses playing the old ladies are hilarious. Time has warped their sense of religion and family history. Their sisterly bond is hand holding charming. They sidebar with mean-spirited sanctimoniousness.

"Hana's Suitcase", 2008:
Chicago Tribune: "Several strong performances from the likes of Dev Kennedy (Hana's father), Mia Park (the teacher) and Greta Honold (Hana) ooze truth and quiet dignity."
Chicago Sun Times: "...the show follows Fumiko Ishioka (an effortless Mia Park) and her ever-curious and creative students Akira (the comically high-flying Allan Aquino) and Maiko (smart, feisty Stephanie Kim) as they contact Holocaust museums far and wide and try to reinvent the terrible ordeal of Hana and her family."

"The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow", 2007:
Chicago Tribune: "And as Jenny's robotic alter ego, Jenny Chow, Mia Park superbly negotiates the tricky divide between the artificiality of a machine and the warm heart of its creator." "Jennifer Marcus — and her faux-Jenny Chow — aren't just excitable, they're exciting." "...her alter-ego robot played touchingly by "Chic-a-Go-Go" host Mia Park."
Chicago Sun-Times: "Actress Mia Park was outstanding in the role of robot Jenny Chow in Collaboraction's "The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow." "[Jennifer Marcus] finds her spirited match in her cyber-age Frankenstein monster Jenny Chow (...so good she truly verges on the cyber)."
TimeOut Chicago: "Park, first a stiff-jointed droid and eventually a flesh-and-blood Pygmalion, is every bit as good as Shin, and the two eventually make for a shared, synergistic performance." "The fine actor with the hot yoga moves who plays the titular robot in Collaboraction's 'The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow'...is Mia Park."
Windy City Times: "And while the burden of the action rests on Jennifer Shin and Mia Park’s tag-team rapport, the supporting players—in particular, Scott Kennedy as an array of eccentrics showcasing Jessica Cai’s dialects—lend uniform depth and humanity to roles easily reduced to stereotypes."