Q&A with Tae Keller and Katie Hae Leo
vivian nielsen, who plays Lily in WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER. Photo by Amy Rondeau Photography.
Tae Keller grew up hearing Korean folktales from her halmoni (grandmother) and her mother, but her favorite was the one halmoni told about a magical tiger. While the original story only had one heroine, her halmoni changed it so that were two—one because of Keller and one because of Keller's sister.
Tae Keller photo by Saavedra Photography
This tale became the basis of her middle reader book, When You Trap a Tiger, which went on to become a New York Times bestseller, a Newbery Award winner, and, as of Opening Night on Mar 14, a world premiere production by Stages Theatre Company in collaboration with Theater Mu. Adapted for theater by longtime Mu and Stages artist Katie Hae Leo, the production follows 11-year-old Lily and her relationships as she moves to a new city, makes new friends, and tries to save her grandmother from illness by bargaining with a magical tiger.
A couple of weeks before opening, Mu was able to chat with both Keller and Leo about When You Trap a Tiger. Get some insight into this moving story before you grab tickets! The show runs Mar 14-30, and those who come on Mar 29 can also attend an exclusive book signing with Keller.
When You Trap a Tiger has this theme of folktales in it, but it also has a theme of passed down stories. Could you talk a little bit about how those two themes overlap for you?
TK: Originally I was thinking I want to just keep these stories really true to the folktale. Like, this is the way that the stories are. … But as I was writing the book, I was researching more folktales. I was seeing the ways that the stories evolved over time. I mean, it was like it was oral storytelling. So of course they have all these different versions of it.
I was learning more about my own family history, talking to my halmoni about it. I was researching Korean history. I was learning so much about my own heritage. And I think part of doing that was seeing the way that I fit into a broader story and starting to understand that I could be part of the story.
It wasn't just that I had to take what I had grown up with and learn and then repeat it out for the world, but that I could be part of this evolution too. … I took these folktales and then started to make them my own and started to think, how does this fit with my worldview now? How does this biracial element come in and all of these pieces that kind of, you know… It felt like personal to my family, but also just very personal to me.
What stuck out to you when you first read the book, Katie?
KHL: Immediately after I read it, I thought about having the main character, Lily, speak directly to the audience. … One of the things that really stuck out to me from my first reading of the book, was a really minor detail, but it meant a lot to me.
So, I was kind of a shy kid myself, and there's this moment in the book when Lily is walking in on her mom, and her mom is alone. And the mom says, "Oh, you scared me. You're always sneaking up on me!" And Lily says, "I didn't mean to sneak up on you." And my mom used to say that to me, too, as a kid. ...
And I really connected with Lily so much because she has a rich interior life, and she is someone who doesn't feel like she's being seen or heard by the adults around her sometimes and feels invisible. And I really connected to that emotion, that moment, and that very, very specific detail. And so I wanted to make sure to include that in the play.
TK: Similarly, I was a very shy kid. That scene is in the book because that was true to my life at many points. But I think also this, this wish to believe in magic. I was so much like that as a kid, andI was using storytelling as a way to escape it. …
I always desperately wanted to see magic in the world around me. And as I've grown older, like I've come to see magic and storytelling and family and these relationships, but when I write for kids, I'm always trying to write in that space of, like, almost this tension of being at that age where you feel like it's time to let go of this belief in magic, but desperately wanting to hold onto it—and the shift that happens of reframing what magic means in the world.
What's one of the reasons you each like writing for youth?
KHL: I love getting back into that headspace of a young person … just being open to discovery and that openness. ... Being able to see that porousness between magical realms and stories in your own life, I think, is really useful. It connects you to your ancestors. It connects you to stories that preceded you and that will come after you. So I think there is something about being a kid that opens you up to that. …
And the changes that kids go through and how they navigate challenges in their lives is really interesting as well. And I really appreciate that about this book—that the magic basically is helping Lily navigate those changes. So she's finding strength through the magic, and she's realizing that it's within her. She's finding her own resources to be able to face all these changes and these challenges in her own life. …
TK: Yeah, I just cosign that. And I love everything you said and porousness. … Like you're saying, I think I'm always trying to provide some feeling of strength to kids and empowerment because at least for me, I found that age to be very challenging. …
And also, it's such a gift to write for kids. … I think that it's easy, especially right now, to feel very cynical about the world and kind of hopeless. But I always feel so grateful when I get to meet with kids. They give me a lot of hope. And so I feel like a responsibility to give that hope and empowerment back to them.
This Q&A has been edited for style, length, and clarity.