Her Story
About Soo Young
Soo Young Choi is the Founder and Creative Producer of Pan Story Productions, a New York City-based live performance producing company dedicated to immersive live performances and experiences across genres. She started her career in a producing company in Korea in 2013 or 2014, later moving to New York in 2022 to pursue graduate studies. She earned a Master of Arts in Performing Arts Administration from New York University in 2024, following her undergraduate studies in medicine and communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduation, she launched her own company to create the kinds of productions she is passionate about, achieving her first long-running live performance early in the year. Her approach emphasizes responsibility, genuine care for collaborators, and a willingness to try and persist through challenges in the evolving immersive theater field.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Soo Young
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think it's being nice to people. You have to really take care of people around you and who you are working with. If you care about them genuinely, then people notice and people will come back to you, so I think that's the most important thing that made me successful.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I think it's just like people just say when people just say just try, not just sit and think about it, and just do, and like and you can fail and you'll just have to stand up and do it again, so I think that's the best advice.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would also give the same advice that I got, like just try, and just go out there and do something, then like people will notice you.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
It is really hard to make profit with arts. Since also this immersive theater area is relatively pretty new compared to like Broadway theaters, so it still has like there is no set like business model, like there is no proven business model of this industry, so all everybody is exploring and then everybody's trying to figure out like how to make this have happened more widely and made more successful runs in the production. I am also still trying to figure out how to make this live performance more intimate to audiences but also make sustainable so that I can do this in a long term and more sustainable.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Both personally and professionally, I would say responsibility is most core value for me, because like without the responsibility, you wouldn't achieve anything, I think. Also like when you choose your job or something like if you choose it over just money then it can break so easily. So but if you have the responsibility and genuine heart, then you can keep it up for a long term and you will achieve something with the responsibility.
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