James Yi first played Appa, the Korean Canadian shop owner of Kim's Convenience, back in 2018 when Pacific Theatre mounted the play. He portrayed the character again that same year for another production at the Chemainus Theatre Festival, and then one more time in 2019 for Seattle's Taproot Theatre.

In early 2020, Yi was set to star in the Arts Club's Theatre Company's touring version of Kim's Convenience, but that was cut short due to COVID-19.

Now Yi is back for another kick at the Kim's can, as the Arts Club is set to open a four-week run at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on February 24.

He must be real sick of Kim's Convenience by now, right?

"Never!," Yi proclaims on the phone from rehearsals at the BMO Theatre Centre. "I love this show."

The latest production of playwright Ins Choi's 2011 work is being directed by Kaitlin Williams, who also helmed the Pacific Theatre version. Yi can't say enough good things about her.

"Oh, she's fantastic," he raves. "She is such a kind, loving human being, and I really love how she works with actors—she gives them so much time to be able to discover things by themselves. And she'll move us along at just the right pace to be able to discover, and then also be able to take on direction. She's just a wonderful director."

Yi notes that Williams approaches the play somewhat differently than the other Kim's directors he's worked under, such as Mark DuMez in Chemainus and David Hsieh and Scott Nolte in Seattle.

"I think every director has a different understanding of the text," he explains, "a different interpretation of the moment. They all have their own thing, but I can't say that I've ever worked with anyone that's not a great director when it comes to Kim's. Every director I've worked with, they were just so generous in how they went about working with the actors. It's just been the greatest experience of my life."

Born in Korea and raised in Cleveland before moving to Alaska, Yi dabbled in acting in Anchorage before heading to Vancouver with his wife and two kids. He's happy that he ended up here instead of Hollywood, which he was considering.

"I remember feeling overwhelmed in L.A. when I wanted to try a little bit of background acting. I thought, 'How do you even get started in this town?' With Vancouver it was like, you know, it's a smaller market, maybe it'll be a little easier to get started. And I actually feel that I made the right choice."

Now settled in Surrey, Yi works part-time there as an associate pastor at Guildford's New Joy Church, where he oversees the men’s ministry and helps shepherd the congregation. So are there any similarities between the jobs of providing spiritual leadership and pretending that you're someone else?

"I would say the similarity is that you have to really know people," Yi offers. "As an actor you have to understand people, to understand humanity. You have to study and observe people well, and as a pastor I would hope that I'm doing the same thing."

Dedicated Kim's Convenience followers may also know Yi from his recurring role as Jimmy Young on the TV version of the play, which aired for five seasons on CBC and is also available on Netflix.

"He was a very fun character to play," recalls Yi, "but he's very different from Appa. He was more of a fringe character on the show, so there's not as many layers to the character. But this guy is quite wealthy, chauvinistic, someone who is not very self-aware. I guess Appa can be a little bit like that sometimes too, but I feel like Appa has some very strong principles, and he's very honest. I think he's trying to be true to himself."

The Kim's Convenience TV series has won numerous ACTRA and Canadian Screen Awards, and Yi thinks he knows what the main attraction is to Choi's creation, whether it's experienced on the small screen or the theatre stage.

"Anybody who watches it can relate to it," he says, "that's what makes it such a good show. 'Cause whether it's about a Korean family or not, it's really about a family. Everybody comes from a family; everybody has a family. Even if they don't have their own family, everybody is connected to some family at some point in their lives, so I think anyone can relate to the characters.

"And there's so much of the universal struggles that humans go through in relationships that's dealt with," he adds. "It's such a heartwarming story of redemption and reconciliation that I think that's why people love the show so much. It feels good watching it and they feel hopeful about their own family when they walk out of the theatre."

Playing Appa in five different productions of Kim's Convenience still isn't enough for Yi, who will be heading down to Tacoma to perform in Taproot Theatre's remount of the play in May and June. He plans on playing Appa as long as he possibly can.

"It's such a great role," he stresses. "As an actor you're always looking for work—trying to do theatre or film or TV—and every once in a while there's like this really juicy part that comes along, and it's just right up your alley. And I'm very fortunate that it's such a specifically ethnic role, too. It's not like just anyone can hop up there and play it."

The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Kim's Convenience at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage from February 24 to March 27.