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Young Jean Lee

YOUNG JEAN LEE

  
Nationality:    USA
facebook     email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Creative Artists Agency NY  represented by Olivier Sultan

Young Jean Lee has been called a rising star by the New York Times and one of the best experimental playwrights in America by Time Out New York. She has written and directed eight shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company and toured her work to over twenty cities around the world. Her plays have been published by TCG (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays, the Shipment and Lear) and by Samuel French (Three Plays by Young Jean Lee). She is currently under commission from Plan B/Paramount Pictures, Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is a member of New Dramatists and 13P, and has an MFA from Mac Wellman's playwriting program at Brooklyn College. She has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Creative Capital, NYFa, Nea, NYSCa, the Jerome Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Rockefeller MaP Foundation. She is also the recipient of two OBIe awards, the Festival Prize of the Zurcher Theater Spektakel, a 2010 Prize in Literature from the American academy of Arts and Letters, and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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below is a list of Young Jean Lee's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Appeal, The         Church         Groundwork Of the Metaphysic Of Morals         International Show, The: A Panikk Transatlantique         Lear         Pullman, WA         Shipment, The         Sinophile, The         Songs Of the Dragons Flying To Heaven         Straight White Men         We're Gonna Die         Yaggoo
Appeal, The

Synopsis:
William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, and Dorothy Wordsworth get drunk, hang out, and commiserate in england and the Swiss alps. an irreverent, historically inaccurate look at the english Romantic poets.

Notes:
Original Music By Matmos

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
experimental comedy One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Church

Synopsis:
Come and bear witness as Young Jean Lee transforms her life-long struggle with Christianity into an exuberant Church service. This Church of celebration-which will feature several real Church choirs-is designed to test the expectations of religious and non-religious alike. In this one-act, a charismatic preacher and three members of his vestry will take you on a journey that is by turns funny, jarring, and ultimately moving. Never content with simple parody, Lee's ambitious aim with Church is to give herself and her audiences a true religious experience.
Press release

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
the Vienna Festival 2008, Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University, and Performance Space 122

1st Published:
Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays (Theatre Communications Group, 2008).   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Groundwork Of the Metaphysic Of Morals

Synopsis:
the Chinese arch-villain Fu Manchu, with the help of his daughter Fah Lo See, attempts to steal the mask and shield of Genghis Khan from the white couple Terrence and Sheila, which will enable Fu Manchu to bring together all the Oriental nations in order to defeat the West. an absurd, provocative take on the yellow peril stereotype and Asian-American identity politics.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
experimental comedy One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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International Show, The: A Panikk Transatlantique

Synopsis:
Originally inspired by the work of German Beat poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann and his quest to capture the moment (and disappear from it), the performance is also informed by (and barely survives) the strains of this particular international collaboration-from long distance relationships to competing visions and wills amongst the artists. No wonder they have promised the audience that some form of life raft will be deployed by the show's end
- press release

Notes:
created by Iver Findlay, Alexander Gerner, Marie Nerland And Young Jean Lee

1st Produced:

Organisations:
P.S. 122

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
multidisciplinary Show

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lear

Synopsis:
Lee's boldest work to date - a radical and moving response to King Lear. Posing herself a new set of challenges, Lee turns from social themes to psychological ones and from satire to tragedy, asking the question of whether a contemporary audience can be made to experience catharsis. Lee causes a collision between Shakespeare's text and the most candid elements of her own life, pushing the concept of tragic irony as far as she can take it. the result: a laugh-out-loud tragedy about despair, the end of life, and familial piety that challenges our love of watching terrible things and tests the limits of our sympathy. Nothing can protect you from nothing

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
the Shipment and Lear (Theatre Communications Group, 2010).   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pullman, WA

Synopsis:
Three ordinary, awkward characters in street clothes address audience members directly in an earnest, frequently disastrous attempt to show them how to live a better life.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
experimental comedy One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  3 characters, m or f

Further Reference:
-

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Shipment, The

Synopsis:
In writing the Shipment, Young Jean Lee, who is known for her provocatively satiric performance pieces, gave herself the most uncomfortable challenge she could imagine: to make-as a Korean-American-a black identity-politics show. In collaboration with an all-black cast, Lee takes the audience on an awkward and volatile roller-coaster ride through the absurdities and atrocities that arise when trying to discuss the black experience in America. the Shipment dares to ask embarrassing questions and to seek solutions to impossible problems. the work epitomizes Lee's methodology for making unsettling theater that challenges the audience: undertaking things that make her uncomfortable. the Shipment addresses not only racist attitudes towards black people generally, but also the history of black Americans in entertainment, from the body language of minstrel shows through the profanity-laden work of stand-up comics like Richard Pryor
- press release

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Wexner Center For The Arts     2008

Organisations:
Young Jean Lee's Theatre Company

1st Published:
the Shipment and Lear (Theatre Communications Group, 2010).   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Sinophile, The

Synopsis:
the bizarre Korean-American Song family, living in Korea, terrorize a biographer and graduate student who come in search of the household patriarch, the famous Professor Song.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Songs Of the Dragons Flying To Heaven

Synopsis:
Young Jean Lee's worst nightmare was to create a predictable, confessional, Korean-American identity play with a flowery Asian-sounding title-so she did just that. In the spirit of andy Kaufman, Monty Python, and South Park, Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven takes a warped, humorous look at her cultural heritage. Far from a predictable finger-wagging play, this irreverent new work follows a Korean-American's journey as she explores her romanticized, half-informed understanding of the world.
Press release

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
HeRe Arts Center

1st Published:
Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays (Theatre Communications Group, 2008); American Theatre Magazine (September 2007).   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Straight White Men

Synopsis:
A father and his three adult sons met for Christmas. A time for pranks, take-aways and confronting identity problems

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Martison Theater, New York     01 Nov 2014

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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We're Gonna Die

Synopsis:
Throughout her career, playwright-director Young Jean Lee has maintained the modus operandi that has guided her professional undertakings from the outset: Creating the show she feels least comfortable creating. accustomed to writing parts for and directing actors, Lee will set out to create a show about ordinary human failings that an ordinary person could perform, experimenting with a genre that traditionally depends most heavily on star-power and charisma: the one-person cabaret show. Moreover, Lee (a non-performer) will use herself as a guinea pig and take the stage herself, directed by Paul Lazar and joined by her new band, Future Wife, as she tells stories and sings songs about shared human failure, sickness, aging, and death.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Public theater
425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003     09 Apr 2011

Organisations:
13P

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
one person cabaret show

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Yaggoo

Synopsis:
a whaler describes his social insecurity around the other men on his whaling ship.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Little Theatre     2003

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays (Theatre Communications Group, 2008).   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Piece

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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