Lauren Yee

“I think I’m always really interested in the line between humor and pain. I think the best comedy comes from jokes that are rooted in sadness because it’s so truthful. And I think I’m always very interested in stories that play with this.”

-Lauren Yee, American Theatre

Playwright Biography

Headshot of Lauren Yee

Photo by Beowulf Sheehan

  • Chinese-American, she/her/hers

  • Born and raised in San Francisco, California

  • Currently based in New York City

  • 2007 - BA in English and Theatre Studies from Yale

  • 2012 - MFA in Playwriting from UC San Diego

  • Member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab - largest company of Asian American playwrights in the country

2018/2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts - fellowship given to artists and writers of exceptional promise to pursue independent projects at Princeton University during the academic year

  • New Dramatists playwright (class of 2025)

Awards & Distinctions

(In reverse chronological order)

2019

  • Doris Duke Artist Award

  • Signature Theatre Residency 5

  • Whiting Award

  • American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award

  • Steinberg/ATCA Award (for Cambodian Rock Band)

  • LA Drama Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award (for Cambodian Rock Band)

2018

  • New Dramatists playwright (class of 2025)

  • Horton Foote Prize

  • Edward M. Kennedy Prize finalist (for King of the Yees)

  • Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist (for The Great Leap)

  • Princeton University/Lewis Center for the Arts – Hodder fellow (2018/2019)

2017

  • Kesselring Prize

  • ATCA/Francesca Primus Prize winner (for in a word)

  • ATCA/Steinberg Award finalist (for in a word)

  • The Kilroys List #1 and #2 plays (for Cambodian Rock Band and The Great Leap)

2016

  • Berkeley Rep Ground Floor playwright (for Untitled Cambodian Rock Band Play)

  • Will Glickman Playwright Award winner (for in a word)

  • Ashland New Play Festival – Women’s Invitational winner (for King of the Yees)

2015

  • The Kilroys List Top 50 (for King of the Yees and The Tiger Among Us)

  • Susan Smith Blackburn nominee (for in a word)

  • The Chance Theatre playwright-in-residence

  • Theatre Bay Area Award nominee – Outstanding World Premiere Play (for Hookman)

2014

  • Lark Playwrights’ Week playwright (for The Tiger Among Us)

  • Constance Saltonstall Foundation residency

  • Berkeley Rep Ground Floor finalist (for King of the Yees)

  • Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Playwrights runner-up (for The Tiger Among Us)

2013

  • O’Neill Conference playwright (for Samsara)

  • Sundance Theatre Lab finalist (for in a word)

  • Playwrights’ Center Core Writer (2013-2016)

  • Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant (with the Goodman Theatre, for King of the Yees)

  • Playwrights Realm Page One resident playwright

  • Second Stage Theatre – Shank playwright-in-residence

  • UCross Foundation residency

  • L. Arnold Weissberger Award nominee (for Samsara)

  • Gerbode Foundation Playwright Commissioning Award (with Encore Theatre Company)

2012

  • Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominee (for Samsara)

  • Bay Area Playwrights Festival winner (for Samsara)

  • Ma-Yi Writers Lab playwright (2012-present)

  • PEN USA Literary Award for Drama finalist (for A Man, his Wife, and his Hat)

  • Time Warner fellow at the Women’s Project Playwrights Lab

  • Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominee (for Crevice)

  • Kitchen Dog Theatre’s New Works Festival winner (for A Man, his Wife, and his Hat)

  • East West Players’ Face of the Future Playwriting Competition third place (for Samsara)

  • Aurora Theatre Global Age Project finalist (for in a word)

2011

  • PlayPenn Conference playwright (for A Man, his Wife, and his Hat)

  • KCACTF’s Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award winner (for in a word)

  • KCACTF’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award winner (for in a word)

  • IICAS Student Research Travel Grant recipient (for Mu Performing Arts commission)

2010

  • MAP Fund grantee (with Mu Performing Arts)

  • Hangar Theater Lab Company playwright-in-residence (for in a word)

  • KCACTF’s Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting (for Ching Chong Chinaman)

  • El Gouna Writers’ Residency fellow

2009

  • MacDowell Colony fellow

  • Public Theater Emerging Writers Group member

  • Theatre Bay Area New Works Fund commission (with AlterTheater)

  • Wasserstein Prize finalist

  • PONY Fellowship finalist

  • Jerome Fellowship finalist (selected)

  • American Antiquarian Society – Robert and Charlotte Baron fellow

  • Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers fellow

2008

  • Princess Grace Award finalist (for Ching Chong Chinaman)

  • Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grantee

  • Dramatists Guild fellow

  • New York Mills Arts Retreat writer-in-residence

  • Edward F. Albee Foundation fellow

  • PlayGround June Anne Baker Prize winner/commission (for Crevice)

2007

  • Kumu Kahua Theatre Pacific Rim Prize winner (for Ching Chong Chinaman)


Body of Work

(In reverse chronological order*)

  • The Song of Summer (2019)

  • Cambodian Rock Band (2016)

  • The Great Leap (2016)

  • King of the Yees (2014)

  • Hookman (2012)

  • in a word (2012)

  • The Tiger Among Us (2012)

  • The Hatmaker’s Wife (2011)

  • Samsara (2009)

  • Ching Chong Chinaman (2008)

*Years represent first workshop or production

Picture of Jackie Sibblies Drury and Lauren Yee excitedly pointing at a poster of the 2019 Steinberg Playwright Awards at "The Mimi."

Jackie Sibblies Drury & Lauren Yee / Jan. 13, 2019, Lincoln Center

Highlighted Play: CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND

Summary of action:

It is April 2008, and Chum surprises his daughter, Neary, by showing up in Cambodia, where she is currently working to convict Duch, the only Khmer Rouge to be tried for crimes against humanity. Neary is working to find the eighth survivor of S21, a Khmer Rouge prison, and she soon discovers that the person she was looking for is Chum. Neary runs away, and Chum, to find her, starts to share parts of his past that he has long hidden. Chum flashes back to 1978, where Khmer Rouge has won the civil war, and Chum, forced to separate from his band, The Cyclos, is being tortured at S21. The only way for him to avoid torture and escape Duch’s prison is to kill his bandmate and friend Leng, who had become a soldier under Duch. In the present, Chum finds Neary and tells her the truth, which inevitably helps them find each other.

"Because the one who tells the story tells the truth."

Cambodian Rock Band production photo. Cyclo plays.

Cambodian Rock Band, La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, CA, 2019

"For me as an artist, the idea that music and art can be so powerful that a regime goes after you is a really startling idea."

- Lauren Yee, LA Times

How to use in an educational/artistic context:

Cambodian Rock Band can be used with groups from middle school students through adults. In an educational context, it would be a strong interdisciplinary project with a history department covering Khmer Rouge and Cambodian genocide. Students could do historical research on Khmer Rouge and do a compare/contrast with the information found in the play. They could also do a character study between the real-life Duch and his representation in the play. Students could also research Cambodian music from the 60's and 70's and find similarities in that of Dengue Fever. They can discuss why music from this era was used in Cambodian Rock Band.

In an applied setting, this play can be read by community groups together or individually, and then analyze the play to define "choice," explain why particular choices were made by different characters, and identify limitations within each context. The community can then make connections to barriers within their own context that may limit choices. Forum Theatre can be used to brainstorm possible solutions for the community.

“What you have lost that you didn’t choose to give up?”

Sample Activity

Before pursuing any activity that involves sharing personal narratives and/or requires significant emotional labor from the participants, community guidelines should first be established. Distribute any community resources, which must be accessible to all participants, that may provide further support outside the scope of the working session. Theatre practitioners/facilitators should plan to be available after the educational workshop and span the bridge to these resources.

Analyzing music in Cambodian Rock Band

Ideal Audience: This activity is suited for multiple age groups (late-middle school, high school, or university level). The group of students may affect the depth of the conversation and/or the supplemental materials used to provide more context about the Khmer Rouge.


Learning Objectives:

  • Interpret music for meaning

  • Analyze how the theatrical device of live music affects the impact of the play


Activity:

Before students read the play (either aloud as a group or independently), students will go into small groups and analyze four songs from the play that do not contain any English translation. In order to keep timing consistent between groups, use the times listed below:

  1. "Jeas Cyclo" - full song

  2. "Uku" - Beginning-1:40

  3. "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula" - 1:20-3:05

  4. “I’m Sixteen (Chnam Oun DawpPram Mouy)” - Beginning-1:40


After the groups have listened to the song, they should discuss the following questions:

  1. Make observations (not judgements) about the song.*

  2. How does this song make you feel?

  3. If you do not understand the language, and without looking at the translation, how do you interpret the meaning of the song?

*If necessary for the group, explain the difference between an observation and a judgement.


After the groups have had 5-7 minutes for discussion, bring the full group back to report out on their discussion. This would be a great opportunity for the group to discuss what may cause differences in interpretation in combination with social and personal identities.


Before you delve into the reading of the play, you may choose to provide supplemental materials about Cambodian genocide and the Khmer Rouge. You can find those below.*


After students have read the play, revisit the same songs that were used in the pre-reading activity. Students should be in the same groups if possible:

  1. "Jeas Cyclo" - full song

  2. "Uku" - Beginning-1:40

  3. "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula" - 1:20-3:05

  4. “I’m Sixteen (Chnam Oun DawpPram Mouy)” - Beginning-1:40


Students should then discuss the following questions while synthesizing their thoughts from the first discussion:

  1. How does the song contribute to your understanding of the play?

  2. How does the song contribute to the action of the play?

After this discussion, students can once again report out to the group.


Closing:

Music from this play celebrates a pre-Khmer Rouge culture shaped by musicians who were silenced by genocide. Write the following quote on the board and leave students with this thought: “CHUM: Today someone remembered me. Today someone said my name. So today was a good day.” Their art lives on.


Optional Essay Assignment: What power do you have as an individual to prevent this from happening again?

Annotated Play 1: CHING CHONG CHINAMAN

Production photo of "Ching Chong Chinaman" showcasing Chong family eating take-out Chinese food, and trying to copy Jinqiang as he rubs the chopsticks together to remove splinters.

Julia Cho, Scott Keiji Takeda, Steve Hu, Ken Narasaki and Helen Ota in Ching Chong Chinaman. “Artists at Play” Nov 3-20, 2011 / Photo by Michael C. Palma

"They wear shoes...indoors."

Summary of action:

The play opens in present day Palo Alto, CA with a Chinese-American family, the Chongs, taking a portrait for their Christmas cards. The well-to-do family accepts a "Chinaman," Jinqiang, into their home as their glorified indentured servant. Desdemona, the Princeton-bound daughter, discovers distant Mexican ancestry within the Wong line, and the Chongs head to Mexico to throw Desdemona an overdue quinceñera. Everyone that is except for Upton, the fifteen-year-old son, who leaves instead for Korea to fulfil his dream of competing in the World of Warcraft Championship. Ed, the father, reveals that Desdemona was actually adopted from Korea, and that Upton has been adopted from Japan. The mother, Grace, discovers that she is pregnant by Jinqiang, who receives an invite to compete in Hollywood's "America's Next Tap Dancer." After dropping Jinqiang near the American border, Grace disappears. Desdemona and Upton share a final moment of connection on the phone. As it snows, and they wistfully wish each other a Merry Christmas.

How to use in an educational/artistic context:

Ching Chong Chinaman can be read in chunks within an applied theatre setting working with Asian communities, from late teens to adult, to discuss all impacts of being cast as the “model minority.” In a multi-generational community, family dynamics can additionally be explored. Diverse communities can use scenes within the play to delve into making invisible privilege visible by using the play as a model for the impacts of cross-casting. Scene ii, “Kitchen,” which showcases internalized racism, could be prompts for a racial healing circles within a community. Monologues can then be written and shared.*

*Challenge by choice

Marketing Photo by SIS Productions of the cast in costume as the Wong family centered around Jinqiang.

Northwest Primiere of Ching Chong Chinaman

Mar 26-April 24, 2010 / Marketing Photo SIS Productions

Annotated Play 2: HOOKMAN

Lexi fights off the Hookman. Production photo from Steep Theatre, Chicago, IL, 2017.

Hookman, Steep Theatre, Chicago, IL, 2017

Summary of action:

Hookman opens with Jess and Lexi, high school best friends, driving to the movies on their first break home from college. After break, Lexi returns to college and tells her self-absorbed roommate, Yoonji, about Jess' death by a drunk driver, and is shocked to find out that Yoonji seems to know more about the accident than Lexi does. The play then returns to the opening sequence to provide more information about Jess' death, which may have actually been caused by Hookman, a serial killer with a hook for a hand that Lexi's mom repeatedly warned her about. As blood-filled (or maybe cherry?) pies, exploding red pens, and rogue period blood follow Lexi back to campus again, it becomes more clear that the Hookman is a manifestation of all of Lexi's deepest fears as a young college woman, some real and some imagined. In order to face her fears, Lexi returns home to attend Jess' memorial to see what she didn't see the first time: it wasn't a drunk driver that killed her best friend. It was her.

“This is what happens when you don’t see it the first time…”

Lexi and Jess on their drive to the movies. Production photo from Steep Theatre, Chicago, IL, 2017.

Hookman, Steep Theatre, Chicago, IL, 2017

How to use in an educational/artistic context:

Hookman would be best suited in an applied theatre setting in a group of late-adolescent females (ages 17-20). Through either a group play reading or a book club setting, the females can process Lexi’s fears and truths in context with their own. The play could also be used in a Forum Theatre setting where students could read scenes from the play and recreate them using their own experiences as a guide. The scenes between Lexi and Yoonji could be used to mediate roommate issues, and the scenes between Lexi and Jess could be used to teach positive communication between friends. The scene between Sean and Lexi could be a guide in how to confront sexual assault and relationship violence.

*Supplemental Materials about Khmer Rouge & Cambodian Genocide

Videos:

Photos:

  • Students may share observations and interpretations of the photos before reviewing the moment in history.

1. A woman rides a bicycle by a stack of destroyed cars, cast aside by the Khmer Rouge as a symbol of the bourgeoisie. Phnom Penh. 1979. John Bryson/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

A woman rides a bicycle by a stack of destroyed cars, cast aside by the Khmer Rouge as a symbol of the bourgeoisie. Phnom Penh. 1979. John Bryson/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

2. Child soldiers working for the Khmer Rouge show off their machine guns. Galaw, Cambodia. Circa 1979. Bettmann/Getty Images

Child soldiers working for the Khmer Rouge show off their machine guns. Galaw, Cambodia. Circa 1979. Bettmann/Getty Images

3. On the eve of the Fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge on April 16, 1975 as night fell, thousands of people streamed towards the center of Phnom Penh on Monivong Boulevard. Roland Neveu—LightRocket/Getty Images

On the eve of the Fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge on April 16, 1975 as night fell, thousands of people streamed towards the center of Phnom Penh on Monivong Boulevard. Roland Neveu—LightRocket/Getty Images

Bibliography

Overall:

Cambodian Rock Band:

Ching Chong Chinaman:

  • Lee, J., Eitel, D., & Shiomi, R.A. (Eds.). (2011). Asian American plays for a new generation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Retrieved June 15, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bt6qf

  • Trieu, M. M. (2019). Understanding the use of “twinkie,” “banana,” and “FOB”: Identifying the origin, role, and consequences of internalized racism within Asian America. Sociology Compass, 13(5), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12679

  • Zhou, M. & Bankston III, C.L. (2020). The model minority stereotype and the national identity question: The challenges facing Asian immigrants and their children. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(1), 233-253. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1667511

Hookman:

Information for this web page compiled by Britnee Kenyon & Theresa Tantay-Wilson (2020)