Young Jean Lee

Playwright Biography

Young Jean Lee was born in Daegu, South Korea and moved to the United States when she was two years old. She grew up in Pullman, WA. Her full Korean name is Lee Young-jin but she goes by the name Young Jean Lee. She attended UC Berkeley where she received her Bachelor’s in English and returned to her Alma Mater to get her PhD in English. During her six years earning her PhD, Lee’s central focus was studying Shakespeare. Shortly after she moved to New York City to become a playwright, she went back to school and got her Master’s in Playwriting from Brooklyn College under the guidance of playwright, Mac Wellman.

Lee opened her own non-profit theatre company called "The Young Jean Lee Theatre Company" in 2003 where she wrote, directed, and produced 9 shows. Her plays are influenced by the contrast between her Atheist beliefs and her conservative Christian upbringing. In addition, her plays touch upon her experience growing up as a Korean American, her family values compared to the ones she now holds, and her feminist beliefs. Her first show Yagoo opened in April 2003 and her last show We’re All Gonna Die opened in August 2015. Young Jean Lee received 12 various grants to support her work including the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011. Her plays all have an avant-garde style and focus on controversial topics. Often times, her plays have no plot and the actors purposely try to make the audience uncomfortable. Her cannon covers important topics of race, sexism, and religion. Lee’s plays have been very successful. Her company toured in over 30 cities worldwide and received numerous awards including 2 OBIE Awards.

In addition, Young Jean Lee wrote, produced, and directed a short film called Here Come the Girls that premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival, Sun Dance Film Festival, and BAMcinema Fest. She also is in a band called Future Wife. The band members are some of her former collaborators from her theatre company. Her band released an album called We’re Gonna Die in 2013. The Young Jean Lee Theatre Company closed some time in 2016.

Young Jean Lee's Theater Company Website

Highlighted Play:

Songs of the Dragonfly Flying into Heaven

Synopsis

Songs of the Dragonfly Flying into Heaven is an avant-garde parody inspired by Young Jean Lee’s feelings towards her identity as a Korean American. As in many of her other plays, there is no plot. The play focuses on feminist oppression and has a sarcastic racist quality as Korean stereotypes are brought to the surface in a full-frontal confrontation with the audience that Young Jean Lee is known for.

It opens with a recording of a video where the playwright is being slapped across face. After a few minutes the video is played and the audience watches as Young Jean Lee cries while continuing to get slapped in the face. The lights reveal a Korean American girl who talks about her challenges of being Korean in a racist, slapstick manner. The play has three Korean women wearing traditional Korean dresses who dance, sing, and mime different parodies as a white couple interjects and weaves throughout the play. Eventually the focus is shifted to the white couple bantering on about mundane topics as they eventually take over the for the remainder of the play.

How This Play Could Be Used

This play would be best used in a college or a community center setting due to the explicit mature content especially for performance purposes. In preparation for a performance of this piece it is recommended that the director or dramaturge dives into the themes of the show so that the students have an understanding of where Young Jean Lee's blunt, racist humor is coming from. In addition, one could use physical theatre techniques to devise the Korean dance scenes.

This play could also be used in scene work for a college course to help discuss racial stereotypes, family values in contrast to your own, religious beliefs and assumptions, or feminism. This play has a lot of rich material to dive into social justice topics through theatre and could possibly be supplemental material to a sociology class or on a study about immigration.

Sample Activity

In order to lead into a rich discussion of Young Jean Lee's themes in Songs of the Dragonfly Flying into Heaven , have your students walk around the space and find a partner. Have them discuss the first question. Repeat this activity with the second and third question. Try and have the class talk with different people each time.

1. What religion did you grow up with? What religion do you identify with now?

2. Name two traditions/ norms from your hometown. Name two traditions/ norms for your current home.

3. Name three family values you grew up with. Name three values you took on yourself.

Discussion Questions

What was your initial reaction?
What were your thoughts on how she portrayed her Korean heritage?
Is the use of racism destructive or constructive in terms of how she portrays the characters?
In the play the white couple weaves in and out, eventually taking over the play. What do you think she was trying to portray by doing this?
How does the use of religion in the play add to an understanding of western cultural influence?

Other Plays

Church

Synopsis

Church is an avant garde satire that brings the hypocrisy found in religion to the surface by questioning it’s morals and values. It's an exploration into Young Jean Lee's experiences growing up in an evangelical, strict, Christian household.

In this play multiple preachings, devotionals, and testimonials are recited directly to the audience. These Christian based monologues are recited by Reverend Jose, Reverend Karinne, Reverend Weena, and Reverend Katie. Reverend Joe starts the show by telling the audience that they are similar to the people around them, bound to live a mediocre life. In another monologue he talks about how Jesus would have loved the homosexuals, and would have been focused on helping the homeless immigrants. The next reverend talks about mummies and unicorns. Meanwhile, throughout the play large choirs sing and dance to church hymns and songs.

How This Play Could Be Used

This play would be appropriate for performance by college students or community centers to delve into a discussion about religious identity and freedom. It could open up a meaningful discussion about religious stereotypes, experiences, and whether being a part of a religion is a good or bad thing. In addition, it would make a great compare and contrast reading with Songs of the Dragons Flying Into Heaven to discuss Young Jean Lee's themes and style of writing. This play could even be a launching point to writing student's own creative monologues about their religious identity now verses what their parents raised them to believe.

Pullman, WA

Synopsis

This play is inspired by Lee growing up in Pullman, Washington. Similar to her other two plays, there is no plot. It can be seen as a punch in the face of self help, deadpan monologues. It revolves around three men: Pete, Tory, and Tom who look directly at the audience and tell them how to live life. The stage is bare with two chairs to the side called the “giving up” area that the actors use throughout the show.

The show starts with Pete reciting a self-help talk where the communication is confrontational as he looks at different audience members. Tory then comes on talking about unicorns, birthday parties. Following this spectacle, Tom enters with lengthy monologues about saving the audience through Christianity. Later, there are references to the meaning of life: getting sleep, exercising, not drinking, and a healthy diet.

How This Play Could Be Used

This play's main theme is a confrontational self help talk and would be a great resource to create a discussion around how our community we grew up in shaped the people that we are today in a positive or a negative way. It can be used to talk about multiple perspectives and the expectations of society verses what one might be going through on the inside. This would be a great play to bring into support groups or correctional facilities because it can be used as a launching point to create a collection of monologues that the students could perform together about growing up and the demands of society.

Comprehensive List of Plays

2015 We’re Gonna Die With David Byrne

2014 Straight White Men

2011 Untitled Feminist Show

2011 We’re Gonna Die

2010 Lear

2009 The Shipment

2007 Church

2006 Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven

2005 Pullman, WA

2004 The Appeal

2003 Groundwork of the Metaphysics

2003 Yaggoo

Bibliography

Als, H. (november 3, 2014). REAL GONE GIRL Young Jean Lee’s identity plays. The New

Yorker. Retrieved April 10, 2017, from

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/03/real-gone-girl

Hatch, R. A. (2013). First as Minstrelsy, Then as Farce On the Spectacle of Race in the Theater of

Young Jean Lee [Abstract]. The New Centennial Review, 13(3), 89-114. Retrieved from

http://youngjeanlee.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/First-as-Minstrelsy-Then-as

Farce.pdf

Healy, P. (january 7, 2009). An Evening in Black and White From a Playwright Who Is

Neither. The New York Times, C3. Retrieved April 10, 2017, from

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/theater/28lee.html

Gates, A. (2006, September 27). Laugh Now. You May Not When These Women Rule

the World. New York Times. Retrieved from

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/theater/reviews/27drag.html

Lee, Y. J. (n.d.). Church. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from

http://youngjeanlee.org/work/church/

Lee, Y. J. (n.d.). Groundwork of the Metamorphosis of Morals. Retrieved March 30,

2017, from http://youngjeanlee.org/work/groundwork-metaphysics-morals/

Lee, Y. J. (2009). Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays. New York,

NY: Theatre Communications Group.

Lee, Y. J. (n.d.). Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven. Retrieved March 30, 2017,

from http://youngjeanlee.org/work/songs-dragons-flying-heaven/

Lee, Y. J. (n.d.). YoungJeanLee.org. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from

http://youngjeanlee.org/about/

Seunghyun, H. (2016). Debunking the Diasporic "China Doll" with Satirical Disquietude:

Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven. Canadian Review of

American Studies, 46(1), 116-138. Retrieved from

http://youngjeanlee.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Debunking-the-Diasporic-C

ina-Doll.pdf

Shimakawa, K. (march 2007). Young Jean Lee, Race and Gender. Woman &

Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 17(1), 89-102. Retrieved from

http://youngjeanlee.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Young-Jean-Lees-Ugly-Feel

ngs-About-Race-And-Gender.pdf

Soloski, A. (2006, September 26). Scorching Dragons. The Village Voice. Retrieved

from http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/scorching-dragons-7157968

Ybarrra, P. (winter 2014). Young Jean Lee's Cruel Dramaturgy [Abstract]. Modern

Drama, 57:4 , 513-533. Retrieved from http://youngjeanlee.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Young-Jean-Lees-Cruel-Dramaturgy.pdf

Web page compiled by Kimberly Himelman (2017)