FULL LENGTH PLAYS
Cambodian Rock Band
Ching Chong Chinaman
The Great Leap
The Hatmaker’s Wife
Hookman
in a word
King of the Yees
Samsara
The Song of Summer
The Tiger Among Us
***
Cambodian Rock Band
120 mins, 3M, 1W, 2 gender neutral, a play with music
Discover Cambodia’s lost surf rock scene through the eyes of a young Cambodian American woman and her father, a Khmer Rouge survivor who begrudgingly returns to his home country for the first time in thirty years. This thrilling story toggles back and forth in time, as father and daughter face the music of the past. An intimate rock epic about family secrets set against the dark chapter of Cambodian history. Featuring actor/musicians who perform the show’s mix of contemporary Dengue Fever hits and classic Cambodian oldies.
Selected history:
[2020] Signature Theatre (New York City) upcoming production
[2020] Portland Center Stage (Portland, OR) upcoming production
[2020] Jungle Theatre/Theater Mu (Minneapolis, MN) upcoming production
[2019] La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA) upcoming production
[2019] Merrimack Rep (Lowell, MA) upcoming production
[2019] Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR) production
[2019] City Theatre (Pittsburgh) production
[2019] Victory Gardens Theatre (Chicago) production
[2018] South Coast Rep (Costa Mesa, CA) production
[2017] South Coast Rep’s Pacific Playwrights Festival (Costa Mesa, CA) workshop
[2016] Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor (Berkeley, CA) workshop
Awards:
[2018] Horton Foote Prize
[2017] The Kilroys List #1 play
Ching Chong Chinaman
100 mins, 3M, 3W
The ultra-assimilated Wong family is as Chinese-American as apple pie: teenager Upton dreams of World of Warcraft superstardom; his sister Desi dreams of early admission to Princeton. Unfortunately, Upton’s chores and homework get in the way of his 24/7 videogaming, and Desi’s math grades don’t fit the Asian-American stereotype. Then Upton comes up with a novel solution for both problems: he acquires a Chinese indentured servant, who harbors an American dream of his own.
Purchase the play on Amazon or Samuel French.
Selected history:
[2014] A-Squared Theatre Workshop (Chicago) production
[2013] fu-GEN Theatre Company (Toronto) production
[2013] San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre (San Diego) production
[2013] City Lights Theatre Company (San Jose, CA) production
[2011] Artists at Play (Los Angeles) production
[2010] Pan Asian Rep (New York City) production
[2010] SIS Productions (Seattle) production
[2009] Mu Performing Arts (Minneapolis) production
[2008] Impact Theatre (Berkeley, CA) production
Awards:
[2010] KCACTF Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting winner
[2009] PEN USA Literary Award for Drama finalist
[2009] City Pages Top 10 play of 2009
[2008] Princess Grace Award finalist
[2008] East Bay Express Top 10 play of 2008
[2008] Ford Foundation Emerging Writers of Color Fellowship
[2007] Yale Playwrights Festival
[2007] Kumu Kahua Theatre’s Pacific Rim Prize winner
Publication:
[2011] Samuel French
[2011] Asian American Plays for a New Generation anthology (Mu Performing Arts/Temple University Press)
The Great Leap
100 mins : 3M, 1W
San Francisco, spring 1989. Manford Lum, locally renowned on the sidewalk basketball courts of Chinatown, talks his way onto a college team, just before they travel to Beijing for a “friendship” game. When they arrive, China is in the throes of the post-Cultural Revolution era, and Manford must juggle international politics and his own personal history. Inspired by events from the playwright’s father’s life and (short-lived) basketball career.
Commissioned by Denver Center
Selected history:
[2020] Cygnet Theatre (San Diego, CA) upcoming production
[2019] Pasadena Playhouse/East West Players (Pasadena, CA) production
[2019] Steppenwolf Theatre (Chicago) production
[2019] Guthrie Theatre (Minneapolis) production
[2019] American Conservatory Theatre (San Francisco) production
[2019] Arts Club Theatre Company (Vancouver) production
[2019] InterAct Theatre (Philadelphia) production
[2018] Atlantic Theatre Company (New York City) production
[2018] Denver Center (Denver) production
[2018] Seattle Rep (Seattle) production
[2018] Old Globe (San Diego) reading
[2017] A.C.T. (San Francisco) workshop
[2017] Denver Center (Denver) workshop
[2016] Ma-Yi Theatre (New York City) reading
[2016] Playwrights’ Center (Minneapolis) workshop
Awards:
[2018] Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist
[2017] The Kilroys List #2 play
The Hatmaker’s Wife
(formerly A Man, his Wife, and his Hat)
90 mins : 4M, 2W, 1 wall
Hetchman loves his hat. Oh, and his wife, too. But when both go missing, the retired hatmaker vows to stop at nothing to find them, if he can ever muster the strength to leave the comforts of his armchair. But the arrival of a talking wall and a hungry golem threatens to derail his endeavor. A klezmer-inspired love triangle between a man, his wife, and his hat. Commissioned by AlterTheater.
Purchase the play on Samuel French.
Selected history:
[2019] Long Beach Playhouse (Long Beach, CA) production
[2013] Playwrights Realm (New York City) production
[2013] The Hub Theatre (Fairfax, VA) production
[2012] Moxie Theatre (San Diego) production
[2011] AlterTheater (San Rafael, CA) production
[2011] PlayPenn (Philadelphia) workshop
[2011] UCSD Baldwin New Play Festival (La Jolla, CA) workshop
Awards:
[2014] Outer Critics Circle nomination
[2012] PEN USA Literary Award for Drama finalist
[2012] Kitchen Dog Theatre’s New Works Festival winner
[2011] Coe College Playwriting Festival winner
[2009] Theatre Bay Area New Works Fund grantee
Hookman
80 mins: 1M, 5W
Freshman year at college is hard when your roommate is weird, you’re feeling homesick, and a hook-handed serial killer is slashing girls’ throats. But if Lexi can discover what really happened to her high school best friend on that car ride to the movies, everything will be okay. In this existential slasher comedy, Lexi and her friends learn what it means to grow up – and it’s not pretty.
Purchase the play on Samuel French.
Selected history:
[2019] Cal Rep (Long Beach, CA) production
[2019] Moxie Theatre/San Diego State University (San Diego) production
[2018] American Conservatory Theatre School (San Francisco) production
[2017] Steep Theatre (Chicago) production
[2015] Encore Theatre (San Francisco) production
[2013] Magic Theatre (San Francisco) workshop
[2012] Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre (New York City) reading
[2012] Company One/Boston Center for the Arts (Boston) workshop
[2012] UCSD Baldwin New Play Festival (La Jolla, CA) workshop
Awards:
[2015] Theatre Bay Area Awards – Outstanding World Premiere Play
in a word
75 mins : 2M, 1W
Today is the two-year anniversary of Fiona’s son’s disappearance, and still, nothing makes sense to her. Not her blasé husband, the incompetent detective, or the neighborhood kidnapper who keeps introducing himself in the checkout line. As Fiona delves back into her memories of that fateful day, to uncover that crucial missing piece, grief and comedy collide, and ordinary turns of phrase take on dangerous new meanings.
Purchase the play on Samuel French.
Selected history:
[2019] Young Vic (London) upcoming production
[2017] Lesser America (New York City) production
[2017] Chance Theater (Anaheim, CA) production
[2016] Strawdog Theatre Company (Chicago) production
[2016] The Hub Theatre (Fairfax, VA) production
[2015] San Francisco Playhouse (San Francisco) production
[2015] Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland, OH) production
[2014] The Theatre @ Boston Court (Pasadena, CA) reading
[2012] Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3 (New York City) reading
[2012] Aurora Theatre (Berkeley, CA) reading
Awards:
[2017] Francesca Primus Prize winner
[2017] Harold and Mimi Steinberg Award finalist
[2016] Will Glickman Playwright Award winner
[2015] Susan Smith Blackburn nominee
[2013] Sundance Theatre Lab finalist
[2011] NETC John Gassner Playwriting Competition winner
[2011] KCACTF Paul Stephen Lim Asian-American Playwriting Award winner
[2011] KCACTF Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award winner
King of the Yees
120 mins : 3M, 2W
For nearly 20 years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father Larry has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men’s club formed 150 years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush. But when her father goes missing, Lauren must plunge into the rabbit hole of San Francisco Chinatown and confront a world both foreign and familiar. At once bitingly hilarious and heartbreakingly honest, King of the Yees is an epic joyride across cultural, national and familial borders that explores what it means to truly be a Yee.
Commissioned by the Goodman Theatre
Selected history:
[2019] San Francisco Playhouse (San Francisco) production
[2018] Baltimore Center Stage (Baltimore) production
[2017] ACT Theatre (Seattle) production
[2017] National Arts Centre/Gateway Theatre (Ottawa, Canada) production
[2017] Goodman Theatre (Chicago) production
[2017] Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles) production
[2016] Gateway Theatre (Richmond, BC, Canada) production
[2015] Goodman Theatre (Chicago) workshop production
[2015] ACT Theatre (Seattle) reading
[2015] Gateway Theatre (Richmond, BC Canada) reading
[2015] Playwrights’ Center (Minneapolis) workshop
[2015] Playwrights Foundation (San Francisco) workshop
[2015] UC Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) reading
[2014] Center Stage (Baltimore) workshop
[2014] Playwrights Realm (New York City) workshop
[2014] UNC Chapel Hill Process Series (Chapel Hill, NC) workshop
[2014] Goodman Theatre (Chicago) workshop
Awards:
[2018] Edward M. Kennedy Prize finalist
[2016] Ashland New Play Festival – Women’s Invitational winner
[2015] The Kilroys List
[2013] Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant
Samsara
90 mins : 3M, 2W
Katie and Craig are having a baby… with a surrogate… who lives in India. A month before the baby’s due date, Craig reluctantly travels to the subcontinent, where he meets Suraiya, their young, less-than-thrilled surrogate. As all three “parents” anxiously wait for the baby to be born, flights of fancy attack them from all sides, in the form of an unctuous Frenchman and a smart-mouthed fetus. An epic take on modern day colonialism and what to expect when you’re expecting someone else’s child.
Purchase the play on Samuel French.
Selected history:
[2019] Coeurage Theatre (Los Angeles) production
[2017] Single Carrot Theatre (Baltimore) production
[2015] Chance Theater (Anaheim, CA) production
[2015] Victory Gardens Theatre (Chicago) production
[2013] The O’Neill Conference (Waterford, CT) workshop
[2012] Second Stage Theatre (New York City) reading
[2012] Victory Gardens Theatre (Chicago) workshop
[2012] Bay Area Playwrights Festival (San Francisco) workshop
[2011] Orlando Shakespeare Festival (Orlando) reading
[2011] Playwrights’ Center (Minneapolis) workshop
[2010] New Century Theatre Company (Seattle) reading
[2009] Exit Theatre (San Francisco) reading
Awards:
[2012] Bay Area Playwrights Festival winner
[2012] East West Players’ Face of the Future Playwriting Competition third place
The Song of Summer
80 mins, 2M, 2W
Every summer, there’s one inescapable earworm that dominates the radio waves and every wedding DJ’s playlist. This year, that song belongs to Robbie, whose unexpected pop stardom is so much more than he can handle. His sudden success sends him back to the home of his childhood piano teacher, where he must reckon with the choices of his past. An electrifying, touching romcom about how revisiting the past can change our future.
Selected history:
[2019] Mixed Blood Theatre (Minneapolis, MN) upcoming production
[2019] Trinity Rep (Providence, RI) production
The Tiger Among Us
80 mins, 3M, 2W
For Lia and her brother Pao, being the only Hmong kids in town is tough; it’s even tougher when that town happens to be in outstate Minnesota. And when a stranger’s arrival in the midst of hunting season threatens their tenuous existence, Lia finds herself caught between her family and her dreams in this modern-day midwestern folktale about a Hmong American family and the tenuous bonds that tie us together.
Selected history:
[2015] TimeLine Theatre (Chicago) reading
[2014] Lark Play Development Center/Playwrights’ Week (New York City) workshop
[2013] ACT Theatre/SIS Productions (Seattle) workshop
[2013] Mu Performing Arts (Minneapolis) production
[2012] Ma-Yi Theatre Company (New York City) reading
Awards:
[2015] The Kilroys List
[2014] Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Playwrights runner-up
[2010] MAP Fund grant
lauren yee 