Lauren Yee is a playwright born and raised in San Francisco. She lives in New
York City. She received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and her MFA
in playwriting from UCSD. Lauren’s work includes King of the Yees, The Great
Leap, Cambodian Rock Band, Ching Chong Chinaman, The Hatmaker’s Wife,
and others. She has been a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a
MAP Fund grantee. She is the winner of the Kesselring Prize and the Francesca
Primus Prize. She has been a finalist for the Edward M. Kennedy Prize, the Susan
Smith Blackburn Prize, the ATCA/Steinberg Award, and others. The Hatmaker’s
Wife was an Outer Critics Circle nominee for the John Gassner Award for best
play by a new American playwright. Lauren is a member of the Ma-Yi Theatre
Writers Lab, a 2018/2019 Hodder fellow at Princeton University’s Lewis Center
for the Arts, and a New Dramatists playwright.
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The Great Leap
WEN CHANG
he was leading students in an obscene chant.
SAUL
what'd he say?
WEN CHANG
"u.s.a. u.s.a."
SAUL
oh come ON, that's every titty bar in america.
WEN CHANG
surrounded by student protestors in white headbands. it was a clear political protest. a declaration of war.
SAUL
war?! are you crazy?
WEN CHANG
less than twenty-four hours on chinese soil and this is what he does. how could you do this to me?
The Great LeapPremiered in2018- Print Books
- Samuel French
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The Great Leap
SAUL
he's a hell of a point guard. he lights up my team, gets them off their asses for their first time in how long? that kid does not quit. why would i not protect a weapon like that?
CONNIE
he is not a weapon. he is not an object. he is my cousin. so convince me that you care about him and those other players for more than just the fortysomething minutes they're on that court.
SAUL
i care about my guys.
CONNIE
always?
SAUL
it is the one thing i am actually good at.
i have watched them grow up, graduate.
i have spent more time with my players than i ever will with my own daughter. i don't take care of my guys and who else do i have?
(beat)
CONNIE
okay. that's all i wanted to know.
The Great LeapPremiered in2018- Print Books
- Samuel French
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Cambodian Rock Band
CHUM
once people hear this tape?
LENG
you take that tape and the quality's gonna be shit, man. and france has music.
CHUM
but nothing like this. like us.
LENG
you want to be famous. do it here, in cambodia. as soon as the nightclubs reopen, we’ll be playing the mekong, the lotus—
CHUM
leng, are you serious? look out that window. what do you see?
LENG
when it settles down—
CHUM
when it settles down, all this, the music? gone.
LENG
dude, this is cambodia: there will always be music.
Cambodian Rock BandPremiered in2018- Print Books
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“. . . A fierce, gorgeous, heartwarming, comedic fairy tale set against one of history’s grisliest mass extinctions . . . Yee has made her characters so joyfully and ridiculously human that it’s impossible — to a heartbreaking degree — not to identify with them.” —Margaret Gray, Los Angeles Times [on Cambodian Rock Band]
“An exhilarating, deeply satisfying piece of work, powered by gutsy performances and full of bright, inquisitive, humorous life.” —Sara Holdren, New York Magazine [on The Great Leap]
Selected Works
- Print Books
- Powell's
- Barnes & Noble
- Alibris
- Abe Books
- Print Books
- Powell's
- Barnes & Noble
- Alibris
- Abe Books
- Samuel French
The plays of Lauren Yee send history careening into the personal. Her dialogue feels like overheard speech; even on the page, it asserts its vibrant, specific life. It’s an audacious step to examine the legacy of the Khmer Rouge in a play that also takes on the dynamics of father/daughter relationships and the joyful legacy of Cambodian pop music, but every element here supports and amplifies the others. These plays feel ambitious and even monumental. They are also raucously funny, without ever losing sight of nuanced human experience.