Songs Of The Dragons Flying To Heaven And Other Plays

Bold, unguarded work . . . that resists pat definition. [Young Jean] Lee has penned profane lampoons of motivational bromides (Pullman, WA) and the Romantic poets (The Appeal). Now she piles her deconstructive scorn upon ethnic stereotypes in Song...

"Writer/director 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 ... 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."--youngjeanlee.org.

A cabaret from an Obie Award-winning, experimental playwright centers on the concept of mortality and includes a CD featuring six songs and monologues performed by David Byrne, Laurie Anderson and Adam Horowitz. Original.

In the two decades since the first edition of Contemporary Plays by Women of Color was published, its significance to the theatrical landscape in the United States has grown exponentially. Work by female writers and writers of color is more widely produced, published, and studied than ever before. Drawing from an exciting range of theaters, large and small, from across the country, Roberta Uno brings together an up-to-date selection of plays from renowned and emerging playwrights tackling a variety of topics. From the playful to the painful, this revised and updated edition presents a rich array of voices, aesthetics, and stories for a transforming America.

When Ed and his three adult sons come together to celebrate Christmas, they enjoy cheerful trash-talking, pranks, and takeout Chinese. Then they confront a problem that even being a happy family can’t solve: When identity matters, and privilege is problematic, what is the value of being a straight white man?

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Many of the American playwrights who dominated the 20th century are no longer with us: Edward Albee, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Neil Simon, August Wilson and Wendy Wasserstein. A new generation, whose careers began in this century, has emerged, and done so when the theatre itself, along with the society with which it engages, was changing. Capturing the cultural shifts of 21st-century America, Staging America explores the lives and works of 8 award-winning playwrights – including Ayad Akhtar, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Young Jean Lee and Quiara Alllegría Hudes – whose backgrounds reflect the social, religious, sexual and national diversity of American society. Each chapter is devoted to a single playwright and provides an overview of their career, a description and critical evaluation of their work, as well as a sense of their reception. Drawing on primary sources, including the playwrights' own commentaries and notes, and contemporary reviews, Christopher Bigsby enters into a dialogue with plays which are as various as the individuals who generated them. An essential read for theatre scholars and students, Staging America is a sharp and landmark study of the contemporary American playwright.