Young Jean Lee's theater company returns to the Wexner Center for the Arts October 30–November 2 for the premiere of THE SHIPMENT, a bold new work developed through the support of the Wexner Center Residency Award program. Young Jean Lee delighted and challenged audiences here in 2007 with her breakthrough production Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, which applied her signature style and acid wit to Asian and Asian–American stereotypes. Her satiric take on hot-button issues such as race and identity politics instigated spirited debate and established Lee as a fresh, significant, and original voice on the American theater scene. Now, in collaboration with an all-black cast, Young Jean Lee (a Korean-American) takes on the black experience in her newest play, THE SHIPMENT.
THE SHIPMENT takes the audience on a volatile roller-coaster ride through the absurdities and atrocities that arise whenever people start trying to talk about the black experience in America. The play is an extremely awkward exploration of ethnic appropriation and race relations, raising pointed questions about the dangers of our cultural cluelessness. Ludicrous, honest, and devoid of truisms, THE SHIPMENT dares to ask embarrassing questions and seek solutions to impossible problems.
Young Jean Lee's work is about struggling to achieve something in the face of failure and incompetence and not-knowing. As Lee puts it, "The discomfort and awkwardness involved in watching this struggle reflects the truth of my experience." Charles Helm, director of performing arts at the Wexner Center, says "Our commissioning and creative residency projects are designed to offer significant resources for significant artists with significant projects, and
Young Jean Lee certainly fits all these criteria with her new show THE SHIPMENT. It's heartening to work with artists like her who are bold and outspoken, and don't shy away from difficult topics and issues in a climate that is too often ruled by fear and self–censorship."
New York Magazine calls
Young Jean Lee "The clearest indication that the avant-garde isn't dead, and has never been funnier." Village Voice wrote in August that she likes to "challenge or confront the audience. Lee loves to toy with formal conventions." American Theatre magazine described her work as "provocative, offensive, smart and very funny."
While at the Wexner Center,
Young Jean Lee's Theater Company is offering post-performance discussions after each show to hear feedback from the audience about The Shipment and to talk about the project's evolution. During the course of the residency, the company will offer open rehearsal opportunities for OSU students and a free preview performance for students from the Department of Theatre and campus organizations involved with African American and Asian students. In addition, the Wexner Center has made discounted or free tickets to this performance available to underserved youth audiences in our community through local agencies such as the YMCA, Central Community House, Godman Guild, and the St. Stephen's Community House.
Since Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven,
Young Jean Lee has earned a reputation as one of the most provocative young American theater writers and directors on today's scene. She has performed works in New York's Public Theater,
HERE Arts Center, and the
Soho Rep, as well as other domestic and international venues. Awards include grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Rockefeller Multi-Arts Production Foundation. Her plays have been published in New Downtown Now and American Theatre magazine, and in December by Theatre Communications Group in Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays. After its premiere in Columbus, THE SHIPMENT will go on tour. Church, another recent production by
Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, currently on tour, was also co-commissioned by the Wexner Center. Visit
http://www.youngjeanlee.org/ for more information on the artist.
Theater artist Young Jean Lee's new work THE SHIPMENT will be performed Thursday–Saturday, October 30–November 1 (8 pm) and Sunday, November 2 (7 pm) in the Wexner Center's Performance Space, 1871 N. High St., with free post-performance discussions each night. Tickets are $13 for members, $16 for the general public, and $10 for students. For tickets call (614) 292-3535 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.
