Young Jean Lee’s worst nightmare was to make a predictable, confessional Korean-American identity play with a flowery Asian-sounding title. So that’s exactly what she did. SONGS OF THE DRAGONS FLYING TO HEAVEN follows a character named “Korean-American” as she navigates the increasingly disturbing levels of a pseudo-Korean world like a contestant in an identity-politics video game. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a white couple appears and launches into a dysfunctional relationship drama that eventually takes over the play.
Photos Carl Skutsch
Video Documentation Dean Moss/Gametophyte, Inc.
Written and directed by Young Jean Lee
Produced by Kristin Marting, Rachel Ford, and Young Jean Lee
CAST
ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY
- Brian Bickerstaff
- Juliana Francis Kelly
- Haerry Kim
- Jun Sky Kim
- Jennifer Lim
- Becky Yamamoto
SUBSEQUENTLY PERFORMED BY
- Ikuko Ikari
- Natalie Kim
- Hannah Kim
- Aya Ogawa
DEVELOPED WITH
- Jackie Chung
- Ikuko Ikari
- Ji-Young Kim
- Rollo Romig
CREW
- Dramaturg Mike Farry
- Video and Choreography by Dean Moss
- Scenic and Lighting Designer Eric Dyer
- Costume Designer Colleen Werthmann
- Sound Designer Jamie McElhinney
- Scenic Painting by Jesse Hawley
- Stage Manager Melissa Heller
- Touring Lighting Supervisor Juliet Chia
- Touring Technical Director David Evans Morris
- Touring Stage Managers Pamela Salling, Sam Seymour, and Anthony Cerrato
Avantgarden, Trondheim, Norway
November 2008
Black Box, Oslo, Norway
November 2008
Teater Garasjen, Bergen, Norway
November 2008
Theatre Garonne Toulouse, France
June 2008
International Arts Festival of Castilla y León, Salamanca, Spain
June 2008
On the Boards, Seattle
March 2008
Kaaitheater, Brussels
January 2008
Hebbel Theater, Berlin
December 2007
PICA TBA Festival, Portland
September 2007
Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Philadelphia
September 2007
Zurich Theater Spektakel, Zurich
August 2007
Theaterformen, Hannover
June 2007
Wiener Festwochen, Vienna Festival, Austria
May 2007
Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
February 2007
Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus
January 2007
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
January 2007
HERE Arts Center, New York
September 2006
HERE Arts Center, New York (Workshop)
January 2006 and November 2006
CUNY Graduate Center’s Prelude Festival, New York (Workshop)
October 2005
SONGS OF THE DRAGONS FLYING TO HEAVEN was developed by Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company and HERE Arts Center, and produced by HERE Arts Center, New York (World Premiere, September 2006) with support from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund. It was developed with the help of free rehearsal space from Theatre Communications Group when Young Jean was an employee there.
The opening video for SONGS OF THE DRAGONS FLYING TO HEAVEN. The first five minutes take place in darkness.
- Conceived by Young Jean Lee with Dean Moss
- Directed and produced by Dean Moss/Gametophyte Inc.
- Performed by Young Jean Lee
- Director’s voice by Dean Moss
- Hitting by Yehuda Duenyas
- Production assistance by Rollo Romig and Daniel Jackson
