American playwright
Lauren Yee (Chinese: 余秀菊[1][2]) is an American playwright.
Early life and education
Yee was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She graduated from Lowell High School in 2003.[3]
Yee graduated from Yale University in 2007, majoring in English and Theatre Arts. She then attended University of California, San Diego's MFA playwriting program.[4]
Career
Yee is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab[5] and a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer and has worked under commission from the Goodman Theatre, Lincoln Center, and Mixed Blood.[6]
Personal life
Yee met an attorney named Zachary Zwillinger at Yale. The couple later married at San Francisco in September 2012.[7]
Awards and honors
The awards/honors are in reverse chronological order.
2019
2018
- Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play for Cambodian Rock Band.[24]
- Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist for The Great Leap[25]
- Princeton University MacKall Gwinn Hodder Fellows for the 2018–2019 academic year.[26]
2017
2016
2015
- The Kilroys List Top 50 (for King of the Yees and The Tiger Among Us)
- Susan Smith Blackburn nominee (for in a word)
- The Chance Theatre playwright-in-residence[30]
- Theatre Bay Area Award nominee – Outstanding World Premiere Play (for Hookman)
2014
- Lark Playwrights’ Week playwright (for The Tiger Among Us)
- Constance Saltonstall Foundation residency Berkeley Rep Ground Floor finalist (for King of the Yees)
- Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Playwrights runner-up (for The Tiger Among Us)
2013
- O’Neill Conference playwright (for Samsara)[31]
- Sundance Theatre Lab finalist (for in a word) Playwrights’ Center Core Writer (2013-2016)
- Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant (with the Goodman Theatre, for King of the Yees)
- Playwrights Realm Page One resident playwright
- Second Stage Theatre – Shank playwright-in-residence
- UCross Foundation residency
- L. Arnold Weissberger Award nominee (for Samsara)
- Gerbode Foundation Playwright Commissioning Award (with Encore Theatre Company)
2012
- Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominee (for Samsara)
- Bay Area Playwrights Festival winner (for Samsara)
- Ma-Yi Writers Lab playwright (2012–present) PEN USA Literary Award for Drama finalist (for A Man, his Wife, and his Hat)
- Time Warner fellow at the Women's Project Playwrights Lab
- Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominee (for Crevice)
- Kitchen Dog Theatre's New Works Festival winner (for A Man, his Wife, and his Hat)
- East West Players’ Face of the Future Playwriting Competition third place (for Samsara)
- Aurora Theatre Global Age Project finalist (for in a word)
2011
- PlayPenn Conference playwright (for A Man, his Wife, and his Hat)
- KCACTF's Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award winner (for in a word)
- KCACTF's Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award winner (for in a word)
- IICAS Student Research Travel Grant recipient (for Mu Performing Arts commission)
2010
- MAP Fund grantee (with Mu Performing Arts)
- Hangar Theater Lab Company playwright-in-residence (for in a word)
- Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting (for Ching Chong Chinaman)[32]
- El Gouna Writers’ Residency fellow
2009
- MacDowell Colony fellow
- Public Theater Emerging Writers Group member
- Theatre Bay Area New Works Fund commission (with AlterTheater)
- Wasserstein Prize finalist PONY Fellowship finalist
- Jerome Fellowship finalist (selected)
- American Antiquarian Society – Robert and Charlotte Baron fellow
- Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers fellow
- 2008 Princess Grace Award finalist (for Ching Chong Chinaman)
- Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grantee Dramatists Guild fellow New York Mills Arts Retreat writer-in-residence
- Edward F. Albee Foundation fellow PlayGround June Anne Baker Prize winner/commission (for Crevice)
2007
- Kumu Kahua Theatre Pacific Rim Prize winner (for Ching Chong Chinaman)[33]