Sierra Madre Playhouse is presenting King of the Yees, the award-winning play by Lauren Yee, helmed by Tim Dang and produced by Gary Lamb, May 20 – Jun. 12. Sierra Madre Playhouse is located at 87 West Sierra Madre Blvd, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Opening night is set for Saturday, May 21, 2022 at 8:00 p.m.. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.
The cast features Christopher Chen, Tom Dang, Dennis Dun, Miley Yamamoto and Harmony Zhang.
For nearly 20 years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father Larry has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men’s club formed 150 years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush. But when her father goes missing, Lauren must plunge into the rabbit hole of San Francisco Chinatown and confront a world both foreign and familiar. At once bitingly hilarious and heartbreakingly honest, King of the Yees is an epic joyride across cultural, national and familial borders that explores what it means to truly be a Yee.
The production and design team includes Production Stage Manager Jeanne Marie Valleroy, Set Designer Yi-Chien Lee, Costume Designer Jojo Siu, Lighting Designer Derek Jones, Fight Choreographer Tom Tsai, Scenic Painter Orlando de la Paz and Scenic Builder Steve Barr.
Tim Dang is a director/producer and is the recipient of the 2015 Society of Directors and Choreographers’ Zelda Fichandler Award for transforming the regional theatre arts landscape through theatre. He is producing artistic director emeritus of East West Players (EWP), having run the longest running professional theatre of color in the United States for 23 years producing over a hundred plays and musicals for the mainstage. He is the recipient of Ovation Awards for directing Pacific Overtures and for directing and producing Sweeney Todd. He received numerous awards for direction, production and performance from Backstage West and Drama-Logue. He has directed dozens of shows in an astonishingly prolific career. He has also been a playwright and lyricist (co-writing Nisei Widows Club, Canton Jazz Club, Beijing Spring).
He is a Los Angeles County Arts Commissioner and serves on several committees including the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative (Co-Chair from 2015-2020), the County’s Economic Resiliency Task Force for which he is the Arts and Culture sector leader providing strategies and recommendations to the Board of Supervisors in response to Covid-19 and the civil unrest due to racial and social inequities across our country, and recently appointed to an ad hoc committee for Supervisorial District 1 for Measure J.
Dang is on faculty at the USC School of Dramatic Arts and AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Arts) College for the Performing Arts.
His recent directorial credits include Songs for a New World, Edges, and Ordinary Days for AMDA College of the Performing Arts, Vietgone for L.A. Theatre Works, The Joy Luck Club and Nothing is the Same for Sierra Madre Playhouse, Pippin for Pomona College, The Emperor’s Nightingale for Mainstreet Theatre in San Bernardino County, and Evita at the University of Southern California.
Dang is a USC alumnus and started out as a performer before transitioning to a career in directing and becoming artistic director of a professional theatre company. He still manages to perform voiceovers such as The Ghost of Tsushima, World of Warcraft: The Mists of Pandaria, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
His numerous honors include Tim Dang Day (L.A. City Council); Local Hero of the Year (KCET/Union Bank); Top 100 Asian Americans of the Decade (A. Magazine); Leadership Award (James Irvine Foundation); many, many more. Tim will continue to initiate and innovate diversity and inclusion across the American theatre.
Lauren Yee (Playwright) was the second most produced playwright in America for the 2019/20 theatrical season (as per American Theatre Magazine). Her plays include Cambodian Rock Band (South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, City Theatre, Merrimack Rep) and The Great Leap (Denver Center, Seattle Repertory, Atlantic Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Arts Club, InterAct Theatre, Steppenwolf); Hookman; The Hatmaker’s Wife; The Tiger Among Us; and more. King of the Yees is the winner of the Ashland New Play Festival Award (2016). The play had its World Premiere in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada in 2016. Honors: Doris Duke Artists Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Whiting Award, Steinberg/ATCA Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters literature award, Horton Foote Prize, Kesselring Prize, Primus Prize, Hodder Fellowship, #1 and #2 plays on 2017 Kilroys List. New Dramatists, Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab, Playwrights Realm alum. TV: Pachinko (Apple), Soundtrack (Netflix). BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD
This show is experiencing strong advance sales. Please reserve early to get your date of choice. King of the Yees is a story of a Chinese-American who starts off distant from her heritage and Chinese culture, connects with her family and her heritage, and learns how to embrace it as a Chinese-American in her own way. But Lauren’s journey is likely to resonate with you, no matter your ethnicity. King of the Yees is a play that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Backstage Pass with Lia Chang 