Theater and Performance Work |
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Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star
Written and Performed by May Lee-Yang
Dramaturgy and Directing by Ka Vang
Creative Consulting by Molly Van Avery
In "Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star", May Lee-Yang employs comedic storytelling, on-site sex toy demonstrations, and some cultural competency training as she explores marriage, porn, romance novel fantasies, and how to talk about sex in the Hmong culture (a definite no-no).
The show is being featured at The 3rd National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival. Show Dates areThursday, June 23, 2011 at 9 PM and Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 7 PM at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Los Angeles, CA.
For more information on show dates, see Upcoming Events.
Credit: Alex Nok Phasy |
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Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman
Written by May Lee-Yang
Performed by May Lee-Yang and Phasoua Vang
Directed by Robert Farid Karimi
Lighting Design by Kathy Maxwell
A lazy Hmong woman is not supposed to exist. A lazy Hmong woman is like a vegan omelet, a virgin Long Island Iced Tea, or perhaps a poor person of color who is a Republican. But just as these things exist, so does a lazy Hmong woman. This performance piece charts one woman’s journey as she discovers The Rules for Being Good Hmong Girl, how to balance being a feminist and having a relationship with a Hmong man, as well as lessons learned from the not-so-lazy women in her life. |
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Sia(b)
Written by May Lee-Yang
Performed by Katie Ka Vang and May Lee-Yang
Directed by Robert Farid Karimi
Reinventing the one person genre, writer May Lee-Yang enlists the talents of performance artist Katie Vang to tell her personal story of a Hmong woman who feels silenced living in the U.S., torn between her love for Nintendo games, pop culture and her own Hmong culture. She searches to gain her voice again by fleshing out and reassembling the real voices of the Hmong community members around her mixed with the images of karaoke pop music, Hulk Hogan, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Each character taking her closer to the discovery of her Siab, the Hmong word for liver, the Hmong symbol for an individual’s core, and learning that home is where the Siab is. For a community who has historically been searching for home, Lee-Yang’s story is a humorous, emotional journey that shows how we can all find our voices, our center, by remembering the community around us. |
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Photographer by Usry Alleyne. |
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The Child’s House
If you tell a Hmong person a ghost story, most will not say you are crazy. They will say, “Then what happened?” Enter The Child’s House, a performance art piece about the things that haunt May Lee-Yang: invisible hands in the night, ghosts sitting on your chest, a house abandoned 13 years ago, being a woman approaching 30, married, and childless, and her relationship with her mother, a relationship extending beyond bloodlines. Using storytelling, slides, and movement, journey between two worlds as May tells what happened, tries to understand what is happening, and makes decisions about what will happen to the stories and secrets imbedded in her mind and body.
Written and Performed by May Lee-Yang
Directed by kim thompson
Premiered November 6-8, 2009 at Intermedia Arts (Minneapolis, MN)
This show was made possible through the Naked Stages Performance Art Program at Intermedia Arts, which receives funding from the Jerome Foundation.
In the News
3-Minute Egg http://3minuteegg.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/
Southwest Journal - http://www.swjournal.com/index.php?page=152&story=12507
Hmong Times - http://www.hmongtimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=190&ArticleID=1481&TM=65006.36 |
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The Unit
The Unit is a collective of emerging playwrights of color in Minnesota. Every month, we are given a theme and three weeks to write a 10-minute scene. We have one week to find actors and directors for staged reading, 30 minutes to rehearse, and see our work on its feet in front of a live audience.
Our monthly Madness events are open to the public, free of charge, and include food.
Past themes have include
- Beginnings
- The Next Movement
- Alternate Reality
- Comfort Food
- Doorways
- Against the Grain
- Resistance
- Loss of Innocence
Unit Playwrights include:
- Joe Luis Cedillo
- Kristoffer Diaz
- Reginald Edmund
- Jessica Huang
- Anton Jones
- May Lee-Yang
- Eric “Pogi” Sumangil
- Saymookda “MoOks” Vongsay
Stay tuned for more information. |
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Photographed by Alex Nok Phasy. |
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| Photographed by David Joel. |
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Spoken Word
May Lee-Yang frequently performs her poems, monologues, and prose as a spoken word artist. She is a former member of the Hmong-Lao spoken word group, FIRE (Free Inspiring Rising Elements). She has been a featured artist at the following venues:
- The Un-Named Reading Series featured “Naked Words” with May Lee-Yang
- SASE/Intermedia Arts’ Women of Color Reading Series
- SASE/Intermedia Arts’ Writers of Color Reading Series (featured with the Twin Cities Nerds of Color)
- Minneapolis MOSAIC
- St. Cloud State University’s A.S.I.A. (Asian Students In Action) Social Justice Week
- ICE (Innovative Community Elevation) Open Mic
- International Women’s Day Celebration
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