Pittsburgh City Paper: "I've hated performing all my life," says Young Jean Lee. Lee, after all, is not an actor but a nationally acclaimed experimental playwright. She never even took the stage during her two works staged here, Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, in 2007, and the scathingly funny, racism-themed The Shipment, in 2010.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Playwright Young Jean Lee takes to the stage — fronting a rock band — in We're Gonna Die
Pittsburgh City Paper: "I've hated performing all my life," says Young Jean Lee. Lee, after all, is not an actor but a nationally acclaimed experimental playwright. She never even took the stage during her two works staged here, Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, in 2007, and the scathingly funny, racism-themed The Shipment, in 2010.
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5 comments:
It's cool that Jean Lee has both pushed her comfort zone and found her niche with this performance. Seeing that she has given up her fear of being a "terrible performer" in order to make her show what she wanted it to be is admirable. Giving up your own qualms and hang-ups for the needs of a production is something that is difficult to do - and those who can do it tend to progress far in their respective fields in the industry. Of course, it doesn't hurt to get rave reviews from major news sources either!
I think this is a nice change for all of those people (myself included) who can't handle performance, actually doing something with that. Harnessing their fears and creating something out of it, something, probably more relatable for the audience. Especially when there are a fair share of people in any given audience that isn't so keen on taking the stage either. What is also nice is the way that her boyfriend and the band took up some of the slack so at the same time, Lee is comfortable writing and directing as well. There is a balance to this show and it would be interesting to see if her stage anxiety shows or if she puts on the show and has that extra information about her discomfort hidden.
It's nice to see a story about ordinary starring... an ordinary person. Someone who's maybe a little more connected to the world around them than a big-name actor. It's great the Jean Lee has gone and confronted some of her fears in performing in front of audiences, and is presenting her own and others stories in doing so. Bravo to her for that, and in giving all of us who may have fears about performing or pursuing things that we want to another good example to look to
I like this! I like her, and what she's doing. Life is most certainly full of embarrassing, awkward, un-proud moments, and true art is recreating feelings we know all too well. By her stepping up to the plate, letting go of her fears, and in turn pushing herself, she is achieving something important. I like the idea of how uncomfortable she is with this performance, just coming to show that we are all human with common inhibitions that tie us together in more ways than one. Props to her!
I really like the concept of this show. I give a lot of credit to Young for putting herself in her work when she didn't want anything to do with being onstage in the first place. But I'm also glad that she's found fun in the idea of putting herself in her own "personal hell" and that that decision was successful for her show. I'm interested to see what her other works are like.
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