By Tracy Wang
With its successful premieres in both Los Angeles and Chicago earlier this year, ‘King of the Yees’ is coming to Seattle’s ACT Theatre this September. Written by Lauren Yee and directed by Desdemona Chiang, ‘King of the Yees’ is a play that revolves around the Chinatown in San Francisco and explores the heritage and relationship between a new generation of Chinese Americans and the old generation.
Centering around San Francisco’s Chinatown, playwright Lauren Yee first dives into the world of her father who is a driving force for the Yee Family Association for the past twenty years. Created about one hundred and fifty years ago during the Gold Rush, the Yee Family Association seems to have become more of an old and dying Chinese American men’s club. However, as her father disappears, she needs to understand San Francisco’s Chinatown more than ever, and she is forced to enter a world in which she knows only a little. In a world of lion dance, chiropractors, face changers, she experiences a place and time where the modern age collides with ancestral values and heritages.
The play will include the talents of ACT’s 2017 Core Company members such as Khanh Doan, Stan Ngi, Annelih GH Hamilton and so on, and bring back director Desdemona Chiang who was a part of ACT’s Construction Zone readings in 2015. With the help of the creative team, the Allan Theatre will become the current day San Francisco Chinatown, and present a play that is deeply related and significant to the Chinese American communities.
ASL interpretation will be available at the following performances:
Oct 1
ACT is proud to offer the Figaro MobiTxt® Closed Captioning System, sponsored in part by Seattle’s
Office of Arts & Culture. A personal 4”x 6” tablet may be reserved by any Deaf/ H
H patron wishing to
use Closed Captioning by calling or emailing the Ticket Office. Devices will be available at the
following performances:
Sep 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 26, 29, 30
Audience engagement events:
Sep 12 Behind the Scenes
Sep 17, 26 Dialogues
Sep 19, 24 & Oct 1 Cast Chats
Sep 21 Dig Deep
Sep 22 Tastings
Information on ‘King of the Yees’:
Sep 8th-Oct 1st, 2017
Allen Theatre at ACT Theatre
700 Union Street
Seattle, WA, 98101
Tickets at: www.acttheatre.org / 206-292-7676