Curtain Rising - Index

Curtain Rising - Curtain Rising Magazine - Volume 1, Issue 20 - September 11, 2007 - Index

September 11, 2007
EMERGING
Byron Yee.
Getting to know playwright Byron Yee
Byron Yee, who was honoured with the award
for Outstanding Solo Show at the 2007 New York
International Fringe Festival for his play Paper Sun,
takes on Curtain Rising's version of 20 Questions. Free
to answer or plead the 5th on as many questions as he
likes, this is his take.
1. Tell us a bit about your style and your
work. A friend I met at a fringe festival said I was
doing autobiographical theatre. Or something
like that. I started out as a stand-up comic, but the
show evolved into more complicated storytelling,
not just a straight monologue. There's something
different when you're doing autobiographical
work. You need to let the audience experience
what you go through as you proceed through your
journey. What has evolved is a piece that is purely
driven by trying to solve problems. Everything I do
as a writer loops back around to service the story.
2. Do you have any themes that you find
recur in your work? As I tell people, I grew up in
Photo courtesy of Byron Yee.
Oklahoma, moved to San Francisco, became a standup
comedian, then discovered I was Chinese. I've
always had the stranger in a strange land outlook,
whether I was Chinese-American in Oklahoma
or an Oklahoman in Chinatown. However, my
background is perfectly normal to me - it gives me
a different point of view as I examine my identity.
3. What is your greatest achievement in
theatre to date? Just opening my show at the
Victoria Fringe Festival in 1997. It was the first time
that it was performed in front of a live audience. I had
never done anything for the theatre before. I purposely
opened out of town in a place where I knew no one
so I could figure it out before I put it in front of people
I knew. Aside from doing it for three friends on my
couch, no one had ever seen this crazy piece before.
4. Who are your influences? I've always
admired Eric Bogosian as a solo performer.
5. What has been your most rewarding
experience? I had made friends with a Toronto
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