Kit Yan

Lyrics (with Melissa Li) for Who Am I

Kit Yan (Pronouns: They/He/She) is a bi-coastal transgender screenwriter and playwright, born in Enping, China, and raised in the Kingdom of Hawaii. They are the 2021 recipient of the prestigious Kleban Prize for most promising book of a musical, and a recipient of the Vivace Award for big ideas in theater. Kit has been a fellow at the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Lincoln Center, MacDowell, The Playwright Center Fellow, and the Musical Theater Factory. In 2021, they are contracted to write their first movie musical for television.

Their work has been produced by the Smithsonian, American Repertory Theater, Musical Theater Factory, the New York Musical Festival, Weston Playhouse, NY Rep, and Diversionary Theater. They are currently in development at Playwrights Horizons, 5th Avenue Theater, the Village Theater, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Diego Rep, and Keen Company. Their award-winning musical, Interstate opened to rave reviews at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. Kit’s first play Queer Heartache won 5 awards at the Chicago and SF Fringe Festivals and their second musical, MISS STEP received grants from NAMT and ASCAP to continue development.

Links

  • Interstate (2020)—Interstate is an Asian-American pop-rock poetry musical that follows Dash, a transgender spoken word performer who becomes internet-famous along with his best friend Adrian, a lesbian singer-songwriter. Fueled by the allure of fame and a desire to connect with their community, the band embarks on a road trip across America for their first national tour.
  • Queer Heartache (2016)—Queer Heartache is a full length poetry collection adapted from Kit Yan’s award-winning one-person slam poetry theater show. Kit’s poetry explores his identity as transgender, queer, Asian American from Hawaii, while asking what queer hearts and families are made of and interrogating the forces that are constantly working to break them apart.
  • Interview with American Repertory Theater—Poet, playwright, and performer Kit Yan, whose award-winning solo slam poetry show Queer Heartache returns to OBERON February 9 & 10, 2018, after a sold-out run during the 2016/17 I.D. Festival, discusses the show with A.R.T. Institute dramaturgy student Yan Chen.