ABOUT YOUNG JEAN LEE & CHURCH
Young Jean Lee has been called “hands down, the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by the New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. She has written and directed nine shows in New York with her company, Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. Her plays have been published by Theatre Communications Group (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays, The Shipment and Lear) and by Samuel French (Three Plays by Young Jean Lee). She has commissions from Plan B/Paramount Pictures, Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is a member of New Dramatists and 13P and has an MFA from Mac Wellman’s playwriting program at Brooklyn College. She has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Creative Capital, NYFA, NEA, NYSCA, the Jerome Foundation, The Fox Samuels Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Rockefeller MAP Foundation. She is also the recipient of two OBIE awards, the Festival Prize of the Zuercher Theater Spektakel, a 2010 Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship. She has a 2012 inaugural Doris Duke Artist Award. 

In CHURCH, Young Jean Lee transforms her life-long struggle with Christianity into an exuberant church service. This church of celebration is designed to test the expectations of religious and non-religious alike. Never content with simple parody, Lee’s aim with CHURCH is to give herself and her audiences a true religious experience.
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NEWS AND REVIEWS FOR CHURCH

​​"A unique immersive theatrical experience....Church isn’t likely to allow you to fall asleep like some sermons might, and you’ll feel challenged to reconcile your notions about religious services to its oddness, but a strong cast and Lang’s vision lend this production promise." -The Providence Journal

"A celebration of the human spirit as well as an invitation to contemplate all our frailties and flaws and make a change...The Wilbury Group has once again created a special ​and powerful theatrical event which should not be missed." -Edge Providence

"Young Jean Lee’s Church is a peculiar play, a seemingly earnest run-through of an Evangelical service that’s always just a hair away from riding off the rails." ​-Law and Order Party

"An uplifting, yet challenging, entertaining and, yes, spiritual 'service'....Call it a parody of a religious experience, call it a spiritual hour and a half, or call it Lee’s attempt to face her own thoughts and doubts about religion. Whatever you take out of “Church” will depend on what you bring to it…sort of like the real thing." -Cranston Herald / Warwick Beacon

"Founder & Artistic Director, Josh Short, came on LIVE to talk about the RI premiere of experimental playwright Young Jean Lee’s play, Church, opening this holiday season at The Wilbury Theatre Group. Inspired by Lee’s personal struggle with Christianity, the play has been described as an “exuberant church service” and though some would expect a critique on religion, the play promises to be an uplifting and inspirational event." -GoLocalProv (VIDEO INTERVIEW)


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​PRODUCTION PHOTOS

CAST

CREATIVE TEAM

Pamela Lambert

Milly Massey

Phoenix Williams

Rae Mancini

Gunnar Manchester

Christine Treglia

Sarah Leach

Jason Quinn

Church
Written by Young Jean Lee
Directed by Brien Lang

Costume Design by Meg Donnelly
Scenic Design by Keri King
Lighting Design by ​Kelley Lipsey
Music by Delbert Collins, Steve Ellis, and ​Matt Requintina

Production Photos by Erin X. Smithers
Assistant Direction by Meredith Healey
Stage Management by Paul Trinh

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