Mike Lew

Mike Lew

Mike Lew's plays include Tiger Style!, Collin, Bike America (Alliance, Atlanta; Ma-Yi, NYC; Juilliard and Lark workshops, NYC; Kennedy Center/NNPN workshop, DC; Playwrights Foundation workshop, SF); microcrisis (Ma-Yi, NYC; InterAct, Philly; Next Act, Milwaukee); Stockton (AracaWorks and EST workshops, NYC); and People’s Park (Victory Gardens Ignition Festival, Chicago). His shorts include Tenure (24 Hour...
Mike Lew's plays include Tiger Style!, Collin, Bike America (Alliance, Atlanta; Ma-Yi, NYC; Juilliard and Lark workshops, NYC; Kennedy Center/NNPN workshop, DC; Playwrights Foundation workshop, SF); microcrisis (Ma-Yi, NYC; InterAct, Philly; Next Act, Milwaukee); Stockton (AracaWorks and EST workshops, NYC); and People’s Park (Victory Gardens Ignition Festival, Chicago). His shorts include Tenure (24 Hour Plays on Broadway), In Paris You will Find Many Baguettes but Only One True Love (Humana Festival, KY; InspiraTO Festival winner, Toronto), Roanoke (Humana Festival), and Moustache Guys (Second Generation, NYC). He is a former resident writer for both Blue Man Group and Bon Appetit, and several of his short plays are published by Playscripts.

Mike's playwriting awards include the second annual Lanford Wilson Award (via the Dramatists Guild), the Helen Merrill Award, NYFA Fellowship, Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award, AracaWorks Graduate Playwriting Award, Heideman Award, Sam French Festival, and Battle of the Bards. He is co-director of the Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab, the largest collective of Asian-American playwrights in the country. Other residencies include Ensemble Studio Theatre, Youngblood (alum), Old Vic New Voices (alum), and TCG Young Leaders of Color. He is married to fellow playwright Rehana Lew Mirza, who he met in Ma-Yi Lab. Training: Juilliard (2013), Yale (2003). Check out his "Thoughts on the Theater" blog at mikelew.com.

Plays

  • Teenage Dick (vaguely from Richard III) by Mike Lew
    Recommendations: 8
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, drama, tragedy
    A brilliantly hilarious take on Shakespeare’s classic tale of power lust, TEENAGE DICK reimagines the most famous disabled character of all time as a 16-year-old outsider in the deepest winter of his discontent: his junior year at Roseland High. Picked on because of his cerebral palsy (as well as his sometimes creepy Shakespearean way of speaking), Richard is determined to have his revenge and make his name by...
    A brilliantly hilarious take on Shakespeare’s classic tale of power lust, TEENAGE DICK reimagines the most famous disabled character of all time as a 16-year-old outsider in the deepest winter of his discontent: his junior year at Roseland High. Picked on because of his cerebral palsy (as well as his sometimes creepy Shakespearean way of speaking), Richard is determined to have his revenge and make his name by becoming president of the senior class. But as he manipulates and crushes the obstacles to his electoral success, Richard finds himself faced with a decision he never expected would be his to make: is it better to be loved or feared?
  • Tiger Style! by Mike Lew
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: Asian American, tiger parenting + 1 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: Asian American, tiger parenting, China
    Albert and Jennifer Chen were at the pinnacle of academic achievement. But now they suck at adult life. Albert's just been passed up for promotion and Jennifer's just been dumped by her loser boyfriend. So they do what any reasonable egghead brother and sister would do and go on an Asian Freedom Tour! From California to Shenzen, "Tiger Style!" examines the successes and failures of tiger...
    Albert and Jennifer Chen were at the pinnacle of academic achievement. But now they suck at adult life. Albert's just been passed up for promotion and Jennifer's just been dumped by her loser boyfriend. So they do what any reasonable egghead brother and sister would do and go on an Asian Freedom Tour! From California to Shenzen, "Tiger Style!" examines the successes and failures of tiger parenting from the point of view of a playwright who's actually been through it.
  • microcrisis by Mike Lew
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, satire
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    Keyword: financial crisis, microcredit + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, satire
    Keyword: financial crisis, microcredit, topical
    Set fast on the heels of the Great Recession, microcrisis jumps seamlessly between the U.S., Ghana, and Monaco to depict the world’s next financial crisis. The play hinges on the Nobel Peace Prize-winning concept of microcredit, the small loans to budding entrepreneurs meant to alleviate Third World poverty. microcrisis is a hilarious comedy about what happens when a banker named Bennett exploits microcredit...
    Set fast on the heels of the Great Recession, microcrisis jumps seamlessly between the U.S., Ghana, and Monaco to depict the world’s next financial crisis. The play hinges on the Nobel Peace Prize-winning concept of microcredit, the small loans to budding entrepreneurs meant to alleviate Third World poverty. microcrisis is a hilarious comedy about what happens when a banker named Bennett exploits microcredit loans, lumps them into complex financial instruments, and crashes the global economy.

    Backstage Critic’s Pick. nytheatre.com Pick of the Week.

    “The savagery of microcrisis is impressive indeed.”
    - David Rooney, NY Times
    “an initial public offering worth investing in.”
    - Miriam Felton-Dansky, Village Voice
    “Deceptively smart in its construction.”
    - Howard Shapiro, Philly Inquirer
  • Bike America by Mike Lew
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: cross-country, road trip + 1 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: cross-country, road trip, millennials
    Bike America is a wildly theatrical picaresque journey that crams the entire continent onto one stage. The play unfolds as a cross-country bike trip from Boston to California, with stops in big cities and small towns along the way. Our feckless heroine Penny is looking to bring more meaning into her life, to find a lifestyle that suits her and a town that feels like a home... so she drops her clingy boyfriend...
    Bike America is a wildly theatrical picaresque journey that crams the entire continent onto one stage. The play unfolds as a cross-country bike trip from Boston to California, with stops in big cities and small towns along the way. Our feckless heroine Penny is looking to bring more meaning into her life, to find a lifestyle that suits her and a town that feels like a home... so she drops her clingy boyfriend in Beantown and takes off for Santa Barbara! Along the way she befriends a colorful crew of bikers: Ryan, the health nut biking instructor; Tim Billy, the innocent wanderer; Annabel and Rorie, the badass activists seeking to get gay-married in every state they hit on the trip; and the mysterious Man with the Van who carries their stuff. Bike America is a multi-state, multi-generational odyssey to discover our obsession with happiness.

    “Bike America is a trip full of verve... It’s easily one of the better new plays by a young American writer I’ve seen in a long time” - Joseph Cermatori, Village Voice

    “Lew adroitly captures the cross-country genre in his own uniquely cartoonish way, elevating the United States to a mythical land full of magic and monsters.” - Zachary Stewart, Theatermania