Yilong Liu

Yilong Liu

​Yilong is a Lambda Literary Award winning playwright based in New York. He grew up in China and received his MFA from University of Hawai‘i. Yilong is a Core Writer at Playwrights’ Center and has developed work with Ojai Playwrights Conference, EST/Youngblood, Kennedy Center, Space on Ryder Farm, among others. Other awards include Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Paul Stephen Lim...
​Yilong is a Lambda Literary Award winning playwright based in New York. He grew up in China and received his MFA from University of Hawai‘i. Yilong is a Core Writer at Playwrights’ Center and has developed work with Ojai Playwrights Conference, EST/Youngblood, Kennedy Center, Space on Ryder Farm, among others. Other awards include Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award. Currently, he is under commissions from Audible's Emerging Playwrights Fund and EST/Sloan Project.

His works include The Book of Mountains and Seas (Lambda Literary Award, New Conservatory Theatre Center), June is The First Fall (Yangtze Rep, Original Works Publishing), Joker (Po’okela Award for Best New Play, Kumu Kahua Theatre, FringeNYC, National Queer Theatre), Flood in The Valley, a Bilingual Folk Musical (Beijing Tianqiao Theatre Center, Gung Ho Project), PrEP Play, or Blue Parachute (upcoming rolling premieres), and Good Enemy (Audible, Ojai Playwrights Festival).

When he’s not writing, he’s usually cooking, people watching, or compulsively liking cat pics on Instagram.

Plays

  • The Book of Mountains and Seas by Yilong Liu
    Recommendations: 12
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, family + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: LGBTQ, family, loss, cultural differences, generational divide, immigration, globalization, magical realism, grief, mythology
    Two years after losing his son, a California dad teams up with his son's last boyfriend in New York on an impossible mission to visit all the restaurants reviewed on his son's Yelp page. When the son passed away, Yelp was the only thing left on his phone. What ensues is an adventure filled with clashing cultures, unlikely friendships, and the review of a lifetime.
  • PrEP Play, or, Blue Parachute by Yilong Liu
    Recommendations: 8
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: Truvada, HIV + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, science fiction
    Keyword: Truvada, HIV, queer, History, aids, 1980s, millennials, magical realism, LGBTQ, intergenerational
    What if you had the chance to rewrite history? Erik’s world is thrown into free-fall when he’s pulled into a wondrously bizarre time-traveling journey by Agent 701 (aka his now-sentient PrEP pill). Landing into the AIDS epidemic of the 80s, Erik finds himself in a race against history to save a life lost decades ago. From award-winning playwright Yilong Liu comes a contemporary queer fantasia that examines the...
    What if you had the chance to rewrite history? Erik’s world is thrown into free-fall when he’s pulled into a wondrously bizarre time-traveling journey by Agent 701 (aka his now-sentient PrEP pill). Landing into the AIDS epidemic of the 80s, Erik finds himself in a race against history to save a life lost decades ago. From award-winning playwright Yilong Liu comes a contemporary queer fantasia that examines the ghosts of our past and the hopes for our future.
  • June is The First Fall by Yilong Liu
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: Asian American, Hawaii + 7 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Asian American, Hawaii, gay, immigration, Chinese American, LGBTQ, family, forgiveness, memory
    What compels people to cross mountains and seas to another country, another continent, and another culture to find their true selves? What are the journeys we take to find home and belonging? In JUNE IS THE FIRST FALL, Don, a gay Chinese man, returns home to Hawaii to rediscover missing memories of himself and his family that he moved away from. His week-long stay opens wounds with his father and sister that...
    What compels people to cross mountains and seas to another country, another continent, and another culture to find their true selves? What are the journeys we take to find home and belonging? In JUNE IS THE FIRST FALL, Don, a gay Chinese man, returns home to Hawaii to rediscover missing memories of himself and his family that he moved away from. His week-long stay opens wounds with his father and sister that never healed, aggravating Don's struggle to find love and belonging in his life.
  • Joker by Yilong Liu
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, Hawaii + 7 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: LGBTQ, Hawaii, asian, chinese, marriage equality, grief, loneliness, gay, Filipino American
    A Filipino gay writer and activist settles into a straight marriage in Hawai'i to keep a promise he's made. The tenuous calm is rocked by the arrival of a former friend of his from the Philippines. Will the life he carefully constructed crush around him? Set during the run-up to marriage equality in Hawai'i, Joker explores love, loss and the power of our promises.
  • Lily by Yilong Liu
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: science, mythology + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: science, mythology, China, HIV, genetic engineering
    Inspired by the story of the world's first genetically edited babies in China, whose genes have been altered so they could not contract HIV. Lily tells the story of a girl who has to face her past when her future has never been certain in this world of myth, science, and loneliness.