Yu-Li Alice Shen

Yu-Li Alice Shen

Yu-Li Alice Shen (she/they) is a playwright, English professor, actor, and audiobook narrator. Her full-length plays, “Image May Contain,” won ATHE-KCACTF’s Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award Honorable Mention in 2021, and “Entitled,” won SETC’s Charles M. Getchell New Play Award in 2010. She received her first professional production at Bristol Valley Theater for her play "Magical Thinking...
Yu-Li Alice Shen (she/they) is a playwright, English professor, actor, and audiobook narrator. Her full-length plays, “Image May Contain,” won ATHE-KCACTF’s Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award Honorable Mention in 2021, and “Entitled,” won SETC’s Charles M. Getchell New Play Award in 2010. She received her first professional production at Bristol Valley Theater for her play "Magical Thinking" in 2023, and her one-act play, "Second Skin" won 2nd place at the Ritz Theatre's One-Act Comedy Festival in 2024. Alice received her BA in English literature from James Madison University and her MFA in playwriting from Virginia Tech, and she currently teaches college composition at the University of Southern Indiana. In her spare time, she sings and plays ukulele at local assisted living facilities, and she co-hosts the irreverent humor/improv podcast, “Going Terribly.”

Plays

  • Image May Contain by Yu-Li Alice Shen
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: biography, comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: family funerals and deaths, foster care + 8 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: family funerals and deaths, foster care, unconventional family, adoption, disability, culture clash, Taiwan, college age, millennial humor, Buddhism
    An unlikely trio of former foster siblings wrestle with questions of identity, race, family, and existential dread as they travel to Taiwan to perform Buddhist funeral rites for one of their birth fathers.
  • Magical Thinking by Yu-Li Alice Shen
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: family drama, grieving death of spouse + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: family drama, grieving death of spouse, angsty teen, unrequited love, possible ethnically diverse casting
    Viola’s husband has been in a coma for six months, yet she can’t bring herself to visit him. Her teenaged daughter resents her cowardice; her sister-in-law tries to be sympathetic but is plagued by her own mid-thirties crisis; and her brother-in-law, Dan, who has held a torch for Viola for years, struggles to not use his brother’s condition to his advantage.
  • Be My Qur'antine by Yu-Li Alice Shen
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, faith-based + 3 more
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    Keyword: pandemic, childhood friendship + 4 more
    Genre: drama, faith-based, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: pandemic, childhood friendship, The Qur'an, Islam, quarantine bake off, quarantine love story
    In the midst of an ambiguous pandemic, two estranged friends sneak out on what could be their last night alive.
  • Second Skin by Yu-Li Alice Shen
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: Women's mid-life crisis, tattoos + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: Women's mid-life crisis, tattoos, millennial angst, self-image, Hidden secrets
    Three womxn grapple with questions of age, friendship, purpose, and existential dread while picking out what shared tattoo to get on Spring Break.
  • The Conversation About the Keys - Companion One-Acts by Yu-Li Alice Shen
    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: anti-romantic comedy, adult romantic comedy drama + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: anti-romantic comedy, adult romantic comedy drama, alternative romantic comedy, non linear narrative, quarterlife crisis
    Tim Without Thalia: Nervous about his upcoming nuptials with Thalia, Tim wonders how they got from happily-in-love to at-each-others’-throats.

    Thalia With Someone Else: A year later, Thalia is now engaged to Lucas, and Tim wrestles with the proprietary hold he still has over her, despite not wanting her back.

    These one-acts may be performed together or apart.
  • Entitled by Yu-Li Alice Shen
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: drama, melodrama
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    Keyword: half-siblings, sibling relationships + 3 more
    Genre: drama, melodrama
    Keyword: half-siblings, sibling relationships, crisis pregnancy, adult children, failed writer
    In the midst of his crumbling book deal and his crumbling romantic relationship, David’s pregnant half-sister, Renee, comes to town with an ulterior motive, and he finds himself struggling with past baggage and future responsibilities, most important of which being Renee’s inability to keep her child.