Diana Ly

Diana Ly

Diana Ly is a Vietnamese-American screenwriter and playwright based in New York. She grew up as an expat in the Philippines before studying Computer Science at Stanford and subsequently working at Google and the YouTube Space LA. She’s currently a participant in the Universal Writers Lab, a yearlong mentorship program to develop a feature under the guidance of Universal Pictures. Her work has been supported by...
Diana Ly is a Vietnamese-American screenwriter and playwright based in New York. She grew up as an expat in the Philippines before studying Computer Science at Stanford and subsequently working at Google and the YouTube Space LA. She’s currently a participant in the Universal Writers Lab, a yearlong mentorship program to develop a feature under the guidance of Universal Pictures. Her work has been supported by LPAC+The Brick’s Rough Draft Festival and Piper Theatre’s Spotlight Series. She was previously a Women in Film|Black List Feature Resident, a Project Involve Fellow at Film Independent, and a member of the Sống Collective’s Inaugural Việt Writers Lab (Playwriting). She was a finalist for Playwrights’ Center’s Core Apprenticeship and DGF’s Fellows Program, and advanced for the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep and NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship. Diana is pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Hunter College. She writes about women and people of color coming into their own power, agency, and artistry.

Plays

  • Sex and the Abbey by Diana Ly
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: religion, coming of age
    Genre: comedy, drama, period
    Keyword: religion, coming of age
    Hrotsvit, the first known western female playwright, was a secular canoness in 10th Century Saxony who lived in Gandersheim Abbey. Far from being cloistered environments dedicated exclusively to religious pursuit, these abbeys were fertile communities for the education and socialization of well-to-do women and girls, some of whom were destined for marriage, as they grappled with their place in a broader society...
    Hrotsvit, the first known western female playwright, was a secular canoness in 10th Century Saxony who lived in Gandersheim Abbey. Far from being cloistered environments dedicated exclusively to religious pursuit, these abbeys were fertile communities for the education and socialization of well-to-do women and girls, some of whom were destined for marriage, as they grappled with their place in a broader society that saw them merely as tokens for transactional unions. Likely, these were the only places that smart, modern women could be themselves. But that doesn’t mean they were free.
  • Walk Away, Anna May by Diana Ly
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Hollywood, Kabuki theater + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, period
    Keyword: Hollywood, Kabuki theater, Ambition
    Remember when Adele Lim was offered one-tenth of her white male co-writer’s fee to work on the sequel to Crazy Rich Asians? Or when Anna May Wong was passed over for the lead of The Good Earth in favor of a white actress in yellowface? Or when women were banned from Kabuki, the artform they invented, for over two hundred years? A kaleidoscopic trip down entertainment’s memory lane as one Asian female...
    Remember when Adele Lim was offered one-tenth of her white male co-writer’s fee to work on the sequel to Crazy Rich Asians? Or when Anna May Wong was passed over for the lead of The Good Earth in favor of a white actress in yellowface? Or when women were banned from Kabuki, the artform they invented, for over two hundred years? A kaleidoscopic trip down entertainment’s memory lane as one Asian female screenwriter wonders why she’s even trying to make it in Hollywood.
  • GOAT by Diana Ly
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: sports, Tennis
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: sports, Tennis
    Four of the world's top female tennis players find themselves stuck in a hotel suite in the middle of a suspended Wimbledon Semifinals match between two of them. Tempers flare, egos rear their ugly heads, and embarrassing secrets are intentionally and unintentionally shared, as hunger gnaws at them. They might find some semblance of connection when they realize just how lonely they are.
  • The Persians by Diana Ly
    Cast: 
    15–100
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: Greek tragedy, women in power
    Genre: adaptation, drama, period, tragedy
    Keyword: Greek tragedy, women in power
    The Persians is a three-act play, written in the style of a trilogy of Greek tragedies, that adapts extant ancient Greek plays in order to reclaim the narrative of the ancient Achaemenid Persians. Each part retells a violent episode in the Persian Royal family, but recenters the action on the women, and recontextualizes their behavior as powerful, motivated, and always in service of their vision for the Empire.
  • Petty Sacrifices by Diana Ly
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: family drama, Chinese Family + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: family drama, Chinese Family, Asian-American, pandemic
    Petty Sacrifices follows Steph’s extended stay at her sister Florence’s home, ostensibly to help take care of their parents and her nephew during an unnamed pandemic. Scenes unfold out of chronological order, as we watch the progression of the virus and the toxic relationships in the house: between Steph and her mom, between Florence and her husband Thanh, and between the sisters. The altar tells us who’s dead...
    Petty Sacrifices follows Steph’s extended stay at her sister Florence’s home, ostensibly to help take care of their parents and her nephew during an unnamed pandemic. Scenes unfold out of chronological order, as we watch the progression of the virus and the toxic relationships in the house: between Steph and her mom, between Florence and her husband Thanh, and between the sisters. The altar tells us who’s dead, and therefore, who’s still alive. Will Steph be able to save herself before it's too late?
  • Without Country by Diana Ly
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: high school, theatre + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: high school, theatre, Asian-American, colonization, acting
    Over several weeks of grueling rehearsals under the merciless direction of their drama teacher, the six Vietnamese-American high school actors cast in Our Country’s Good start seeing more of themselves in their characters, making the connection between their family’s boat trips to America and the penal colony’s arrival to Australia, and blurring the lines between their own trauma and the events of the play....
    Over several weeks of grueling rehearsals under the merciless direction of their drama teacher, the six Vietnamese-American high school actors cast in Our Country’s Good start seeing more of themselves in their characters, making the connection between their family’s boat trips to America and the penal colony’s arrival to Australia, and blurring the lines between their own trauma and the events of the play. Over the course of the play, they’ll grapple with their identities, their sense of self-worth, their ingrained ideas of success, and ultimately, their right to be artists.