Young Jean Lee - Were Gonna Die

WERE GONNA DIE

OTHER BOOKS BY YOUNG JEAN LEE PUBLISHED BY TCG

The Shipment and Lear

Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays

ALSO INCLUDES:

Church

Pullman, WA

The Appeal

Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals

Yaggoo

Were Gonna Die is copyright 2015 by Young Jean Lee

Were Gonna Die is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc.,

520 Eighth Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4156

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this material, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions, is subject to a royalty.

All rights, including but not limited to, professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of readings and all uses of this book by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the authors representative: Antje Oegel, AO International, 540 President Street, 2E, Brooklyn, NY, 11215, 917-521-6640, .

The publication of Were Gonna Die, by Young Jean Lee, through TCGs Book Program, is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Lee, Young Jean.

Were gonna die / Young Jean Lee.First edition.

pages; cm

ISBN 978-1-55936-785-1 (ebook)

1. DeathDrama. I. Title. II. Title: We are going to die.

PS3612.E228W47 2015

812.6dc23 2015007280

Book design and composition by Lisa Govan

Cover design by Benedict Kupstas

First Edition, June 2015

For Lou Reed

CONTENTS

Were Gonna Die premiered in April 2011 at Joes Pub in New York City. It was co-produced by 13P (Maria Goyanes, Executive Producer) and Young Jean Lees Theater Company (Young Jean Lee, Artistic Director; Caleb Hammons, Producing Director). It was written by Young Jean Lee, directed by Paul Lazar and produced by Caleb Hammons. The choreography was by Faye Driscoll, the costume design was by Roxana Ramseur, the lighting design was by Cindy Shumsey; the sound engineer was Thanasis Psarros, the dramaturg was Mike Farry, the associate director was Morgan Gould, the production supervisor was Sunny Stapleton and the creative consultant was Eric Dyer. It was performed by:

Were Gonna Die was developed in part through a residency at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene ONeill Theater Center, and through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Councils Swing Space program (space at 14 Wall Street is donated by Capstone Equities), and was presented with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

Were Gonna Die was remounted in September 2012 and again in August 2013 at LCT3s Claire Tow Theater (Paige Evans, Artistic Director) at Lincoln Center Theater in New York City. It was produced by Young Jean Lees Theater Company (Young Jean Lee, Artistic Director; Aaron Rosenblum, Producing Director). It was written by Young Jean Lee, directed by Paul Lazar and produced by Aaron Rosenblum. The choreography was by Faye Driscoll, the costume design was by Roxana Ramseur, the lighting design was by Tyler Micoleau; the sound designer was Jamie McElhinney, the dramaturg was Mike Farry, the associate director was Morgan Gould and the production supervisor was Sunny Stapleton. It was performed by:

All of the stories in this show are true, but not all of them happened to me, so although I originally performed the piece, the character of Singer is not meant to be me. Instead, the show is designed for anyone to be able to perform as themselves without adopting a theatrical persona. For that reason, performers should feel free to make whatever small changes are necessary in order to make the text feel natural for them to perform.

The band should be good, with real musicians who have interesting takes on the songs. Once they enter, they remain onstage for the rest of the show. During the monologues, they watch and listen in stillness. In the original production, the arrangements grew more full and more complex, song-by-song, over the course of the show.

A stage is set up with instruments and microphones on stands.

There is upbeat pre-show indie pop music.

An Announcer, wearing ordinary street clothes, enters and goes to one of the microphones.

The Announcer introduces the piece and warms up the crowd without mentioning any of the performers names or creating any expectation that a star is about to take the stage. In the original production, we used the following text. Whatever speech you come up with, it should end like the announcement below, with the words: And now: Were Gonna Die.

ANNOUNCER

Good [afternoon/evening] and welcome to [name of venue]. Im [name], the [job title] of [name of company/theater/venue]. Were Gonna Die was originally written for 13P, which was a collective of thirteen playwrights who were devoted to realizing full productions of each of their plays. Now that they have done all thirteen plays, 13P has imploded. This was number eleven. Please turn off your cell phones. And now: Were Gonna Die.

(The Announcer exits as the Singer enters holding a cordless microphone. She wears yellow jeans, a blue sweater with a sailboat on it, and sneakers. She smiles at the audience.)

SINGER

When I was growing up, my mother would always try to scare my sister and me by saying, Youd better behave, or youre gonna end up like your Uncle John. And this was actually a pretty effective threat, because my Uncle John is the most isolated person Ive ever known. Hes always lived alone; he doesnt have a single friend; as far as anyone knows, hes still a virgin; and for as long as I can remember, hes spent every major holiday with my family.

And its this awful paradox because, on the one hand, we all feel really terrible for my Uncle John and for how lonely he is. But at the same time, none of us really wants to be around him either. He smells bad, hes rude, and whenever he comes to visit, he just kind of sits there and lets everyone wait on him.