Haruna Lee

Haruna Lee
Born1985[1] (age 40–41)
Hong Kong
OccupationsExperimental Playwright, Theater Maker, Professor
Writing career
Notable workSuicide Forest
Notable awards
Websitewww.harunalee.com/home

Haruna Lee (born 1985[1]) is a Taiwanese-Japanese-American experimental playwright, theater maker, educator, and community steward based in Brooklyn, New York.

Early life and education

Lee was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Japan.[2] They moved from Japan to the United States when they were eight. They received an undergraduate degree from the Experimental Theatre Wing at Tisch School of the Arts NYU, and later received their graduate degree from Brooklyn College's MFA Playwriting Program under the mentorship of Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney.[3][1]

Career

Communing with You at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, 2016. Haruna Lee and Aoi Lee.

In 2010, Lee started the Harunalee Theater Company (stylized as harunalee theater company) with Stivo Arnoczy, Sasha Arutyunova, Karen Boyer, Andrew R. Butler, Greg Laffey, Sarah Lurie, and Lauren Swan-Potras; an ensemble of theater makers and designers collaborating across artistic disciplines to create experimental plays helmed by Lee. They produced six shows: TROIKA, Plum de Force, Drunkfish Oceanrant, War Lesbian, to the left of the pantry and under the sugar shack, and Memory Retrograde. They received support from Ars Nova's Makers Lab, Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist-in-Residence program, Dixon Place Mondo Cane! Residency and Commission, The Public's Devised Theatre Working Group, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Indie Theater Fund, The Mental Insight Foundation, and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Grant. The company disbanded in 2020.[4]

As an experimental playwright, Lee created and performed in plural (love), a collaboration with Jen Goma and various artists, an auto-theoretical performance installation that flirts with the boundaries of desire, power, and responsibility, creating a performance piece that feels like stepping into a soft BDSM roleplay. Between 2016–2021, they developed the project with New Georges, the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and WP Pipeline Festival. In 2022, they premiered a short film with the same title.[5] In 2016, Lee performed Communing with You with their mother, Aoi Lee. The 30-minute Butoh piece was performed at Brooklyn Arts Exchange.[6]

Production of Suicide Forest at The Bushwick Starr, March 2019.

Lee's most notable play, Suicide Forest, premiered in 2019 at The Bushwick Starr with Ma-Yi Theater Company and was directed by Aya Ogawa and was performed by Haruna Lee, alongside their mother Aoi Lee. It is an investigation of how Japanese suicide has symbolically permeated the playwright's identity, and received grants from the MAP Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council for the Arts.[7] It was hailed by the New York Times as "Vivid, haunted, heart-stingingly tender and explicitly personal... A wild ride of a production and was a Critic's Pick. It received an Off-Broadway remount in 2020 with Ma-Yi Theater Company at A.R.T/NY and won an Obie Award in Playwriting and made The Kilroys List.[5] The remount ran for two weeks before shutting down due to Covid.[8] In 2023, Lee was invited to join the New Dramatists' resident playwright company until 2030.[9] Lee began developing their play 49 Days, a bilingual radio play about what's gained and what's lost when a family holds too tightly to their grief and rage, at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in 2025,[10] with previous workshops from New Dramatists, Playwrights Horizons, and Ma-Yi Theater Company. It is slated to premiere with the National Asian American Theater Company and New Georges in 2027.[5]

Lee has also begun work on DADBOT, a hybrid technology performance piece where they resurrect their dead dad using conversational AI to be in a simulation of the iconic father-child conversation. They received the Berkeley Rep Ground Floor Residency[11] and a Mercury Store residency. In 2025, they won a Creative Capital Award for DADBOT.[5]

Production of War Lesbian at Dixon Place, Dec 2014.

Lee received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2026, and was a 2025 finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize receiving a Special Commendation for 49 Days. They have also won the Steinberg Playwriting Award (2021), The Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation Ollie New Play Award (2021), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award (2021). Their writing has been published by Broadway Licensing, Yale's Theater Magazine, Table Work Press, and 53rd State Press.[5]

As a performer and writer, they have collaborated with artists such as Lynn Nottage, Vanessa German, Mac Wellman, Taylor Mac, Minor Theater, Ralph Lee and the Mettawee River Theater Company, Anohni, and many more.[5]

Lee teaches at Yale University and Hunter College in the MFA Playwriting Programs. They have previously taught at Brooklyn College, Stanford, NYU, Pace University, and York College.[5]

Personal life

Lee is half Japanese and half Taiwanese.[12]

Plays

  • Troika
  • Plum de Force[13]
  • Drunkfish Oceanrant
  • Communing with You
  • Suicide Forest
  • War Lesbian
  • to the left of the pantry and under the sugar shack[14]
  • Memory Retrograde[15]* plural (love) [15]
  • DADBOT
  • 49 Days

Filmography

Television

Year Television show Credited as writer Notes Ref.
2020 The Flight Attendant Yes Season 2
2022 Pachinko Yes Season 2

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Work Result Ref.
2020 Obie Awards Playwriting Suicide Forest Won [16]
2021 Ollie New Play Award Playwriting n/a Won [17]
2021 FCA Grants to Artists Award Theater n/a Won [18]
2021 Steinberg Playwright Awards n/a n/a Won [19]
2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Award Playwriting 49 Days Finalist, Special Commendation [20]
2025 Creative Capital Award Theater & Performance Art DADBOT Won [21]
2026 Guggenheim Fellowship Drama & Performance Art DADBOT Won [22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Schildcrout, Jordan; Noriega, Jimmy A. (September 1, 2022). Fifty Key Figures in Queer US Theatre (1st ed.). Routledge. pp. 132–136. ISBN 978-1032067964.
  2. ↑ Szymkowicz, Adam (2017-04-23). "Adam Szymkowicz: I Interview Playwrights Part 925: Kristine Haruna Lee". Adam Szymkowicz. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  3. ↑ Polak, Brian James (2021-12-21). "The Subtext: Toward Liberation With Haruna Lee". AMERICAN THEATRE. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  4. ↑ Lee, Haruna (August 24, 2026). "harunalee (2010-2020)". harunalee.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2026. Retrieved August 24, 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "About". harunalee. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
  6. ↑ Cuba, Julianne (2016-11-15). "Body language: Mother-daughter dance closes language barrier". Brooklyn Paper. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  7. ↑ Clement, Olivia (2019-03-27). "Kristine Haruna Lee's Suicide Forest Begins at the Bushwick Starr". Playbill. Archived from the original on 2024-04-04. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  8. ↑ Hong, Cathy Park (2020-05-21). "A Season to Celebrate Asian-American Theater Is Lost to Pandemic". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
  9. ↑ "Seven Playwrights Granted New Dramatists Residencies". AMERICAN THEATRE. 2023-08-02. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  10. ↑ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
  11. ↑ "Alumni artists". www.berkeleyrep.org. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
  12. ↑ Barbagallo, Jess (2016-11-01). ""A current gaining more wave:" 25 Years of Artist Development at Brooklyn Arts Exchange". The Brooklyn Rail. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  13. ↑ Smith, Olivia Jane (2013-09-10). "Olivia Jane Smith on Plum de Force, written and directed by Kristine Haruna Lee at the Bushwick Starr". New York Theatre Review. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  14. ↑ Einerson, Katy (2016-02-09). "Talking to the left of the pantry and under the sugar shack: an interview with Kristine Haruna Lee". Culturebot. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  15. 1 2 Christopherson, Jody (2019-02-01). "An Interview With Playwright Kristine Haruna Lee". New York Theatre Review. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  16. ↑ McPhee, Ryan (2020-07-14). "Heroes of the Fourth Turning, A Strange Loop Among 2020 Obie Award Winners". Playbill. Archived from the original on 2023-10-04. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  17. ↑ "Ollie Award". The Bret Adams & Paul Reisch Foundation. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
  18. ↑ "Haruna Lee | FCA Grant Recipient". www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
  19. ↑ "2021 Steinberg Playwright Awardees Announced". AMERICAN THEATRE. 2021-12-14. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  20. ↑ "The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize : 49 Days". The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
  21. ↑ "DADBOT (working title)". Creative Capital. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
  22. ↑ "Announcing the 2026 Guggenheim Fellows — Guggenheim Fellowships: Supporting Artists, Scholars, & Scientists". Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 2026-08-25.
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