Maggie Lee
Playwright
she/her/hers
Maggie Lee is a Seattle playwright who creates diverse, imaginative new worlds on stage in genres like science fiction, horror, fantasy, and action-adventure. Her plays have been produced in Seattle, New York, Seoul, Chicago, and San Francisco by Macha Theatre Works, The Navigators Theater Company, Youth Theatre Northwest, The Ugly Radio, Seoul Players, Seattle Public Theater, Theater Schmeater, Radial Theater Project, Sandbox Radio, Pony World Theatre, Pork Filled Productions, The 14/48 Projects, Live Girls! Theater, SIS Productions, ReAct, Bindlestiff Studio, Balagan Theatre, Open Circle Theater, and more. In 2021, she was a Writer in Residence at Hedgebrook and received a residency in the Artist Support Program at Jack Straw Cultural Center to collaborate on a new audio drama podcast. Her play Sheathed won the 2019 Gregory Award for Outstanding New Play, the 2019 Gypsy Rose Lee Award for Excellence in Local Playwriting, and was a semi-finalist for the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her steampunk train adventure The Tumbleweed Zephyr was nominated for a 2016 Gregory Award for Outstanding New Play and featured at the opening night event of the 2016 National Asian American Theater Conference in Ashland, Oregon. She was also a 2015 4Culture Art Projects grant recipient for The Journey of the Bell, a 2015 Playwright Mentor for Intiman Theatre’s Emerging Artists Program, a 2013 Artist in Residence at Theatre Off Jackson, and a featured playwright at ACT’s Local Writers Showcase for the REPRESENT! Multicultural Playwrights’ Festival in 2011 and 2012. She is currently the Resident Playwright for Macha Theatre Works, a board member of Rain City Projects (an organization that supports playwrights in the Pacific Northwest), and a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Highlights
RECENT PRODUCTIONS AND READINGS:
November 5 - 14, 2021 (live performances)
November 22 - December 31, 2021 (streaming)
The Sky Below, a full-length steampunk play for youth actors
Directed by Kim Douthit
Produced by Youth Theatre Northwest, Mercer Island, WA
November 13, 2021 (streaming)
Playwright for Resilience! An AAPI 24 Hour Play Festival
Produced by Pork Filled Productions, Seattle, WA
July 18, 2021 (podcast release)
Minnows, an undersea adventure audio play
Included in Season 2, Episode 4: We Lost The Sea
Produced by The Ugly Radio, Seattle, WA
Streaming on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music
PRESS AND REVIEWS:
Sheathed was the recipient for the 2019 Gregory Award for Outstanding New Play.
Reviews for Sheathed (March 8 - 24, 2019), Macha Theatre Works, Seattle, WA
"...it’s a cleverly plotted script centered on two well drawn and powerful female characters portraying roles that women don’t normally take in most stories, as decisive tough people who are physically and mentally equal if not more so, than any male character. Ms Lee’s plotting is smart and original and she has a great gift for crafting crackling sharp dialogue for all her characters..." — Michael Strangeways, Seattle Gay Scene: “Sheathed” Is Proof That Maggie Lee Is A Superstar Playwright
"Lee’s writing is tight, the show is efficient, and the characters well-drawn. But it’s not just that. Lee has a unique ability to visualize a whole separate world — which could be past or future — that is not our own but very much feels like it. And the particular world she walks us through in Sheathed has a lot of parallels to where our own people are now (nationally and globally) and may continue to languish in the future: struggling to heal battle scars from decades of neglect and division...Macha’s Sheathed is a stunning production and the latest example of why Maggie Lee, one of the most prolific local playwrights, is also one of the best and most creative." — R. Barron, NWTheatre: Macha Slays with Maggie Lee’s Latest, ‘Sheathed’
Also: 5 Questions with Playwright Maggie Lee
PUBLISHED PLAYS BY MNEME PRESS:
The Clockwork Professor
The Tumbleweed Zephyr
A Hand of Talons