The Shipment

The Shipment

Written and directed by Young Jean Lee

Co-commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University (World Premiere, October 2008) and The Kitchen (NYC Premiere, January 2009)

Originally performed by

• Jordan Barbour
• Mikeah Ernest Jennings
• Prentice Onayemi
• Douglas Scott Streater
• Amelia Workman

Additional cast

• Aundre Chin
• Francesca Choy-Key
• Okieriete Onodowan
• Ikechukwu Ufomadu

Produced by Caleb Hammons

• Scenic Design by David Evans Morris
• Costume Design by Roxana Ramseur
• Lighting Design by Mark Barton
• Sound Design by Matthew Tierney
• Choreography by Faye Driscoll
• Stage Managed by Teddy Nicholas, Sam Seymour, Aaron Rosenblum

"Cultural images of black America are tweaked, pulled and twisted like Silly Putty in this subversive, seriously funny new theater piece by the adventurous playwright Young Jean Lee. Ms. Lee, who is Korean-American, consciously set herself the uncomfortable task of creating what she calls a "black identity-politics show... Ms. Lee sets you thinking about how we unconsciously process experience — at the theater, or in life — through the filter of racial perspective, and how hard it can be to see the world truly in something other than black and white."
— Charles Isherwood, New York Times

"This is so ingenious a twist, such a radical bit of theatrical smoke and mirrors, that, in rethinking everything that has come before ... we are forced to confront our own preconceived notions of race. And to agree with Lee that we may not live long enough to purge ourselves of them."
-Hilton Als, New Yorker

"Lee confirms herself as one of the best experimental playwrights in America. Her language manages to be both feverishly strange and rigorously intellectual, and she directs her charismatic, talented cast with economy and theatrical dash."
-David Cote, Time Out New York

[The Shipment explores] just how much skin color continues to frame the way we see each other—even in a post-race, Barack Obama-electing America. It’s an early example of what will hopefully be an avalanche of smart, fearless work that brings the same fresh feel to the artistic conversation about race that is said to imbue today’s politics."
Kai Wright, The Root

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