Yilong Liu is a New York-based playwright originally from Chongqing, China. He is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and holds an MFA from the University of Hawai‘i. His play The Book of Mountains and Seas received the Lambda Literary Award for Drama and won Second Place in the BBC Popcorn Writing Award at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His play Good Enemy premiered Off-Broadway at Minetta Lane Theatre, produced by Audible Theater, and We Borrowed Brokenness was developed with PlayCo and Sala Beckett in Barcelona, where it was performed and published in Catalan.
Yilong has been a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center, a Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, a member of EST/Youngblood and the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, and a SPACE on Ryder Farm resident. Other awards include the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel and Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Awards. He currently holds commissions from Audible Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Yangtze Rep. Other plays include Stupid Little Fire (Playwrights’ Center PlayLabs Festival), Everything I Learned in America, I Learned on Grindr (Orchard Project, NYTW Mondays @3 Series), Joker (Kumu Kahua Theatre, National Queer Theater), June is the First Fall (Yangtze Rep, Yun Theatre), PrEP Play (New Conservatory Theatre Center), and Good Enemy (Audible Theater, Ojai Playwrights Festival).
Yilong is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America. When he’s not writing, he can often be found cooking, people-watching, or invading the personal space of cats in New York City.
Free
Playwrights’ Center
October 26 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm CDT
About the play
Two student leaders must decide whether to escape or stay as a protest in China turns dangerous. A cast in present-day America struggles to stage this very story. A playwright spirals as a talkback unravels. Stupid Little Fire is a shapeshifting, darkly funny, and surreal exploration of representation, power, and the act of art-making itself. With theatrical flair and playful forms, the play examines who gets to tell which stories, how we expect them to be told, and what burns when artists are asked to perform not just their work—but themselves.
Attend a pre-show chat
Join us for Prologue: a pre-show chat with playwright Yilong Liu and Many Voices Fellow Bianca Nkwonta.
The conversation will start at 6:15 p.m. prior to the reading at 7:00 p.m. No RSVP necessary to attend this conversation.
I wrote STUPID LITTLE FIRE out of frustration: with institutions, with expectations, and with myself. It’s a play about what it means to make art while being watched, and how artists with marginalized identities are often expected to be the work—to perform identity, resilience, and gratitude. I’m excited to use this opportunity to break that open, to experiment with form, space, and audience engagement, and to push toward something messier, sharper, and more alive.
Making your reservation
The sign up link below is for the in-person reading on Sunday, October 26. If you need to reserve your spot for Saturday, November 1 instead, you can do so here.»
Walkups are welcome, but we cannot guarantee there will be available seating without a reservation.
This reading will be recorded and made available to view online December 1–7. You can sign up to watch that recording here.»
If you have any questions about making your reservation, please email us at rsvp@pwcenter.org.
Planning your visit
All seating is general admission. We recommend arriving 10-15 minutes prior to the reading to check in and find your seat.
Visit our About page to learn more about parking and accessibility.
Large groups
If you are making a reservation for more than six people, please email rsvp@pwcenter.org to arrange. If you make a reservation for more than six, a member of our Advancement team may be in touch closer to the reading date to confirm final numbers for your group.
Yilong Liu
