Inspired by the life of Bruce Lee
When Bruce Lee was born, his mother gave him a girl’s name to disguise him from evil spirits. When actor/performing artist Soomi Kim learned this surprising fact, she felt destined to create a theatre performance inhabiting the incomparable martial arts superstar. Set in the inner landscape of Bruce Lee’s mind the moment he died in 1973, Lee/gendary is a theatrical deconstruction of an icon; a spiritual and psychological examination of Lee’s life from birth to death. This unique gender-bending theatre performance fluidly integrates text, live original music, video and an explosive hybrid of martial arts and dance. Opens October 14th in New York City. For more information and to purchase tickets see below.
LEE/GENDARY was first presented at HERE’s The American Living Room Festival 2006 as a work-in-progress, directed by David Perry with fight choreography by Rafael Kayanan (The Hunted and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind).
In December 2006, LEE/GENDARY was accepted as one of the few projects by an individual artist to represent NYC in The First National Asian American Theater Festival held in New York City which ran June 11 – 24, 2007. LEE/GENDARY enjoyed a successful run at The Samuel Becket theater on Theatre Row, June 19th-21st. The last show was sold out and received a rave review from nytheatre.com:
“Then, there is Kim, who is outstanding as Lee. Hers is a convincing performance of rigorous physicality and impressive commitment. She scores big points in the case for non-traditional gender casting by showing that the key to such successes lies in having the right attitude. Oh boy, does she have the attitude! As Lee himself says early in the play, “Champions are made from something inside them.” Kim's performance proves that.” – Michael Criscuolo, nytheatre.com Tuesday-Thursdays, October 14-30
7:30 pm
$20
For tickets visit www.here.org or call 212-352-3101
HERE Arts Center
145 Sixth Avenue between Spring and Broome (entrance on Dominick)
New York, NY 10013-1548