Books by Y York

"There's not a lot of fat to trim in KRISIT, a satire on Hollywood…. Skewering the greed, vanity and bloated egos of Hollywood types is an easy target that has been done more times than Krisit's crow's-feet. But York's script has plenty of clever quips…." Robert Dominguez, Daily NewsWhat is "Krisit"? … a reclusive and peevish former movie star who hasn't left her home in 25 years. When the show opens she's lolling in her tub, wearing make-up and flashy jewels and being the sharp, brooks-no-argument grand dame with her new maid Lulu. Lulu is clearly role-playing. She's entirely too knowledgeable about who's who and who's doing what to who in Hollywood. She reads the industry press a little too avidly and she's awfully eager to lure Krisit out of retirement. In no time Lulu is taking a meeting with director Peter, who has a history with Krisit, and a stalled career that makes him desperate to have a project green-lighted. York uses the set-up to have fun commenting with engaging (and occasionally brutal) honesty on many things, including the insults of aging. Krisit has a leakage issue; Peter trades in wives for younger models to convince himself he still has whatever it is he needs to tell himself he has… York's voice is distinct as she reminds us how myopically we see ourselves even as we are blind to key truths; and about our relentless pursuit of ambitions which are generally not worth relentless pursuit. York also shows off a demented imagination with things like her solution for what to do with liposuctioned fat… Jackie Demaline, Cincinnati Equirer

Trapped by a storm in the office of the environmental organization for which they work, Antony and Janna find that their conflicting views on race and the environment have the power to send them back in time to discover how closely related they really are.

"…Y York's THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW is all about words: the way they work, they way they don't. The way they delight us and sicken us and confound us and please us. The premise is straight out of an Oliver Sacks book: a bestselling science writer named Carl suffers a brain injury that renders him amnesiac. Carl's wife Miranda, a poet, learns that Carl has a different relationship with words than he used to. Where once he ghostwrote biographies for astronauts and wrote scathing critiques of anthropologists, now he simply delights in the miracle of words: their sounds, their meanings, the way they look-which he envisions as a flurry of snowflakes drifting through the air. As Carl wanders around his Las Vegas home, trying to remember his past life, Miranda has to deal with the shambles of their marriage from before Carl's accident. She's having a complicated affair with a dentist named Anthony, but suddenly Carl doesn't at all resemble the Carl who made her so miserable. Where before he was withholding and unhappy, now Carl is joyful and content. He's eager to see his wife, and desperate to please her. Is it too late to turn the marriage around? Is it possible to find new meaning in the words they've been using our whole lives? THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW is…funny and touching and endearingly sweet-a thoughtful study of the way different people interact with language, and each other" Paul Constant, Seattle Review of Books "…York's rich dialog and characters…this sweet…romantic comedy is a delight." Jay Irwin, Broadway World "…Utilizing a highly original plot, outstandingly witty dialogue…interesting recognizable stereotypes, who go through profound character development…this romantic…delivers the goods. And how!" Marie Bonfils, Drama In The Hood "A new play can make me giddy, especially if I can't guess where it's headed and its subject area is "about" the human condition in a new and interesting way… Y York's The Impossibility of NOW is an unexpected delight, a delicious and magical moment." Miryam Gordon, Seattle Gay News

L J Freeman - beloved quarterback for the current Super Bowl champs, "American hero," husband to a beautiful woman, father to two young children - has made a really terrible, really stupid mistake. His senseless crime was caught on a security video which is now all over the media; his football career is over; his family is falling apart - and his nine-year-old has seen what her daddy did. With dark humor, WOOF examines the very raw, honest story of one man watching his world crumble around him and discerning what he must do to move forward."Playwright Y York is getting at something very interesting in WOOF, her bold drama ... In fact she's digging up a whole tangle of thorny reflections about race, celebrity, parent-child relationships, infidelity, the need to stop poisoning our planet and heaven knows what else. At times you think York has taken on too much, then somehow she makes a persuasive connection and the idea that seemed out of left field proves pertinent to her peculiarly gripping narrative. Yet even more than what York is saying it's how she says it that makes WOOF challenging and rewarding. She'll make one point obliquely so that it sneaks up on you, then land the next one smack on the nose ... the upshot is WOOF keeps surprising you ... keeps ringing true ..." -Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle"Y York's WOOF is one of those rare pieces of theater that scream brilliance, perfection, and soulfulness from beginning to end. WOOF in its purest essence is about relationships, particularly family relationships, under extreme pressure. It is about life. It is about love. It is about making mistakes. It is about forgiveness and redemption. It is funny. It is theater at its finest and most blindingly brilliant." -Buzz Bellmont, Houston Chronicle online

A tender, quirky play about two white women and a black man living in Seattle in 1992, as the nation and the media are transfixed by the trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused in the beating of Rodney King and the outcry of protest after the verdicts. "... [an] unassuming gem ... A comedy with serious implications, Y York's neatly crafted play explores the impact of preconception and miscommunication upon a Seattle Environmental Protection Agency office worker, her black colleague and her new neighbor, an East Coast visitor researching a book on 'hidden prejudice' in America. The action unfolds in 1992, with the media dominated by the trial of Los Angeles police officers for beating Rodney King and the subsequent riots after the 'not guilty' verdict. Yet while that is the backdrop, the play is so low-key it would be easy to overlook just how much it has to say and how well it says it. Though treating weighty issues, York doesn't clobber you with them, instead maintaining a light touch. While her theme may be familiar, she has found a fresh and individual approach to it. Best of all, by accurately capturing the quirks of human attitudes and interplay, York keeps the play consistently funny, unflaggingly true and, at times, surprisingly touching. The central factor in its success is a memorable protagonist: the unglamorous, opinionated and outspoken Haddie. She's the sort you'd instantly peg as a bit of an oddball, likely a loner: the type who blurts out opinions and random pronouncements; who offers unsolicited advice to strangers at the supermarket ('buy this one, not that'); and who conducts long, heartfelt conversations with a pet fish in a plastic bag. She has taken as her own (and parrots) many notions she heard on T V or read somewhere, without thinking them through. Naturally, a lot of these ideas have a touch of paranoia about the inevitable 'they' who make all the world's trouble. Haddie is eccentric, exasperating, yet so desperate to connect that she's strangely endearing. Despite its early-'90s setting, this astutely observed play's themes are absolutely relevant. York gets exactly the way many people view issues of race and class, how people adopt any overheard opinions that sound reasonable enough, how the 'big story' at any particular moment colors our everyday perceptions. AND L.A. IS BURNING makes you laugh, then leaves you with plenty to ponder and discuss." -Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle

Four middle-school girls, played by adults, remind us of what it meant to be eleven years old and how adulthood is perhaps less removed from the needs and desires of childhood than we may wish to acknowledge or admit. "Why would adults go to see a play about eleven-year-olds? Possibly because none of us ever really stop being eleven. Y York's new drama, BLEACHERS IN THE SUN, holds a mirror up to grown-ups to darkly illuminate the world of modern adolescent girls, which is just like ours, only amplified. Love, betrayal, sexuality, addiction - all the virtue and vices of humanity are present here - distorted through the eyes of the youth to become something at once monstrous and beautiful. The premise is deceptively simple: four middle-school girls meet behind the bleachers to engage in the secretive business of growing up. One is fat; one is smart; one is rich; one is poor. All are confused and lonely. BLEACHERS is a version of ourselves we had hoped to leave behind on the playground as maturity and experience taught us to hide behind masks of civility and social custom. Eleven-year-olds, however, hover on the cusp between childhood and adulthood, occupying a brief and rare space in which their personalities are completely developed but they are not yet expected to behave as adults ... It is both funny and frightening ... Put simply, BLEACHERS IN THE SUN is a fantastic play." -Rachel Brown, Honolulu Weekly

Joanie wants recognition for her paintings; her crime-boss husband, Nick, can ensure that she gets it. Slut-shirt May wants to learn how to paint so she can have a picture of her dead mother; her mechanic husband, Jake, wants to elevate himself to crime thug so that May will respect him. Nick just wants Joanie to love him the way he deserves ... Two men, two women, two loopy marriages, some paintings, and some crime collide in this comedy about marriage, ambition and art. "If there is a common thread in York's projects, it is that they are full of uncommon characters: children, 1960's housewives, black financial consultants, Native American activists. Very few of York's characters seem to have anything to do with the playwright herself ... and her attention to those differences gives her work a frankly political spin ..." -American Theater "... York herself has an ethereal, gentle quality. Her work has a piercing intuition. It is literate and often treads a line between blackness and humor ..." -MidWeek, Hawaii "Though treating weighty issues, York doesn't clobber you with them, instead maintaining a light touch. While her themes may be familiar, she (finds) a fresh and individual approach ... accurately capturing the quirks of human attitudes and interplay ..." -Houston Chronicle "She makes her points by not taking herself too seriously, even as she offers astute observations ..." -New York Times "York has a real flair for wry, intelligent humor ..." -Seattle Times "York has a wonderful gift for writing funny lines, and she endows her characters with individual senses of humor ..." -Bellevue Journal American

In the future, after the global ecological disaster, so much that makes life worth living has been outlawed. One family refuses to submit. Will their small act of rebellion lead to a future where science no longer dominates humanity but serves it? "In Y York's futuristic comedy RAIN. SOME FISH. NO ELEPHANTS., genetic engineering has produced a submissive nation of clones and drones. Everything is gene coded so all individuality can be obliterated, except for one stubbornly old-fashioned family trying to thaw the perpetual nuclear winter. That winter is actually an endless floodlike rainy season. The play…begins as a kind of science-fiction variation on YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU with a wildly eccentric family resolutely staying out of the mainstream. In this case, the father is a crank who has quit his scientific post in a dehumanizing laboratory to go fishing. He neglects his suicidal wife and their two very odd daughters. The catalyst for renewal is a black man, cloned to be a member of a faceless servant class. Removed from his diet of 'stoppers', pills that deny incentive, he becomes a rebel. As conceived by York…he is an engaging figure, awakening to his personality as well as to his racial identity… [Y York] has created a thought provoking comic parable about mankind's indomitability. As much as anything, the play is concerned with the survival of history itself …" Mel Gussow, The New York Times