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Kit Yan
Kit Yan is a Chinese-American poet, playwright, and lyricist. Along with long-time collaborator Melissa Li, they are the creator of the musicals Interstate and MISS STEP. They are a recipient of a Jonathan Larson Grant and a Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre for Most Promising Musical Theatre Librettist (with Melissa Li).

Early Life
Yan was born in Enping, China and grew up in Hawaii. Raised on the island of Oahu until he was 18 years old, he moved to Massachusetts to attend Babson College.

Kit and frequent collaborator Melissa Li formed a spoken word band called Good Asian Drivers, which traveled across the United States.

Theater
Yan often writes with long-term collaborator Melissa Li.

Yan was one of the founders of Translab in 2017, an incubator for transgender and non-binary voices in the American Theater, along with MJ Kaufman and Cece Suazo and supported by WP Theater and Public Theater. They are a member of Breaking the Binary Theatre's Core Community, a voluntary advisory board of transgender, nonbinary and two-spirit industry members.

Yan was a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow in 2018-2019, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Writer in residence , a 2019 MacDowell Colony Fellow working in the Kirby studio , 2019-2020 Musical Theater Factory Makers Fellow , a 2019-2020 The Playwrights' Center Many Voices Fellow , and a 2019 National Alliance for Musical Theater (NAMT) 31st Annual Festival of New Musicals selection for Interstate.

Yan and Melissa Li's one-act musical Cancelled was commissioned as part of and a commission from Keen Company for a Keen Teens one act musical.

Interstate
Yan co-wrote the book of the pop-rock poetry musical Interstate with Melissa Li, with music from Li and poetry and additional lyrics from Yan. Interstate is about Dash, a transgender spoken word performer, and his best friend Adrian, a lesbian singer-songwriter. Together they become internet-famous as an activist musical duo, and they embark on their first national tour across America. Their political and personal music touches Henry, a transgender teenage boy living in a small Kentucky town, and he finds solace in their art as he struggles with his own identity and family. Henry becomes a video blogger and documents his own gender journey. He sets out on a quest to meet his heroes in person, hoping to find answers to his own struggles.

Interstate was first publicly staged at Dixon Place's HOT! Festival in 2013.

East West Players


 * 2018: New York Musical Theatre Festival, Space on Ryder Farm selection, Musical Theater Factory, terraNOVA Collective's Groundworks Residency at the IRT, 29 Hour reading at Studio 353, Project Reach workshop, Dixon Place staged reading
 * 2019: Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship 2018/19; Johnny Mercer Colony at Goodspeed Musicals

Miss Step
Miss Step is a heartfelt 80s dance musical comedy featuring a transgender/non-binary (TGNB) cast, live aerobics, stunts, competition, and exercise. This diverse and exhilarating show is a classic underdog story that portrays TGNB characters as both ordinary and extraordinary people, defying all odds to sing, dance, compete, and dazzle audiences. MISS STEP is for anyone with a dream, who loves the 80s, and who has ever found family in the most unexpected places. a first draft commission of Miss Step from 5th Avenue Theatre,

Residencies:
 * 2018: Village Theatre At the Table residency; Mitten Lab residency; First Draft Story Summit
 * 2019: 5th Avenue Theatre First Draft Commission, MacDowell Colony Fellowship

Beta production at Village Theatre

Poetry
Yan was a Capturing Fire Slam finalist in 2010, which was the first annual International Queer Spoken Word Slam.

Queer Heartache is a series of fifteen autobiographical poems staged as a one-person slam poetry theater show. . About the structure of the show, Yan said, "I strung (the poems) together to create this show to go on a journey, like a character does, of discovering identity and to grapple with the issues of being queer.”

Queer Heartache won 5 awards at the Chicago Fringe Festival and San Francisco Fringe Festival. It was then produced during the 2016/17 OBERON I.D. Festival and produced at A.R.T. Breakout in 2018, directed by Jessi Hill

The show was adapted into a full length poetry collection published by TransGenre Press in 2016.

Yan attended the Hermitage Artist Retreat in 2023. He presented a night of music and poetry that included past and new material at Asolo Repertory Theatre in March 2023 at the end of the residency.

Film
AFTEREARTH, a short film by Yan, Jess X. Snow, and Peter Pa, was included in the online exhibition "Care Package" hosted by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

Awards and honors

 * 2021: Jonathan Larson Grant recipient
 * 2021: Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre for Most Promising Musical Theatre Librettist (with Melissa Li)
 * 2019: Inaugural winner of the Vivace Award for Musical Theater
 * 2018: Interstate won five awards at the 2018 New York Musical Festival (Outstanding Lyrics, Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role, two Performance Awards and a Special Citation for Representation and Inclusion).
 * 2016: Best of Fringe and Volunteer's Choice Awards at San Francisco Fringe Festival for Queer Heartache
 * 2015: Audience Choice, Artist's Pick, and Spirit of Fringe Awards at Chicago Fringe Festival for Queer Heartache
 * 2010: winner of the first annual Mr. Transman Competition