lee@leekitchenwriter.com
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Broom Maker STAGE PLAY Finalist Austin
What it's about
Failing as a student and unable to carry on his family’s centuries old craft, a young Chinese entrepreneur overcomes cultural and political hurdles as he comically masters quánxī (gwan-shee) -I help you, you help me- only to discover that love comes first.
Find out more below.
Broom Maker© STAGE PLAY
Austin 2025 Script FINALIST
WFLO©
STAGEPLAY
Comedy: Anti-Semitism, spousal abuse and gender equality are confronted in a small Alabama town by six professionals trying to find meaning in their lives. They purchase a bankrupt radio station, convert it to talk radio format. The quest leads to a run-in with the town leaders and ultimately a trial.
“A raucously clever, deeply human Southern satire... WFLO crackles with wit, compassion, and fearless commentary. Lee Kitchen’s play doesn’t just entertain—it challenges, enlightens, and delights. A bold triumph of regional storytelling.”
- Jeffrey van Davis – former reviewer for Mulligan Stew NPR Chicago
Award winning STAGE and SCREENPLAY
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen © is loosely based upon outsider artists in the rural South during the nineteen-seventies. A young, African American woman creates voodoo sculptures and drawings on magazine covers that attract art dealers who compete for the work. The collectors eventually discover they must deal with the artist’s street-smart, surrogate mama with little formal education, but she is intelligent, savvy and does her homework, eventually taking control of the situation. Success comes and then, tragedy. That leads Mama Williams to embark on a mission to help other outside artists.
Stage Play
My second play winning the late Michael Warren Powell's Panelist Favorite award at the Last Frontier Theatre Festival attended by Edward Albee.
Screenplay
The screenplay was adapted from the stage play receiving best screenplay award and finalist in various film festivals.
Teaser
Press the SEE MORE button to watch the teaser filmed in one take in monstrous storm.
About Lee Kitchen
Bio: Third Person
Theatre: Most recently, the play Broom Maker selected as a Finalist in the Austin Film Festival 2025 Script Competition. Lee’s short play Mona and Leo received twelve performances at three South Florida theatres in May 2023. He’s written nine full-length plays, three one-acts, sixteen ten-minute plays and nine screenplays. The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen received Panelist Favorite award from the late Michael Warren Powell, Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Short plays, Fortune Kooky and Fourth-Quarter Pick-Up, produced at the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival in 2017, 2019. Play, Hearing Art,read 2023 at White Mouse Productions, FSU, and at the Playwrights Round Table (Orlando) and as part of the DG Canada’s reading series. Ten minute playParscription included in play festival produced by White Mouse Productions-three performances. In October, a stage reading of his one and only musical, Terrarium Earth, was performed by nine members of the White Mouse Theatre Company at Florida State University.
Films: First short film, thirty minutes, Scabs. Lee wrote the script and helped with casting and production. Carlos Miranda directed, filmed and edited the short while Lee was in Spain on business. The second film was The Audition, Bronco’s Dolls Go to Hollywood. Lee’s storyboard and script was selected as one of forty out of three thousand submissions as part of the AT&T Create-a-thon. Part of the short was filmed at the Warner Bros. lot. Lee directed the short. Editing and subsequent production was a learning curve with two different editors trying to salvage footage. Genie Says What? was written by Lee and was casting director. Robert Proctor filmed and edited the five minute film for the Easter Seals Disability Film Festival. The last short film was a five minute segment of The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen, Lee’s award winning stage and screenplay. Lee compiled the segment, cast the actors and directed the film that was shot in a tornado-like thunder storm, outside, with only one take during the entire day. Lee has extensive commercial production experience from his days at the world’s largest ad agency and his experience as marketing director for two international companies.
Screenplays: Scabsthe feature version was recently selected as a Top Finalist at the Richmond International Film Festival. Received three Best Screenplay awards for the short screenplay Scabs at three different film festivals. Awarded Best Feature Screenplay at the Irvine International Film Festival for the historical drama, Picnik. Most recently, Best Screenplay award for my feature, The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen at the May2022 Austin Comedy Film Festival and the Silver Award for first time animation screenplay writer, Da Doo Waas, at the December 2022 Los Angeles Animation Festival. Produced five minute segment of JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen (www.leekitchenwriter.com).
Other
Lee also wrote, acted and produced an audio series titled Dogs of 331 with over 78 hours of extemporaneous audio descriptions, narratives and stories along route 331 from Alabama to Florida. In addition, his full length play, SOS, Swans of Stratford was developed during a Dramatist Guild Master Class and revised during readings with Roland Tec's Wednesday
Education
- BS and MA Journalism, University of Alabama.
- Participated in the Alabama Writer's Project (Poetry and Short Story Courses) studied under Marlin Barton (O'Henry Prize Winner) and poet, Peter Huggins.
- Tallahassee, participated in classes with Bob Shacochis and Janet Burroway at Florida State University.
- Attended workshops at Last Frontier Conference and Dramatist Guild in New York and LA.
- MBA degree in Buffalo when I simultaneously developed humor manuscript, MBA Guidebook, while attending classes.
- Dramatist Guild Master Playwriting Course 2018.
- Roland Tech's Songwriting Circle 2018.
- Sundance Collab Basic TV Writing Course and Sci-Fi Writing Course 2020 and 2021.
Service
Board member of The Peyton Tuthill Foundation. Provides scholarships to students who've lost a family member to homicide. www.peytontuthillfoundation.org
Instructor for study abroad programs for FSU in Spain, London and China. Later, program director for Tallahassee Community College study abroad programs in Tianjin, China. Traveled to China for over ten years.
Honorary Professor Tianjin Foreign Studies University
Languages
Some ASL, minimal Mandarin and elementary Spanish.
Associations
Dramatist Guild and Playwrights Guild of Canada.