Show • Photos & Video • Book • Doc • Lit to Life

Written and performed by Lemon Andersen
Developed and directed by Elise Thoron

County of Kings: The Beautiful Struggle has been produced at The Public Theater with Spike Lee and performed at festivals and other venues around the world: South Africa, Amsterdam, Sweden, Spoleto Festival, USA. In this solo autobiographical play, Brooklyn based spoken word poet, Lemon weaves his version of the coming-of-age memoir with this jarring and poignant performance. Lemon’s unique voice seamlessly flows from hard-edged drama to urban poetry, creating a vivid portrait of his difficult yet at times humorous experiences growing up in New York City during the birth of hip-hop. COUNTY OF KINGS is a true story of finding passion and purpose in life, against all odds. Lemon has been a regular on HBO’s Def Poetry, is an original cast member and writer of the TONY award winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and a Drama Desk nominee. A documentary “Lemon” was made about the process of creating County of Kings, and aired on PBS in 2012. Click for review by Ben Brantley and profile in NY Times, Wall Street Journal and NPR.

Sound design Rob Kaplowitz | Lighting Design Jane Cox | Set design Doug Stein and Peter Ksander | Production Stage Manager Emily Glink & Winnie Lok.