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Chay Yew
Chay Yew (simplified Chinese: 谢耀; traditional Chinese: 謝耀; pinyin: Xiè Yào) is a playwright and stage director who was born in Singapore. He was artistic director of the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago from 2011 to 2020.
Chay Yew's breakthrough work came from his early plays Porcelain and A Language of Their Own, which, along with Wonderland, make up what Yew calls the Whitelands Trilogy. Other plays include As if He Hears; Red; A Beautiful Country; Question 27, Question 28; A Distant Shore; Vivien and the Shadows; and Visible Cities. His adaptations include A Winter People (based on Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard); Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba.; Ibsen's Dollhouse; and The House of Baluyot, after Aeschylus' Oresteia.
In 1989, the government in Singapore banned his first play As If He Hears because the gay character acted "too sympathetic and too straight-looking". Yew's plays appear in numerous anthologies, and two collections of his plays have been published by Grove Press. Yew also edited an anthology of contemporary Asian American plays, "Version 3.0", for Theatre Communications Group Publications.
His plays have been produced by many theaters, including the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater in New York City, Mark Taper Forum, Manhattan Theatre Club, Wilma Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, Portland Center Stage, East West Players, Cornerstone Theatre Company, amongst others. Overseas, his work has been produced by the Royal Court Theatre (London, UK); Fattore K and Napoli Teatro Festival (Naples, Italy); La Mama (Melbourne, Australia); Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center (Shanghai, China); Four Arts (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); and Wild Rice, Singapore Repertory Theatre, Toy Factory, Checkpoint Theatre, and TheatreWorks (Singapore).
For his plays, he is the recipient of the London Fringe Award for Best Playwright and Best Play, George and Elisabeth Marton Playwriting Award, GLAAD Media Award, APGF Community Visibility Award, Made in America Award, AEA/SAG/AFTRA 2004 Diversity Honor, and Robert Chesley Award; he has also received grants from the Rockefeller MAP, McKnight Foundation and the TCG/Pew National Residency Program.
As a director, his New York production credits include the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, New York City Center Encores!, The Flea, Rattlestick, Playwrights Realm, Audible Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, National Asian American Theatre Company, Gala Hispanic Theatre, and Ma Yi Theatre. Regionally and internationally, he has directed for American Conservatory Theater, Kennedy Center, Long Wharf Theatre, Center Theatre Group, East West Players, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodspeed Opera, Portland Center Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Empty Space, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Singapore Repertory Theatre, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre, South Coast Repertory Theatre, and Smithsonian Institution.
He also directed the world premieres of David Henry Hwang's and Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music and Rob Zuidam's Rage D'Amors (Tanglewood); and the New York premiere of Huang Ruo's and David Henry Hwang's An American Soldier at Perelman Performing Arts Center.
His productions and plays have included such actors as Sandra Oh, Chita Rivera, Daniel Dae Kim, Ruthie Ann Miles, Raúl Castillo, Joel de la Fuente, Tsai Chin, Amy Hill, Dennis Dun, Tamlyn Tomita, Ali Ahn, Monica Raymund, BD Wong, Margaret Cho, William Jackson Harper, Raymond Lee, Garrett Wang, amongst others.
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Chay Yew
Chay Yew (simplified Chinese: 谢耀; traditional Chinese: 謝耀; pinyin: Xiè Yào) is a playwright and stage director who was born in Singapore. He was artistic director of the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago from 2011 to 2020.
Chay Yew's breakthrough work came from his early plays Porcelain and A Language of Their Own, which, along with Wonderland, make up what Yew calls the Whitelands Trilogy. Other plays include As if He Hears; Red; A Beautiful Country; Question 27, Question 28; A Distant Shore; Vivien and the Shadows; and Visible Cities. His adaptations include A Winter People (based on Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard); Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba.; Ibsen's Dollhouse; and The House of Baluyot, after Aeschylus' Oresteia.
In 1989, the government in Singapore banned his first play As If He Hears because the gay character acted "too sympathetic and too straight-looking". Yew's plays appear in numerous anthologies, and two collections of his plays have been published by Grove Press. Yew also edited an anthology of contemporary Asian American plays, "Version 3.0", for Theatre Communications Group Publications.
His plays have been produced by many theaters, including the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater in New York City, Mark Taper Forum, Manhattan Theatre Club, Wilma Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, Portland Center Stage, East West Players, Cornerstone Theatre Company, amongst others. Overseas, his work has been produced by the Royal Court Theatre (London, UK); Fattore K and Napoli Teatro Festival (Naples, Italy); La Mama (Melbourne, Australia); Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center (Shanghai, China); Four Arts (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); and Wild Rice, Singapore Repertory Theatre, Toy Factory, Checkpoint Theatre, and TheatreWorks (Singapore).
For his plays, he is the recipient of the London Fringe Award for Best Playwright and Best Play, George and Elisabeth Marton Playwriting Award, GLAAD Media Award, APGF Community Visibility Award, Made in America Award, AEA/SAG/AFTRA 2004 Diversity Honor, and Robert Chesley Award; he has also received grants from the Rockefeller MAP, McKnight Foundation and the TCG/Pew National Residency Program.
As a director, his New York production credits include the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, New York City Center Encores!, The Flea, Rattlestick, Playwrights Realm, Audible Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, National Asian American Theatre Company, Gala Hispanic Theatre, and Ma Yi Theatre. Regionally and internationally, he has directed for American Conservatory Theater, Kennedy Center, Long Wharf Theatre, Center Theatre Group, East West Players, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodspeed Opera, Portland Center Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Empty Space, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Singapore Repertory Theatre, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre, South Coast Repertory Theatre, and Smithsonian Institution.
He also directed the world premieres of David Henry Hwang's and Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music and Rob Zuidam's Rage D'Amors (Tanglewood); and the New York premiere of Huang Ruo's and David Henry Hwang's An American Soldier at Perelman Performing Arts Center.
His productions and plays have included such actors as Sandra Oh, Chita Rivera, Daniel Dae Kim, Ruthie Ann Miles, Raúl Castillo, Joel de la Fuente, Tsai Chin, Amy Hill, Dennis Dun, Tamlyn Tomita, Ali Ahn, Monica Raymund, BD Wong, Margaret Cho, William Jackson Harper, Raymond Lee, Garrett Wang, amongst others.