Chay Yew

Chay Yew is a Singaporean-born playwright and stage director.

Quotes

 * As a director, I was able to journey into these plays, find myself, and realise the worlds the playwrights have written…I find my inspiration and my passion in other writers and their versions of this country and this world.
 * On directing versus playwriting in “Artistic director Chay Yew: ‘Audiences come here wanting a dialogue about America’” in The Stage (2019 Aug 5)


 * The dramaturgy of audiences and communities is crucial: how they think, how they hear stories, how they relate to the theatre…That was an interesting curve. Not having lived in the Midwest, I found that it’s segregated, it’s tribal.
 * On connecting with audiences in “Artistic director Chay Yew: ‘Audiences come here wanting a dialogue about America’” in The Stage (2019 Aug 5)


 * I probably am a playwright first, and a director second. But, since I do a lot of directing sometimes, it's an almost equal thing. Writing is very exciting to me because I'm able to control the world that I want to create. And, as a director, you go into another world, and you kind of help flesh out a world that other people have created...
 * On initially feeling that he was more inclined to playwriting in “Talking with playwright Chay Yew” in UCLA Center for Chinese Studies (2005 May 26)


 * The reasons that I stayed in theater are very personal. I think Asian-American stories can be best served in a place where you can tell them the most, and for me, where I can see that happening is in novels and in plays, because it's more easily done. In plays, anyone can do it, so the opportunities to tell Asian-American stories are infinite…
 * On gearing towards certain forms of writing as better expressions of Asian American sentiment in “Talking with playwright Chay Yew” in UCLA Center for Chinese Studies (2005 May 26)