Zhen Yu (Victor) Yao

Zhen Yu (Victor) Yao is an Australian-born Chinese theatre artist based in New York City. He is a recent graduate of the BFA Drama program at Playwrights Horizons Theatre School (PHTS) at Tisch. He is invested in situating projects against the backdrop of the transnational (especially between US and China), as he attempts to rupture neocolonial projects and create decolonial spaces in the arts. He leverages theatre and visual arts disciplines to create work that center around the questioning of racial and social identities or the mapping of the interconnected presences as the connective tissue of our common humanity. His recent community-engaged work includes directing the first ever Mandarin production in the US of MAN OF LA MANCHA (Symphony Space), building targeted student welcome programs such as PRECIPICE: THE ESCAPE ROOM EXPERIENCE (NYU Welcome Week), and project managing NYU Shanghai’s REALITY SHOW (ECNU), which advocates health and wellness resources for incoming first years. Other recent work includes directing BREAKOUT, an original play by Mingming Liu (198 Allen St), as well as a production of Claire Conceison’s English translation of I LOVE XXX (PHTS).

What drew you to the MA in Arts Politics?

The idea that “art frames chaos” defines most artistic choices in my life. Therein also lies one of the most important lessons I have learned: that artists ultimately work in the space between the art and chaos, in the liminal space that is the “frame.” I came to APP because I wanted to understand how the “frame” operates, especially in relation to specific social, civic and political settings. As a result, I have become far more interested in creating work that is community-engaged. Ultimately, in community-engaged projects, I hope to be able to recontextualize identities and assumptions, disrupting liberal humanist narratives of universality

Portfolio: vyao.co