Yew's breakthrough work came from his early plays Porcelain[4] and A Language of Their Own,[5] which, along with Wonderland,[6] make up what Yew calls the Whitelands Trilogy.[7] Other plays include As if He Hears;[8] Red;[9] A Beautiful Country;[10] Question 27, Question 28;[11] A Distant Shore;[12] Vivien and the Shadows[13]; and Visible Cities.[14] His adaptations include A Winter People[15][16] (based on Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard); and Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba.[17]
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".[18] Chay Yew's plays appear in numerous anthologies, and two collections of his plays[19] have been published by Grove Press. Yew also edited an anthology of contemporary Asian American plays, "Version 3.0", for Theatre Communications Group Publications.[20]
Yew's 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).[21]
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;[22] he has also received grants from the Rockefeller MAP, McKnight Foundation and the TCG/Pew National Residency Program.
As a director, Chay Yew has directed productions at the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, American Conservatory Theater, Kennedy Center, Long Wharf Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, East West Players, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Empty Space, National Asian American Theatre Company, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Gala Hispanic Theatre, 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).
His productions and plays have included such actors as Sandra Oh,[23] Chita Rivera,[24] Daniel Dae Kim,[25] Raúl Castillo,[26] Joel de la Fuente,[27] Tsai Chin,[28] Amy Hill,[29] Dennis Dun,[30] Tamlyn Tomita,[31] Monica Raymund,[32] BD Wong,[33] Margaret Cho, William Jackson Harper,[34] Garrett Wang,[35] amongst others.
Yew has directed numerous world premiere productions by other writers, including Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band;[36] Marcus Gardley’s Gospel of Lovingkindness[37] at Victory Gardens and black odyssey at Denver Center Theatre; Lucas Hnath’s Hillary and Clinton[38] at Victory Gardens; Naomi Iizuka's Strike-Slip[39] at Actors Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival and Citizen 13559[40] at the Kennedy Center; Luis Alfaro’s Oedipus el Rey[41] and Mojada[42] at the Public Theater; and Julia Cho's Durango[43] at the Public Theater and Long Wharf Theatre.
In 2006, Yew participated in The Collision Project at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. He wrote a documentary play 17 based on the actual lives of Atlanta’s racially diverse teenagers.[44]
Chay Yew was the Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago from 2011 to 2020.[45][46][18][47] During his tenure, out of 43 productions, 18 plays received world premieres of which one went to Broadway, four were produced off-Broadway at the Public, Soho Rep, and Signature Theatre, while others were presented regionally, and abroad at Donmar Warehouse and Bush Theatre in London.[48] For his leadership, he was awarded the Iris Award for Outstanding Commitment to Connecting Chicago Communities and the Arts,[49] and the Impact Award for Bold and Inclusive Artistic Leadership.[50]
For direction, Chay Yew is the recipient of the DramaLogue Award, 2020 Craig Noel Award;[51] and OBIE Award for Direction.[52] In 2022, Yew was featured in the book 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, with a profile written by theatre scholar Dan Bacalzo.[53]
Yew was also the Founder and Director of the Mark Taper Forum's Asian Theatre Workshop for ten years.[54][55] An alumnus of New Dramatists, he has served on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Theatre Communications Group, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events’ Cultural Advisory Council, the League of Chicago Theatres, and the Executive Board of the Consortium of Asian American Theatre and Artists.
