NYTW Spotlight: Yang-Yang Chen

Meet Producing Associate Yang-Yang Chen. If you know an artist or NYTW staff member who’s been here in the past three years, there is a good chance that they’ll remember Yang Yang’s caring personality and delicious bread. Read more and get some suggestions on new recipes from the master herself!

Tell us about your role at NYTW?
I came to NYTW—and actually to theatre in general—three and a half years ago, having run a mid-sized retail/wholesale bakery in NYC for 8 years previously. These two jobs have more in common that you’d think: we welcome people into our spaces, feed them (literally and spiritually), and hope they come again (and tell their friends!). At the Workshop, I have the great good fortune to work directly with the artists we engage, and I feel so very lucky to bear witness and support their artistic communions.

Most memorable show you’ve worked on at the Workshop?
The first of many: During the run of Mary Jane, a woman had flown to NYC to see the show, because her grandchild was born with the same condition that affected Mary Jane’s child. She sat in the lobby in soulful contemplation, and I won’t soon forget her expressions of gratitude to the cast afterward.

What is your first memory of going to the theatre?
I rushed Liza’s At The Palace in December of 2008 for a friend, not intending on staying for the show myself. There was one person ahead of me in line, David, and by the end of our six-hour conversation, he had convinced me to see the show and about a dozen others that were currently playing. That night, Liza’s encore was “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, and I sat in the front row, surrounded by tears and joyful sniffles, and felt the glow of time well spent.

Without live theatre during the pandemic, what have you been watching, listening to, reading…?
Learning to play chess, experimenting with all manner of pull-apart bread recipes like this and this and THIS, and reconnecting with favorite novels like Time and Again by Jack Finney, N or M? by Agatha Christie and anything written by Sarah Waters.

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Categories: NYTW Spotlight. Tags: NYTW Staff.