Mary : Hello! Thank you for spilling the tea with me today! Please introduce yourself to us!

YJ: I’m YJ Chen (she/her). I’m Taiwanese American. YJ is short for my full Mandarin name Yan-Jiun but everyone calls me YJ now even my sister.

M:  Awesome, did you grow up spending any time in Taiwan?

Y: Yes! I grew up mostly in Taipei, Taiwan. It is a busy and crowded city full of good food options just like NYC. I also spent 6 years of my early childhood in Wisconsin, when my parents were in grad school. We moved back to Taiwan when I was in 5th grade, and it was a challenge for me – I didn’t read or write Mandarin and had a lot of catch up to do. 

M: Wow! That must have been so hard in 5th grade! Just moving can be so difficult for a kid. Not to mention countries! Tell me more about you family

Y:  I grew up in a family of four with my parents and a younger sister. I’m close to my maternal grandmother who helped take care of my sister and I (we also shared a room in a 2 bedroom apartment) while my parents were in school.

M: And where are you at now?

Y: I live alone now, on Roosevelt Island, – very far from all of them. My sister and I remain close. She lives in Seattle and since I can work remotely I visit her twice a year. In part to also play with the most adorable toddler human niece, and two cuddly dog nephews. My mother splits her time between Seattle and Taipei so I see her as well during my visits. I visit my dad, grandmas, and extended family in Taiwan once a year. 

I have lived on Roosevelt Island the entire time I’ve been in the city. I moved to the city from where I went to grad school: Ithaca NY and I was trying to ease the transition by finding a quiet residential neighborhood with a short commute to midtown. I’ve liked it so much I only moved once. Across the street!

M: I love that you live on Roosevelt Island! What do you recommend for folks that have maybe never ventured over there?

Y: My favorite spot in the neighborhood is what google maps calls “Meditation Steps”, they are a set of wooden steps where you can sit and watch the east river.

M: Ok, so in all your time here, how did you find your way to AWT?

Y: It’s been a running joke with my sister and some old friends that I moved to NYC to be on Broadway – they’ve also lovingly made fun of my taste for musicals. One day one summer, 3 years after moving to NYC, this thought came into my brain to make good on the joke, so I decided to look into “musical theater for amateurs” on google cause I wanted a hobby outside of my usual circles, and AWT came up as did a few other bootcamps for “really serious people who can take that time off from work”. AWT’s description was exactly what I was looking for – just sign up, no auditions, and fun!

The show at the time that was open for sign ups was High School Musical, as someone slightly older who started grad school by the time the first HSM was released plus having spent high school in Taiwan, I was like “what is this?!”. I then attempted to watch the movie, which I could not finish. I did decide the songs were catchy and it would likely be fun to be in (as opposed to watch) so I signed up!

M: HSM was my first show too! I remember meeting you there! It was  a very special show! What else have you been in since then? (With or without me! 🙂

Y: I’ve been in 3 Main Stages; High School Musical: Brainiac Kratnoff who had 2 lines!, Shrek: Pig 2 who also had a few lines, Something Rotten!: Peter Quinn – I think more than a handful of lines. (I am documenting this increase in line count as a sign of my growth as a character actor LOL). 3 Dance Outs (Throwbacks, Wonderland, Oz), and 2 Sing Outs (80’s on stage and Villians/Misfits virtual).  Right now, I have just finished Dance Out: Oz which was really fun~ can’t join a winter show as Jan/Feb is travel heavy for me but I’ll be on the lookout for either the next musical comedy or Dance Out. 

M: Do you have any particular fond memories from your time with us?

Y: I think my most memorable moment was the first tap number I’ve ever done (thanks Kailey for making tap so accessible!) as a rat in Shrek. I really did not know what I was doing but following the adage  “fake it till you make it”, I resolved to try to move my feet in the same direction as everyone else. To my surprise, just the other day, 2 years later, one of my friends told me she remembers I was a mouse in Shrek (and has apparently zero memory of my pig role) – according to her I was beaming and memorable as a dancing rat, even though I was full on panic mode on the inside.

I also remember that my first contact as a newbie was Imani! She called me before launch day and that conversation was very helpful.

M: Beautiful! I guess, since your family thought you moved to NYC to be on Broadway, that you had some experience with the theater prior to joining AWT?

Y: Well yes, I was more of a playwright and less of a performer. From grade school to college, whenever an occasion called for a skit or script I’d jump at that writing opportunity. In high school, I wrote a short 15 minute play that placed second in a school competition. During college, I had the opportunity to be the co-playwright for a full length class production – it was a 9 month writing effort! In Mandarin! And yes I write in both languages. My co-playwright switched majors from physics to theater after the endeavor – this was how intense it was. Even though I stayed a science major, I took electives in theater and the English department to read plays when my schedule allowed.

It was very fun to see the words you had penned get interpreted with the creativity of the actors and directors and realized onto the stage with the full color of costumes and sets! Working with on stage performers in the full length production also gave me the impression that actors are really difficult ego driven people, hahaha. I will acknowledge that perhaps I had a bit of a writer’s ego too.

M: I would love to read one of your plays some day! So you said you did NOT switch from physics to theater. Did you stick with physics?

Y: Yes, sort of! I have a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell, and I went to National Taiwan University for undergraduate. I do have occasional fantasies about taking random community college classes (writing or literature or languages) once I retire. But my career is currently not  in physics. 

M: WOW! I thought you were a smart computer person. But a smart computer person AND a Ph.D. in PHYSICS?! You can do it all!

Y: Well,  I am an Engineering Manager at Reddit. My team works on notifications/emails for the app, while I go to all the meetings. Really for my job I write documents, make slides, and go to meetings. I used to code! I was at an AI startup for customer service software for 2 years prior to Reddit and also at Bloomberg for 6 years as a software engineer. The part I love most about my current job is helping a team come together to build something useful and coaching the people I manage to help them advance their careers. Also building community on the internet through Reddit, with the aim of being useful and uplifting, I think is a worthy endeavor.

I gave up being an aspiring physicist after getting my Ph.D. in theoretical physics and concluding academia is not really what I want to do, that really I want to move to New York City (and be on Broadway). 

Just kidding, I don’t think being a Broadway performer is for me – AWT has taught me that – and not solely due to lack of skills. After my first AWT mainstage run I’ve come to appreciate the level of professionalism it takes to do the same show over and over, night after night, and keeping your energy up.

M: Where do you see your life/career going now?

Y: Given the things I’ve tried and concluded are not for me (ahem 10 years spent on Physics), I now have the humility to say maybe I don’t have a dream job. I like my current job ok, but if I were to try something new without financial pressure I’d like to get back into playwriting or learn how to write screenplays or do something creative along those lines. I wanted to be a fiction writer when I was little; I would have all these stories in my head or make them up while on public transit, and then write them out but abandon them half finished. 

M: Well I hope you get to do some more of that in the near future! Even if it’s not as a career!  What else do you like to do besides being a Redditor and an AWTer?

Y: I spend a lot of time on my road bike and group rides with the New York Cycle Club, of which I’m also a board member. When there are no AWT performance rehearsals, the cycling week looks like two days getting up at 5am to do laps in the Central Park before work, then a full day ride on the weekend. There is a constant tension between signing up for mainstages and keeping my weekends clear for long rides outside the city.

Cycling is a fantastic way to see the region, plus it’s a cardio exercise where snacks are a must, plus if you are an introvert like me it’s a group activity where you aren’t required to talk to each other very much. If anyone is interested in group cycling hmu!

I am also learning (slowly) Jazz Piano from a musician I met as an AWT instructor – the amazing Judette Elliston. 

Rapid fire questions. Don’t overthink these too much!

1. What is something you’ve done recently for the first time?

I walked into a neighborhood pizza place and asked them to sell me some pizza dough (I didn’t know you could do that!)

2. What makes you happiest right now?

Pictures of my niece dancing and riding a bike 

3. What superpower would you want if you could have any super power?

Time Travel

4. What’s your favorite stage show and/or dream role?

Come From Away

Can I admit my dream role is Javert in Les Mis (I have serious tenor envy)

5. What’s your favorite food?

Nori snacks

6. What’s your favorite karaoke song?

(???) dunno. I can’t say i’m a karaoke regular

7. What’s your favorite dinosaur?

Triceritops

8. What’s your favorite way to spend a sunday? (when there is no rehearsal 🙂

In the summer: on a bike. In the winter: on the ski slopes

9. What’s your zodiac sign and what’s the most “sign” thing about you?

Libra. I’m indecisive? 

10. What is a piece of advice you’d give to an AWT Newbie?

It’s ok to make friends at your own pace – even though we emphasize community and I do love this community, I’m personally an introvert and often feel socially awkward in large groups of people; but if you keep coming back, you will find your tribe.