Anna Elizabeth Yen

Anna Yen is a performer, writer, theatre maker & teacher, and Feldenkrais Method practitioner.

Upcoming shows: Anna is in debase productions’ Concerto for Harmony and Presto which tours to the Shanghai International Arts Festival in October 2019; and Baran Theatre’s Tower of Babel at Metro Arts, Brisbane in November 2019.

As a writer, Anna was a finalist in the Queensland Premiere’s Drama Award 2018/19 with her new physical theatre work, Slow Boat.  She was a writer/performer in The Serpent’s Table 2014 Sydney Festival (Griffin Theatre / CAAP). She received a Matilda Award for her solo show Chinese Take Away Stage X (QPAC / Gum Yi Productions) and toured its film adaptation (SBS commissioned) with performance excerpts, to Asia, Europe and USA.  Chinese Take Away’s script is published by PlayLab.

Other Performance Credits include: the award-winning Monsteria GUSH; It All Begins With Love Creative Regions; Electric Dragon Georgie Pinn, FedSq ; A Creation Myth tunCLOUD; Waterwheel Installation Igneous; Wicked Bodies La Boite/Zen Zen Zo, Fortune La Boite, After China QUT – Brisbane and Belvoir St; Monkey Journey to the West Chinese Historical Assoc; Load-ed Stories QTC-Ed; four years with Rock'n'Roll Circus (now CIRCA) ensemble including in Blood on the Butter, Circus Under the Tintop, Body Slam, Shame – An Incarcerated Tale and Trashed;  Cravings Vulcana; and The Case of All Things in Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2008. Her Chinese Grandma Clown is invited to many celebratory public events.

Yen has directed/collaboratively devised over 20 new-works including: Phoenix Rising Woodford; Other-wise II Under the Radar - Brisbane Festival; Taboo and Stop Violence Against Women QUT / Amnesty International / VenaCava; Manga Metropolis Hereford Sisters Backbone Youth Arts, Brisbane Festival; Lives and Loves Ethnic Communities Council of Qld / Ausdance; Aviatrix, Fire in the Belly and Blissed Out… Vulcana Circus; It’s Just not Cricket UQ Drama; street-theatre pieces for Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s Performers4Peace; and was Assistant Director on AWGIE Award-winning Kese Solwata Out of the Box.

Other awards include a Creative Partnerships Art and Health Award Qld with The Lamingtons for Griffith University / WMB Playful Engagement project, Matilda Award for Best Costume with GUSH and a Bank SA Adelaide Fringe Best Circus /Physical Theatre Weekly Award 2018 for GUSH’s Monsteria, and a Churchill Fellowship. Anna has trained with Monika Pagneux, Philippe Gaulier, Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, Shanghai Circus School, Ira Seidenstein, Zen Zen Zo, Hull Actors Studio LA, Andrea Moor and Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

Anna has taught PlayMoves – Movement Workshops for Performance in Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Wollongong, Cairns, Townsville, Bellbrae, Sydney and Brisbane. She’s been a guest teacher at QUT, UQ, Circus Oz, Circus WOW, schools, festivals and communities. Anna is a trainer at Vulcana in Brisbane, is a Guest Artist at Yeronga State High School, and was part of YSHS’s hugely successful YConnect Project. Anna teaches Feldenkrais Method Awareness Through Movement at the Qld Conservatorium of Music. She recently started teaching a Feldenkrais inspired sequence ‘Wake Up!’ to help performers and non-performers wake up at any time of day. http://www.playmoves.org