Today we’d like to introduce you to Sim Yan Ying “YY”.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sim Yan Ying “YY”. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m a theatre artist from Singapore who has been making work in New York City for the last four years. I create in any capacity that excites me—as a performer, director, playwright, choreographer, or deviser.
Growing up, I’ve always been a bit of a rebellious kid. I excelled academically but also got into a lot of trouble with teachers, either for challenging them or for breaking school rules that didn’t make sense to me. There was constantly a sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness with the rigid education system in Singapore, and theatre was my saving grace.
My first foray into theatre was in high school. Through experimental devised works, we explored difficult and controversial subjects like the Hiroshima bombing in World War II and the prevalence of doping in competitive sports. As a fourteen-year-old, it created a much-needed space for me to think critically and feel deeply, and I fell in love with theatre ever since.
In 2014, I took a gap year, started working professionally in the Singapore theatre industry, and tried anything that I could get my hands on. I was a production intern with Nine Years Theatre, a researcher and transcriber with The Necessary Stage, a dresser with Singapore Repertory Theatre, an assistant stage manager with Singapore Dance Theatre, an actor and playwright with Buds Theatre… and the list goes on. This allowed me to develop a holistic understanding of theatre as a collaborative art form and a stronger sense of where my creative interest lies (performing and directing new works).
In August 2015, I moved to New York to pursue a BFA in Theatre at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, as well as a second major in Psychology. This was a period of major artistic growth for me—the past four years of living in NYC gave me the freedom to find my artistic voice, take risks and try the craziest ideas I have, and learn from inspiring artists across disciplines. My most recent work is a one-woman stand-up drama, “I LOVE WHITE MEN“, a brutal examination of white worship and postcolonial baggage performed at Caveat and Ars Nova ANT Fest, and I am presently an artist in the Mabou Mines 2020 SUITE/Space program.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Navigating cultural and linguistic differences when I first moved to the United States was by far the biggest challenge. I remember barely getting cast in any shows during my first two years here because of my strong Singaporean accent, different cultural sensibilities, and insecurities that arose from all that. It was extremely demoralizing but also, perhaps, a blessing in disguise because it pushed me to create space for myself, lean into my artistic voice, and develop my own works. Over the years as I became more confident in my artistic identity and linguistic abilities, I started getting more recognition and was also cast in increasingly more shows by others.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I perform in shows and also create my own theatrical works—in recent projects, I have taken on the roles of a writer-performer, director-deviser, or performer-deviser. To me, theatre is first and foremost about community and connection. I am particularly interested in intercultural works as I am driven by my desire to build bridges between communities—between Asian Americans and Asian Immigrants, Singaporeans and Americans, people across the political spectrum, among others—to find similarities in our experiences, honour our differences, and also challenge them.
In “Where Are You?”, a devised theatre production which I am directing and choreographing as part of the Mabou Mines 2020 SUITE/Space program, I am working with a group of multicultural artists to explore how we experience grief and confront death. Through communal rituals and stories from cultures including Chinese, Indian, French, Mexican, and Romanian, we are seeking to create a space for audiences of various backgrounds to openly talk about death and be fearless about grieving deeply. I love the collaborative process of devising a work from scratch as it requires active listening, constant negotiation, and space for respectful disagreements. To me, the dynamics of a rehearsal room can be extrapolated to how we might be able to engage with others in our daily lives.
In every work I make, I strive to ask deep and difficult questions, digging into the parts of ourselves that are messy, complex, and sometimes ugly. In “I LOVE WHITE MEN”, I question our dating preferences and expose the small, insidious ways that some of us continue to perpetuate white supremacy—to encourage self-reflection and a new way of moving forward. One of my favourite quotes remains, “Shame dies when stories are told in safe places” (Ann Voskamp), and I strongly believe that through creating a brave space for compassionate honesty and radical empathy, theatre has the power to unite us in our shared humanity.
What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
Every time an audience member has a strong emotional response to a show that I created. Three incidences I remember especially vividly: When a man in his mid-fifties left a show in tears while repeating “thank you, thank you, thank you”, when a friend drove to my apartment past midnight because he was bubbling with thoughts and questions about a play I wrote and needed to speak with someone about it, and when a young Asian woman reached out to me after my one-woman show because she said that she no longer felt alone in her journey towards decolonization.
I don’t profess to be able to change the world with my art; all I seek to do is create a safe and judgment-free space where we can, for an hour or two, come together, feel deeply, and bravely face the complexity of human beings in all our messy and contradictory wonder.
Contact Info:
- Website: simyanying.com
- Email: simyanying@gmail.com
- Instagram: @simyanying
- Facebook: facebook.com/simyanying
Image Credit:
Main Photo Credit: Derrick Chin Photography
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