Yale-China Arts Residency

In collaboration with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, and the David Geffen School of Drama (DGSD), the Yale-China Arts Residency supports collaborative, culturally relevant art in New Haven. The Residency aims to premiere innovative cross-cultural theater, facilitate collaboration across sectors in New Haven, and build international artist networks. Resident Artists, in tandem with Yale-China and the Festival, will work to facilitate cross-cultural, multi-generational learning by producing new art during a six-month period.

What is the Yale-China Arts Residency? 

The Yale-China Arts Residency is a unique opportunity for emerging professional artists at Yale's David Geffen School of Drama to create original work exploring Chinese culture. 
The residency seeks to support the creation of new intercultural work that – in process and presentation – brings together students, artists, and audiences from New Haven, Yale, and the world.  

What does a Resident Artist do? 

Selected applicants receive a commission of $18,000 and mentorship support to develop and produce an original project for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas (IFAI) in New Haven in June 2025. Lead Artists are responsible for the full execution of their projects, including renting space and hiring necessary production staff, designers, and performers. IFAI will support with marketing and publicity.  

The residency also includes multi-generational mentorship. Lead artists receive mentorship support from Yale-China and IFAI Staff throughout the development of their work as well as mentor high school students in the festival’s Fellowship Program who volunteer their time at key points during production. 

2024 Yale-China Artist Residency

Sponsored by Mask Academy Network, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Yale University David Geffen School of Drama, Yale-China, and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

Jennifer Yuqing Cao

Jennifer Yuqing Cao (曹语晴) is a first-year MFA scenic design candidate at Yale David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Based in NYC and China, her work in theater and dance as an international artist focuses on the possibilities of space and storytelling. She believes that her design on stage does not act as a still supplementary but as a crucial and active participant in the narration. Selected works including Once 一场 (China National Tour) as the set designer, costume designer, and production stage manager; Set Design for Here’s a Blue Morpho For You (NYU CSSA GALA), The Comedy of Errors (NYU Tisch NSB), My Heavenly Favorite (assistant scenographer, International Theater Amsterdam). More about the designer: https://jenniferyuqingcao.com/

John Horzen

John Horzen (he/him) is a fourth-year masters in projection design at DGSD. He received his bachelors degree in Violin Performance from Vanderbilt, and is constantly examining the connective tissue that binds his rhyming loves of community, producing, designing, and music-making in order to find new ways of storytelling. Selected projection credits include The Planets (Woolsey Hall, Co-Projections), Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage, Assistant Projections), and The Kite Runner (Hayes Theater, 3D Animator).

Xi (Zoey) Lin

Xi (Zoey) Lin 林曦 (Sound Designer/Composer), a native of Nanjing, China, holds a BA in Theatre Arts and a B.Music in Piano Performance from Lawrence University. She is currently a Sound Design MFA candidate at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Previous credits include original music composition for Morpho Studio’s Beijing Fashion Week releases of「CORAL 珊瑚」& VINCENT digital fashion collections, the Carlotta Festival of New Plays 2023 (Iseman Theatre, production sound engineer), Next to Normal (Yale University Theatre, assistant sound designer and engineer), Detroit ’67 (Princeton Summer Theatre, sound designer). Anchoring in the sonic world, Zoey is passionate about creating cross-sensory experiences that deepen the primal connection between beings and the universe. xizoeylin.com

Lyle Laize Qin

Lyle Laize Qin 秦莱泽 is from Chengdu, China, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the Environment Design (Fashion Interior Design) (Sino-UK Collaboration with University of Edinburgh ) at Donghua University. He is currently a Costume Design MFA candidate at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Previous works include art design for the Summer on the Roof 屋檐之夏 which was a reality variety show in Shanghai, Little Devil (Set Design and Costume Design Assistant) by Touch Lab in Shanghai, Fucking A (Yale University Theater, Costume Design Assistant) , Escaped Aone (Yale Rep Theater, Costume Design Assistant) and conducted fashion product design internships at the Walt Disney Company (China). Lyle hopes that through the discussion of clothing and fabrics, he can create a connection between the script and the characters, so that the audience can feel the story and the world more truly.

Yung-Hung Sung

Originally from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Yung-Hung Sung is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in design at David Geffen School of Drama. He received his B.F.A. in theater arts from National Sun Yat-Sen University. His design footprints have been seen around several nations and major theaters in Taiwan, such as National Theater of Taiwan, National Taichung Theater, and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying). Also, Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, Migration Matters Festival (UK); Beijing Dance Festival, Shanghai International Festival of Arts (China); Changmu Performing Arts Festival (Korea); Festival Off Avignon (France). Selected awards include Ten Lines of Poetry to NK, which received third place for Professional Lighting Design at the World Stage Design Exhibition 2022 in Calgary, Canada. Recent work includes Moonie and Every Brilliant Thing at Yale Cabaret as well as Cleansed and Macbeth at the Geffen School. yhslightingdesign.com

Arts Residency Partners