Yuzhou (Selena) Lyu

Independent theatre maker, director, teacher – Shanghai, China
Participant International Forum 2024

Trained with socio-psychological imagination, Selena has always seen theatre-making as an action or gesture: to research, to connect, to evoke/provoke and to heal. Her documentary works focus on finding alternative narratives for communities “endangered by a social accident”: hosting a graduation ceremony for students exiled from a bankrupt diploma mill (“The Way to Walden”, 2014–18), verbatim silenced significant others of MH370 (“Quiet”, 2016), or dissecting her own family’s hospice practice in an age of medical overuse (“RIP Papa”, 2021).

In 2018, Selena Lyu co-founded the all-female ensemble _ao_ao_ing (⽼妖精) practicing “the art of being together”. _ao_ao_ing is a decentralised yet tight-knit group. Together they created some extravagant works: a 100m-dragon-parade for a modernised village, an audio tour in a to-be-gentrified district, a drag show on the road, a grand auction for their local vendor’s unsalable goods after lockdown in a museum next to Christie’s. Their performances often intertwine with the place and people they encounter, flirt with the line between theatre and everyday life and create real happenings that cannot be replicated. Selena received education from Cambridge and East 15, and her/their works have been generously supported by the International Ibsen Awards, Goethe-Institut, Ming Contemporary Art Museum (McaM) in Shanghai, Power Station of Art, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, Nanluoguxiang Performing Arts Festival, Helsinki Festival and more.