Ye Zhong Reflects on Her Return to the Stage in Last Call Theatre's THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Written by Matthew Kayser

Nearly a year after returning to live performance with Last Call Theatre’s The Butterfly Effect, actress Ye Zhong looks back on the production as both a return to her theatrical roots and her first experience with immersive theatre.

After several years focused primarily on work for the camera, Zhong joined the 2025 production as the swing for Vivian and Joanna Fang, two of the show’s principal character tracks, and officially went on as Vivian for the November 20 performance. At the center of the story, the Fang sisters inherit and run The Connection Café, and their family history, relationships, and choices drive major parts of the production’s emotional and narrative arc. Both characters are closely tied to the show’s exploration of grief, memory, connection, and the possibility of changing the past.

Created and directed by Ashley Busenlener, The Butterfly Effect invited audiences to the grand reopening of The Connection Café, where rumors of time travel transform an ordinary community gathering place into a world of intersecting stories. The production was staged after hours inside Stella Coffee, an actual Los Angeles café, allowing the fictional setting to exist within a real working space rather than a traditional theatre. Audiences could move through the café, follow different characters, interact with them directly, and make choices that influenced how individual storylines unfolded.

The production was presented by Last Call Theatre, which has become a recognized presence in Los Angeles immersive theatre. No Proscenium has described the company as “one of the most prolific and consistently inventive immersive theater companies working in L.A. right now,” and its past productions have received multiple awards and nominations within the city’s immersive and fringe theatre communities.

That environment made Zhong’s work as a swing particularly demanding. Swings are an essential part of live theatre, helping preserve the continuity of a production by remaining ready to step into multiple roles when needed. For Zhong, swinging both Vivian and Joanna meant being prepared to enter two very different sides of the same story. Each sister carried her own emotional history, relationships, objectives, and interactions with the audience, and covering both central roles required Zhong to understand a broader portion of the production than she would have through a single character.

In an immersive show like The Butterfly Effect, that responsibility went even further. With scenes able to shift in response to audience choices, Zhong had to understand not only each character’s individual track, but also how that character functioned within the larger narrative. The lack of a fixed fourth wall added another layer of unpredictability: audience members could approach a character directly, ask unexpected questions, or change the rhythm of an interaction at any moment. Going on as Vivian required Zhong to respond spontaneously while remaining fully grounded in the character and preserving the flow of the story.

The production also carried personal significance for Zhong. Professionally trained in stage and screen performance at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she had spent the following years working primarily in film and other camera-based projects while remaining connected to theatre through backstage and production work. The Butterfly Effect marked her first return to acting onstage during that period.

Returning to the stage in an immersive format also required Zhong to apply her theatrical foundation in an unfamiliar way. The energy and responsiveness of live performance were still there, but immersive theatre demanded greater adaptability, improvisation, and direct connection with the audience. Going on as Vivian on November 20 brought together her theatre training, years of on-camera experience, and a different way of engaging with live performance.

Nearly a year later, The Butterfly Effect remains a meaningful point in Zhong’s career and stands as more than a return to live performance. For Zhong, it became a reminder of what first drew her to theatre while also offering an opportunity to carry that foundation into a form of storytelling she had never explored before.

Photo Credit: The Butterfly Effect