La Jolla Playhouse Announces Kat Yen as Recipient of 2023/24 Director Fellowship

La Jolla Playhouse has announced Kat Yen as the recipient of its new Directing Fellow position.

The Playhouse's Directing and Stage Management Fellowship Program, which offers a two-year appointment for a Directing Fellow and a Stage Management Fellow, was launched last spring as a central component of the Playhouse's Anti-Racism Action Plan, through which the organization is striving to become a theatre that is more representative of, and welcoming to, BIPOC voices. Yen will join the Playhouse in January to begin her Directing Fellowship. The 2023/2024 Stage Management Fellow will begin later this year and will be announced closer to their start date.

"The Playhouse is deeply committed to playing an active role in supporting the next generation of BIPOC theatremakers. The Directing Fellow position was designed for someone exactly like Kat, and we are thrilled to welcome her to the Playhouse family," said Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse.

The two-year fellowships include full salary and benefits, and offer recipients the opportunity to gain both artistic and administrative experience, including substantial interaction with all departments, guest artists and community members. Each fellowship is designed to be customizable to the recipient's needs and passions, culminating in a slot directing or stage managing a show in the Playhouse's subscription season. The fellows will also play an active role in the Playhouse's day-to-day activities, participating in such new play development programs as the DNA New Work Series, the immersive and site-responsive Without Walls (WOW) program, the Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour and Learning & Engagement activities.

Kat Yen

is a Taiwanese-American theatre director who was born and raised in NYC. She has directed at Atlantic Theater Company, Ars Nova, Cherry Lane Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Bushwick Starr, among others. Recent productions include Heart Strings by Lee Cataluna, Happy Life by Kathy Ng, Marisol by José Rivera, The Juniors by Noah Diaz, and Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn with music by Michael Friedman and Liam Bellman-Sharpe. Kat is an alumnus of Lincoln Center Directors Lab, a former Resident Director at The Flea Theater, the 2016-2017 Van Lier Directing Fellow at Second Stage and the co-founder and former Artistic Director of Spookfish Theatre Company. She is also a teaching artist at Stella Adler Studio of Acting, LAByrinth Theater Company and Marymount Manhattan College. M.F.A. Directing: Yale School of Drama. www.katyen.com; @katkoral #stopasianhate

The Fellowship program, a component of the Playhouse's Developing the Next Generation of Theatre Professionals initiative, is made possible, in part, through the generous support of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, La Atalaya Fund, the Conrad Prebys Foundation, Sempra and Union Bank.

La Jolla Playhouse is a place where artists and audiences come together to create what's new and next in the American theatre, from Tony Award-winning productions, to imaginative programs for young audiences, to interactive experiences outside our theatre walls. Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, the Playhouse is currently led by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse, and Managing Director Debby Buchholz. The Playhouse is internationally renowned for the development of new plays and musicals, including mounting 108 world premieres, commissioning 60 new works, and sending 33 productions to Broadway - including the hit musical Come From Away - garnering a total of 38 Tony Awards, as well as the 1993 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.