Photo by Ken Yotsukura Photography

Alison Yueming Qu (she/they) is a Chinese American Theatre Creative Producer, Dramaturg, Director, and Alison Yueming Qu (she/they) is a Chinese American Theatre Creative Producer, Dramaturg, Director, Arts Manager, Fundraiser, and Community Organizer. Alison curates joyful, transformative, and radically inclusive spaces for Asian American artists, using arts and culture to power community activism, intercultural exchange, and translingual expression. Recognized as a 2023 ARTery Maker by WBUR (Boston’s NPR station), Alison is celebrated as one of the emerging artists of color shaping Greater Boston’s cultural landscape.

As Executive Director of CHUANG Stage, Boston’s Asian American theatre company, Alison leads with a rare combination of artistic vision, strategic arts management expertise, and fundraising acumen. She has cultivated cross-sector artistic partnerships—including Boston Chinatown Musical: Stories on Our Streets (Mellon Foundation Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument grantee) and the Found in Translation series (NEFA Public Art for Spatial Justice grantee)—transforming Boston’s Chinatown into a hub of multilingual, intercultural storytelling. Her leadership has advanced radical access to the arts through CHUANG Stage’s Pay-As-You-Are ticketing model, breaking down financial barriers for working-class immigrant communities and ensuring that members of the Asian American diaspora have equitable access to theatre.

Theater producer, director and dramaturg Alison Qu is executive director of CHUANG Stage in Boston. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

CHUANG Stage, the LaunchPad Resident Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts, produces bold, two-show seasons centering pan-Asian narratives and deep creative community engagement. Under Alison’s leadership, the company has secured significant institutional support from the Barr Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and The Boston Foundation—sustaining year-round programming and expanding Boston’s cultural landscape.

In Summer 2025, Alison joined Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City as a Seasonal Line Producer, primarily producing the Summer for the City festival. This role expands her national presence and reflects her growing impact as a dual-city arts leader, bringing her producing expertise to one of the nation’s most iconic cultural institutions while continuing her equity-driven, community-centered work in Boston.

Previously, Alison served as Associate Producer at HowlRound Theatre Commons, producing national and international projects such as the Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency Program and the International Presenter Commons, and as Connectivity Producer at Company One Theatre, producing initiatives like the Better Future Series and Branch Out with C1 in partnership with the Boston Public Library.

Her directing and dramaturgy credits include I Love XXX at Emerson Stage (Jinghui Meng, translated by Claire Conceison), The Fortune Teller (a collaboration with TC Squared Theatre Company), and The Chinese Lady (Central Square Theater). As a sought-after facilitator and speaker, Alison has led conversations on Asian American representation in the arts with organizations such as Pao Arts Center, Huntington Theatre Company, ArtsEmerson, UConn’s Asian American Cultural Center, Guerilla Opera, Asian American Women’s Political Initiative, Asian American Playwrights Collective, and Central Square Theater.

Alison serves on the boards of the Boston Cultural Council (Mayor Michelle Wu’s Office of Arts and Culture) and the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists (CAATA). She is a proud alumna of the Harvard University/American Repertory Theater’s Arts & Cultural Organizational Management program, a 2023–24 MassCreative Arts Advocacy Fellow, a National Arts Strategy Creative Community Fellow, and a current cohort member of The Institute for Nonprofit Practice’s Core Certificate Program. She holds a BFA in Theatre (Directing and Dramaturgy) from Emerson College.

Alison resides in Boston, MA (unceded land of the Wampanoag and Nipmuc peoples) and spends time in Long Island City, NY (Lenape and Canarsie land).

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