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 Co-Founder and Executive Director of CHUANG Stage (founded 2018), Boston’s first Asian American theatre company, Alison leads the company’s artistic vision and organizational strategy, and her love for new work—building an engine for translingual, pan-Asian storytelling while strengthening the resources to produce it year after year. She has advanced CHUANG Stage’s radical access work through its Pay-As-You-Are ticketing model (including $0 options), designed to reduce financial barriers for working-class immigrant communities and widen entry points for Asian American diaspora audiences. A dedicated new-work champion, Alison develops and produces emerging and established AAPI playwrights—including Zoe Kim, Minna Lee, Gaven D. Trinidad, Brandon Zang, and Diana Khong—guiding projects from early workshops and readings to world premieres and full productions. She is also a hands-on fundraising and grants leader, securing support from major public and private funders (including the National Endowment for the Arts and leading regional and local foundations) to underwrite new work development, community partnerships, and CHUANG Stage’s long-term capacity building—so artists are resourced, audiences are welcomed, and ambitious work can thrive.

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.

From 2020 to 2025, 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, Under the Radar Symposium, 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.

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, Juneteenth outdoor activations, and collaborations with Shanghai International Arts 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.

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).

Press/News Release