Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew is a theater designer in lighting & video and a puppetry artist currently residing in New York. She has extensive experience with new works and adaptations in a collaborative setting. As a designer she aims to create a visual environment that is organically integrated into the landscape and language of the production.
Her designs have been seen in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland OR, Minneapolis, and Madison WI. Some recent productions include Oph3lia with Aya Ogawa at HERE Arts Center (NY), Grapes of Wrath with Nick Mangano at Stony Brook University (NY), Frankenstein: A Mortal Toy with Janie Geiser and Susan Simpson at HERE Arts Center and The Velaslavassay Panorama Theatre (LA), The Saint Plays by Erik Ehn with Alison Heimstead at Open Eye Figure Theatre (Minneapolis), The Blue Puppies Cycle with Cagey Productions at The Chocolate Factory (NY), Theatre of the Body (dance) with Kinesthetech Sense (various cities), and the 2006 Experimental Text Festival with Sally Oswald & Jennifer Tsuei at Ontological-Hysteric Theater Incubator (NY).
As puppetry artist, Jeanette has worked with many contemporary puppetry artists including Janie Geiser, Susan Simpson, and Paul Zaloom as designer. In addition, she also creates original pieces with a contemporary aesthetic. Her toy theater production of The Butcher Men by Bret Fetzer was invited to the 2007 Prague Quadrennial*. In May 2007 she presented an experimental work-in-progress puppetry production titled MILK as part of the Labapalooza (Puppet Lab) at St. Ann’s Warehouse.
Jeanette received a SEED grant from The Jim Henson Foundation in 2008, the 2008 Urban Artist Initiative (UAI) Fellowship (NY), and the 2007 Artist Trust’s GAP (Grant for Artist Project) award from Seattle Washington. In 2006 she was awarded the Gilbert Hemsley Lighting Internship. As part of the internship, she worked with the Lincoln Center Festival, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Jeanette continues to work with these organizations after the completion of her internship.
She is also the recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program and is an adjunct faculty member with Stony Brook University's Theatre Arts Department.
*PQ07 is an international exhibition that exhibits contemporary stage designs and theatre architecture.