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Yu-Li Alice Shen

Ms. Yu-Li Alice Shen

Instructor in English

English Department

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Bio

Yu-Li Alice Shen is a composition instructor, playwright, actor, and audiobook narrator. She earned her MFA in playwriting at Virginia Tech and her BA in English literature/film studies at James Madison University. She has taught composition, literature, playwriting, theatre history, and Shakespeare's comedies at USI, and she has served as reader/adjudicator for Sigma Tau Delta, Advanced Placement, Indiana Thespians, and the Indiana Arts Commission. She has directed, stage managed, and acted for Evansville theatre and film companies, and her community service includes leading an annual summer playwriting workshop and playing ukulele at local assisted living facilities.

Awards
* ATHE-KCACTF’s Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award Honorable Mention for original play Image May Contain – 2021
* SETC’s Charles M. Getchell New Play Award for original play Entitled – 2010

Theatre Productions
* "Starting Small" Monologue – The PlayGround Experiment's 5th Annual Faces of America Monologue Festival, New York, NY – 2023
* Magical Thinking – Bristol Valley Theater, Naples, NY – 2023
Be My Qur'antine – Queer Theatre Festival, Tallahassee, FL - 2023
Image May Contain – STAGEtwo Productions – 2019
The Conversation About the Keys – Evansville Civic Theatre – 2016

Academic Presentations
* “Theatrical Collaboration: How Playwrights and Directors Can Play Together” – Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival – 2022
* “Overheard Uber: 'I thought you didn’t like Japanese people, but I bet you’d like HER.' Intersectional Confessions of the Ride-Share Community" – USI Filth & Foulness Interdisciplinary Colloquium – 2021
* “Let Go to Let In: Wielding and Ceding Power in the Theatre and Beyond” – Indiana College English Association – 2019.
*“‘I don’t love the drama; it loves me’: Playwriting and Performance in the Midwestern Classroom and Community” – Indiana College English Association – 2018

Audiobook Titles
Summer at Squee by Andrea Wang
* I'm Not Done With You Yet by Jesse Q. Sutanto (AudioFile Earphones Award Winner)
* Actually Super by Adi Alsaid
* Refusing Compulsory Sexuality by Sherronda J. Brown 
The Cure Chronicles by K. A. Riley
Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee
The Freedom Swimmers by Tony Chin
Rabbit in the Moon by Heather Diamond

Acting Roles
* Christmas Eve in Avenue Q by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx & Jeff Whitty
* Megan Jones in Puffs by Matt Cox
* Mash in Stupid F***ing Bird by Aaron Posner
* Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
* Sylvia in Tribes by Nina Raine
* Hannah Jarvis in Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
* Setsuko Hearn in 36 Views by Naomi Iizuka