Tina Ruan

Tina Ruan is a writer and theatre artist based in New York. She delights in connection and meaning. Sometimes her laughter makes people turn their heads. She has carried three names: Tina, Fatima, and Meng Wei. She listens for the ums and uhs, the silences, the change of direction, and what's left unsaid.

Her artistic process has been shaped deeply by Story Circle and Oral History practices. She is a founding member of ALL THREE, an intergenerational performance ensemble she co-created with the late Robbie McCauley, a multidisciplinary theater artist and educator, and Eric Rasmussen, a longtime New York actor.

Bringing together three generations and three ethnicities, ALL THREE engages storytelling and creative expression among its members and with others. The ensemble invites an expansion of where and what theater could be, transforming performance into a space that heightens listening, physical presence, and dialogue.

The aesthetic of their storyweaving is informed by jazz, requiring them to listen closely and generously. Time and geography are summoned in their narratives. Songs, objects, and memories of loved ones, both living and departed, are among what they exchange, along with the first kisses of their lives.

The work leans into theater as the art of talking to the dead and asks: What might we learn about ourselves and one another if our stories, once kept in silence and apart, could be told together?

Her latest work, Until it Bleeds, is currently on view at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia as part of Chimera (2026), presented by Denniston Hill and set within In Minor Keys, the Biennale's centerpiece exhibition curated by the late Koyo Kouoh.

Her practice has moved through mangrove villages in Mindanao and one of the world’s oldest rainforests. She studied law in Taipei and now lives in New York.