Sarah Bay-Cheng received her AB in Theatre and Film Studies from Wellesley College and her Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor . Her publications include Mama Dada: Gertrude Stein's Avant-Garde Theatre (Routledge 2004) and articles in Essays in Theatre/Études Theatrales, Studies in the Humanities, and the Journal of American Drama and Theater, as well as contributions to books, most recently, the Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama (Blackwell 2004) and the Encyclopedia of Modern Drama (Grolier 2005). Her areas of research include avant-garde theatre and film, modernist literature and performance, sexuality in modern drama, and queer performance. She is currently working on a study of sexuality in avant-garde performance and film.

A long-time puppeteer and mask performer, she frequently writes plays specifically for puppet performance. Her adaptations have appeared at both colleges and international venues, including her adaptations of Richard Wagner's ring cycle (CSUS 2001) and Medea (International Festival of Puppetry 2003). Her original play, The Peacock Flew, was adapted for National Public Radio's Archaeology of Lost Voices Series (appeared as Hidden Dragon 2001). She is currently adapting the poetry of E.E. Cummings for performance.