An Evolving List of Asian American Directors

Updated: 7/26/2018

PLEASE NOTE: For the most current and continuously updating list of Asian American Directors, please visit http://bit.ly/aadirectors. This blog is archival and is not being updated.

This is evolving and updating list of Asian American directors to be used as a resource for playwrights, artistic director, and other theatre makers who searching for us. The list contains names, website links, SDC status, city-base, higher education degrees, artistic leadership positions, and higher education faculty positions. A key of information and some stats can be found at the bottom of the list.

Ernest Abuba* (New York)
May Adrales* (New York - MFA: Yale - Ed: Yale; aAD: Milwaukee Rep)
Kaiser Ahmed (Chicago)
Stafford Arima* (USA/Canada - AD: Theatre Calgary)
Andrea Assaf (Tampa - MA: NYU [Performance Studies]; AD: Art2Action Inc)
Brian Balcom (Chicago/Minneapolis - MFA: DePaul University)
Leilani Chan (Los Angeles - AD: TeAda Productions)
Jennifer Chang** (San Diego - MFA: UC San Diego [Acting] Ed: UC San Diego)
Tisa Chang* (New York - AD: Pan Asian Repertory)
Desdemona Chiang* (Seattle/San Francisco - MFA: University of Washington)
Ping Chong* (New York - AD: Ping Chong + Company)
Peter Cirino (San Diego - Ed: San Diego State)
Alison M. De La Cruz (Los Angeles)
Nana Dakin (New York - MFA: Columbia [2018])
Snehal Desai* (Los Angeles - MFA: Yale - AD: East West Players)
Tim Dang* (Los Angeles - Ed: University of Southern California)
Sandeep Shekar Das (Chicago)
Nelson T. Eusebio* (New York - MFA: Yale)
Kareem Fahmy** (New York - MFA: Columbia)
Ethan Heard* (New York - MFA: Yale)
Leslie Ishii* (Los Angeles - MFA: American Conservatory Theatre [Acting])
Alberto Isaac (Los Angeles)
Ed Sylvanus Iskandar* (New York - MFA: Carnegie Mellon)
Lavina Jadhwani* (Chicago - MFA: DePaul University)
Anish Jethmalani (Chicago)
Jesse Jou (Jubbock, Texas - MFA: Yale - Ed: Texas Tech University)
Chil Kong (New York)
Shishir Kurup* (Los Angeles - MFA: University of California, San Diego [Acting])
Peter J. Kuo** (Los Angeles/New York - MFA: The New School for Drama [2018])
Flordelino Lagundino (New York - MFA: Brown University; AD: Leviathan Lab)
Young Jean Lee (Brooklyn - MFA: Brooklyn College [Playwriting])
Jeff Liu** (Los Angeles - MFA: University of California, Los Angeles)
Jeffrey Lo (San Jose)
Victor Maog* (New York - AD: Second Generation)
Jess McLeod (Chicago - MFA: Northwestern University)
Zaraawar Mistry (Minneapolis - MFA: University of California, San Diego [Theatre])
Mina Morita (Bay Area - AD: Crowded Fire)
Dipankar Mukherjee (Minneapolis - AD: Pangea World Theater)
Alan Muraoka* (New York)
Katie Naka (Somerville, MA - MFA: Columbia)
Ron Nakahara* (New York)
Meena Natarajan (Minneapolis)
Oanh Nguyen* (Orange County - AD: The Chance Theater)
Lane Nishikawa (San Francisco)
Aya Ogawa (Brooklyn)
Evren Odcikin (San Francisco)
Ralph Pena (New York - AD: Ma-Yi Theater)
Ruth Pe Palileo** (Las Vegas - PhD: Trinity College Dublin [Drama and Performance])
Orlando Pabotoy* (New York - Ed: Tisch School of the Arts)
Jesca Prudencio (New York - MFA: UC San Diego)
Randy Reyes (Minneapolis - MFA: The Juilliard School [Acting] - AD: Theatre Mu - Ed: St. Olaf College )
Jon Lawrence Rivera* (Los Angeles - AD: Playwrights' Arena)
Rick Shiomi (Minneapolis - Co-AD: Full Circle Theater)
Nathan Singh (Los Angeles - MFA: DePaul University)
Seema Sueko* (D.C. - aAD: Arena Stage)
Suzi Takahashi (New York - MA: NYU [Performance Studies] - MFA: Southampton Arts)
Mei Ann Teo (NYC/MA - MFA: Columbia; Ed: Hampshire College)
Eric Ting* (Berkeley - MFA: University of Tennessee [Performance Studies] - AD: Cal Shakes)
Andrew Tsao (Seattle - MFA: CalArts - Ed: University of Washington)
Giselle Ty (New York/London)
Meiyin Wang (Berkeley - MFA: Columbia)
Elizabeth Wong (Los Angeles - MFA: NYU/Tisch School of the Arts [Dramatic Writing])
George Ye (San Diego - Ed: University of San Diego)
Chay Yew* (Chicago - AD: Victory Gardens Theater)
Helen Young (Chicago)

* = Full or (**) Associate Member of SDC
MFA = Master of Fine Arts; [Non-Directing Degree or Expected Graduation Year]
AD = Artistic Director; a = Associate; ED = Executive Director
Ed = Faculty at Higher Educational Institution

Stats: 
# on List = 63
Full SDC Members = 22
Associate SDC Members = 7
With MFAs = 29

If you would like to be added to the list, or have any updates or corrections, please feel free to contact me. Thanks! Peter J. Kuo

------------------

Archive Original Post 8/17/14: As many of you know, I recently moved to New York to start earning my MFA in Directing at The New School for Drama. Part of this move was my evaluation of the directing career potential in Los Angeles, but also the directing career potential for Asian American directors. As I did my research I felt there weren't a great number of us, so I decided I would create a list. If you are an Asian American director and would like to be added to this list, please email me or comment on this blog. There are power in numbers, and I believe we need to show that there are numbers. This information will be helpful for my panel on "Creating and Maintaining a Directing Career" for the National Asian American Theatre Conference and Festival, which is Saturday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m. in Philadelphia, PA. Confirmed speakers include Desdemona Chiang, Snehal Desai, Randy Reyes, and Mei Ann Teo.

Why an M.F.A. in Directing? A Reflection on Creating a Directing Career

During my journey of becoming a professional director, and my research into M.F.A. directing programs, I didn't find a lot of information. So I share this experience to shed light on the career path from a young director, and to give something for you to compare to if you're considering a career in directing and/or an M.F.A.

For those who don't know me; I’m a theatre professional who works both in the administrative and artistic field. For eight years I was making a living wage as a full-time administrator and a part-time artist. In March 2013, I flipped my roles and became a full-time director and a part-time administrator. During the past year I've held five assistant directorships at three different LORT theatres, two that paid minimally. Some of these AD positions were simple asks (not to discount the years of relationships that were built to make these opportunities accessible) while others were major application processes with letters of recommendations, interviews, etc. During that year, I also directed numerous readings, a fully produced show for my own theatre company and a tour for young audiences. I felt like a “working” director who wasn't getting paid much, and I needed to find the next step in my career.

The Goal

I know how to tell a story, lead a rehearsal room and work with designers. I understand the function of a director, and yet I’m not too proud to say, I still learned plenty in my year of assistant directing. One of the major things I learned was what a career in directing meant.

TCG Panel - A Director's Life

In a 2011 TCG Panel (A Director’s Life), some of the nation’s finest directors and artistic leaders discussed what it means to be a working director. Jumping from regional theatre to regional theatre, directing plays, workshops, readings, etc., was considered to be a “mid-career” director. This floored me as I considered those directors to have “made it.” I considered someone who directed consistently at local small and mid-sized theatres and getting a few regional theatres jobs to be a mid-career director. The years I spent at South Coast Repertory admiring the directors who came through our doors, I never thought of any of them as mid-career. I thought, “They have made it! They’re living the dream!” But spending time with these directors and a few artistic directors, swapping stories about theatre and their careers, the big goal became clearer.

Mid-career directors hope to have an immediate passion for the plays they direct, but often they take what jobs come to them and find some aspect of the play or production that they love to keep them engaged in the project. They don’t necessarily get to be selective, and tell stories they love or convey a clear artistic voice in their body of work. When you can start saying “no” to paid work, or are able to get a show onto a season because you love the play and have a good relationship with an artistic director, then perhaps you've “made it.”

The Path

With a clearer goal I needed to find a clearer path. Most directors I spoke with repeated “everyone’s path is different.” While this is true, I noticed a few major pathways that several directors took, and everyone had similar milestones. Regardless of how you get there, the path is paved with some fiscal stability. (Most paid directing jobs aren't going to hire the homeless…and perhaps that’s a community whose artistic voice may one day be worth hearing.)

One of the obvious pathways is to become an artistic leader for a theatre company, hopefully a position offering you a salary of some kind as well as opportunities to direct while voicing and shaping your artistic aesthetic. Another is the educational route; teaching seems to be one of the most stable/flexible day jobs that allows a director to still direct. Finally, many directors and artists I know won’t admit it, but they’re independently wealthy or financially supported by a loved one. These seem to be the most common ways early- to mid-career directors are building their careers while maintaining financial stability.

A panel with some of Southern California's Artistic Directors, many who are working directors.

My past year of directing came from the latter path. I knew months in advance before leaving my job that I wanted to go, so I started saving like crazy. I fortunately had a mother who had an extra bedroom and was willing to stop charging me rent once I left my job. And I also racked up a fair amount of credit card debt. With my finances disappearing, I needed to reroute to one of the other paths or suddenly become a mid-career director who was actually making a barely living wage.

The Problem

My ability to take non/minimally paying work was diminishing. And paid directing work in Los Angeles is scarce. Hell, paid assistant directing work in Los Angeles was scarce, and some of the LORT theatres in L.A. started telling me I was too experienced to be ADing for them, especially for free. The rarely found paid 99-seat and mid-size theatre work in Los Angeles went to already established directors in the region, and it was hard to break in to those artistic networks even with the strong relationships I had built. As I said, I found myself “working” a lot but without getting paid.

The Los Angeles theatre scene has long battled the stigma of not being a “theatre town.” I don’t doubt that we are. This town is riddled by theatre companies and artists. You can’t turn around without getting a postcard for someone’s show dropped in your lap. But is Los Angeles a professional theatre town? When a majority of the “work” available is unpaid, how do you call doing that work a profession? It wouldn't be the Silicon Valley if it consisted only of Facebook, Google and Apple, and a whole bunch of small companies run by 90% unpaid interns (sorry Friendster and Netscape). The scarce amount of paid artistic work and the countless number of theatres who hold professional standards without paying a professional wage made me realize, I can never make that leap to becoming a mid-career director in Los Angeles. Perhaps I could return and sustain a mid-level career, but I won’t be able to break into it.

Surveying the M.F.A.

NEA Appropriations History '83-'14

I suddenly became obsessed with looking at other directors’ careers; their experience, their education and their voice. Many veteran working directors (50+) didn't have a master’s degree. They worked up the ranks when it seemed the field was less competitive and there was more national arts funding. (Hard to believe there was a time when there was more funding, but compare the late ‘80s/early '90s funding of $160-170 Million to today’s $130-140 Million). Their decades of experience directing professionally is certainly more valuable than a degree. But even several of these veteran directors I assisted had a Master’s degree. A meeting with the SDC Foundation led to speculations that a large percentage of professional working directors under the age of 40 have an M.F.A. in directing. With more than 46 M.F.A. Directing programs in the U.S. churning out two to six directors a year, we’re seeing more than 100 new directors entering a pool of 75 LORT theatres with seasons not expanding. It started to become clear that the M.F.A. was becoming the minimum standard for young directors.

Selecting and Applying

I eventually settled on applying to three M.F.A. programs. Yale; because looking at the financials again, Yale offers a great financial package and the alumni network is ridiculously connected. Northwestern; because several colleagues coincidentally mentioned Chicago’s theatre scene as a great entry point, as well as Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro is on faculty there. The New School for Drama; because, well...New York, I wanted to diversify my applications, and I missed the Columbia deadline. (Obviously these are the most superficial reasons. More depth went into these choices, but in honesty these were some of my deciding factors).

I’m forever thankful to those who wrote recommendation letters for me, assisted with my statement of purpose, and gave me interview coaching. I landed an interview at all three schools, but in the end I found myself accepting admission to The New School. (Admittedly, it was the only school that accepted me, but before I even heard from one of the other schools, I realized The New School was right for me.) While not my original 1^st choice, it clearly became the best choice. Let’s just say, their callback session will clearly layout whether it is the right program for you, or not. (Ask around enough and you’ll know what it is, but I sort of enjoy the surprise and mystery they try to maintain around their callback). 

Just being in New York felt right, I spent a week prior to my interview seeing shows, meeting with working theatre colleagues, and just re-discovering the city. If I want to become a working theatre professional, it seemed like a no-brainer that I needed to establish some roots in New York. The New School's program has built its accessibility and relationships with working theatre professionals, giving its students access to amazing mentors and networks. And the staff and faculty just seemed like they were having a good time. You can’t fake that kind of positive energy.

The Future

The co-founders of Artists at Play

As I look toward the upcoming three years of study, I can’t help but be excited for what seems to be a clear yet challenging path of becoming a professional theatre director. Three years of focused study will allow me to really expand my artistic vision while defining my voice. Being in New York will give me a myriad of new relationships to build upon. 

I also look back at those who have supported me and taught me so much. My time at LA Stage Alliance, East West Players, South Coast Repertory and Oregon Shakespeare Festival gave me valuable experience. The co-founders and community of artists and audience at Artists at Play provided loving support and encouragement. Great directing mentors like Pam MacKinnon, Marya Mazor, and Juliette Carrillo taught me so much. Fabulous actors, writers, administrators, and designers whose numbers are too great to list and talents to magnificent to contain, I thank you all.

Thank you for preparing me for the next great step of my life that will make me a better artist for you. The foundation of using theatre as a means to entertain, educate and inspire comes from the experiences of working with amazing people. And, I hold on to this as I embark on this journey.