Victor Maog Spearheads 2g's INSTANT VAUDEVILLE: BREAKING BAMBOO at HERE Arts Center, 11/16-18

Victor Maog has been appointed the new Artistic Director of Second Generation (2g) Gladys Chen, Board President, announced today, and will start his new position by spearheading 2g's signature event, Instant Vaudeville.

Mr. Maog will bring his many talents to Second Generation’s mission of supporting the Asian American theater community by bringing this population’s stories to the world's stage.

“Victor Maog is one of the leading lights of his generation- smart, talented, capable, and an artist with deep principles and integrity,” said Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater. “I've been delighted to be his colleague in the theater, and am even more delighted he will be assuming the Artistic Directorship of Second Generation. He's going to make a real impact.”

Maog says, “In 1993, at age 20, I made my professional directing debut with the Filipino theatre company, Teatro Ng Tanan [Theatre for Everyone] in San Francisco. It kickstarted my career. Since then my artistic work has reached corners of America I couldn't have ever imagined and now I sit as Director of Theatre for the oldest performing arts school in the nation but it can all be traced back to that initial investment by my own community. I want to do that for others.”

Considered "one of the nation's leading young Asian-American directors" (Denver Post), Victor Maog's award-winning work has reached over half the continental United States and has been cited as "Best of" and "Critic's Picks" for publications such as the Boston Globe, Backstage, and others. An artist and producer with national and international credits, Mr. Maog has been the Director of Perry-Mansfield’s Theatre Department since 2008.

He continues, “I'm honored to be asked to take on leadership at a time when there is a national dialogue about Asian representation. There is no reason Asian artists should account for only 2% of roles on major New York stages. Simply put, 2g's family of actors, writers, directors, and designers are – bar none – some of the best creators, thinkers, and rule-breakers I know.”

INSTANT VAUDEVILLE: BREAKING BAMBOO
November 16 - 18 at HERE

2g's 16th season launches with Instant Vaudeville: Breaking Bamboo which brings more than 35 overachieving, slightly shy, yet sensual Asian American artists together on one stage. Maog states, “People have been asking where our artists are? The answer is HERE. Right now. 2g is the hub for the next generation of form-bending, ceiling-breaking, morbidly-gifted Asian American talent.”

Instant Vaudeville: Breaking Bamboo plays at HERE, 145 Sixth Ave. (enter on Dominick Street one block south of Spring), NYC 10013, from November 16-18, 2012. Friday and Saturday night @ 7:00pm. Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm. Tickets are free and reservations are required. Reservations can be made at www.2g.org.

Instant Vaudeville: Breaking Bamboo is a series of 8 original works by new and emerging Asian American artists, culminating in four free public performances. A staple of 2g's annual programming, it challenges teams to create live theatre in a fast, furious and collaborative manner over the course of one week. Playwright/director and/or devising ensembles will create 6-8 minute pieces of theater across a variety of genres such as puppetry plays, musicals, improvisation, choreography (dance and/or fight), clowning, physical theater, dramas and comedies.

2012 writers and directors include:

Jon Kern (Modern Terrorism/Second Stage, 2012 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award; writer, The Simpsons),

May Adrales (David Henry Hwang's upcoming Dance and The Railroad at Signature Theater, Williamstown, Goodman),

Clarence Coo (2012 Yale Drama Series Prize),

Susan Soon He Stanton (2012 Public/Emerging Writers Group, Clubbed Thumb),

Deen (2009 Public/Emerging Writers Group, Interact),

Kristina Haruna Lee (Joe's Pub, Ars Nova),

Aya Ogawa (Soho Rep/Joyce),

Snehal Desai (2011 Drama League Classical Fellow - Old Globe),

Andrew Pang (Steppenwolf),

Soomi Kim (2009 NY Innovative Theatre Award),

Mrinalini Kamath,

Mo Zhou (Oregon Shakespeare Festival),

Edgar Mendoza (2010 Dramatist Guild Fellow),

Thang Dao (2009 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship),

Samantha Chanse,

Suzi Takahashi (NYTW),

Ralph Pena (OBIE & Drama Desk winner, Ma-Yi)

and

2g's Artistic Director Victor Maog.

Ying Le produces the event.

This production is a part of the Sublet Series@HERE, HERE’s curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support. Go to www.2g.org for more information.

Victor Maog (Artistic Director – Second Generation) has collaborated at the NYSF/Public Theater, Hartford Stage, Williamstown, Ma-Yi, Lark, MCC, The Working Theater, New Dramatists, Intar, and directed/taught for NYU/Tisch, UPenn, Fordham, and others. Victor was one of six directors in the United States to become a Fellow of the 2004-06 National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Program, in addition to being awarded the 2005 Paula Altvater Fellowship at Cornerstone, 2000-2002 Van Lier Directing Fellowship at Second Stage, and the 1993 U.S. Dept. of Labor's Presidential Award for Outstanding Academic Enrichment for his collaborations with disadvantaged youth. A member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, OBIE-winning Partial Comfort Productions, Gotham Stage Company, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Victor has been a mentor director for the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival and served as a U.S. Delegate to the 31st InterNational Theatre Institute/UNESCO World Congress in Manila. His long-term collaboration about sex slavery, Total Power Exchange by Edith Freni, was nominated for the “New American Plays for Russia” initiative. In addition, Matthew Paul Olmos' The Nature of Captivity, which he directed as part of Mabou Mines' 40th season, was awarded "Top Prize for the Americas" -- out of over 1000 plays -- in the BBC's 2011 International Playwrighting Competition. A graduate of New York University's Gallatin School with concentrations in Global Leadership and Performance Studies, Maog just completed his fifth summer as Director of Theater for the 99 year-old Perry-Mansfield in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. There he launched P-M Premieres (commissioning and producing new works by Smokey Joe's Cafe conceiver Otis Sallid, Megan Mostyn-Brown, Andrea Thome, Edith Freni, AaRon Jones and Susan Soon He Stanton), P-M Professional Track/New Works Festival with NYC's Second Stage Theatre and the P-M Winter Intensive at The Juilliard School. A. Rey Pamatmat's time travel play, Out of Joint, originally commissioned and produced by Maog was honored with the 2012 Princess Grace Special Project Award. www.victormaog.com

Second Generation’s mission is to support the Asian American theater community by bringing this population’s stories to the world's stage. 2g provides an artistic home for emerging talent by cultivating a hive of creative activity, both on stage—through developmental programs and performances—and of —through the support and cultivation of a thriving artist community. Over the last 15 years, we have cultivated 400 Asian American artists and brought their original work to over 148,800 theatergoers from across New York City. 2g is the hub for the next generation of Asian American talent.

Many artists have benefited from developing their work at 2g including Julia Cho (2010 winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), Lloyd Suh (NEA/Arena Stage New Play Development Project, the Jerome Foundation, South Coast Repertory, Theatre Communications Group, NY Foundation of the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts), Michael Golamco (2010 Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting), Michi Barall (John Golden Incentive grant), and A. Rey Pamatmat (2010-11 Princess Grace Award, 2011-12 PONY Fellowship, and the 2012-13 Hodder Fellowship at Princeton). All of these writers have participated in our In the Works (ITW) reading series and have gone on to have their work produced in commercial and not-for-profit theatre companies. Julia Cho's Round and Round, started as a short play in 2008's ITW and grew to a full-length called The Language Archive and produced at South Coast Repertory and the Roundabout Theater (NY). Michi Barall's Iph/Then, also a 2008 ITW play, had production with Ma-Yi Theater Company under its new title, Rescue Me. Michael Golamco's Heartbreaker also presented in 2008's ITW was developed into the full length play Year Zero at Victory Gardens (2009) and Second Stage Theater (2010). Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap received its first workshop jointly by 2g and the Lark Theater in 2006 and was later produced by Magic Theater, Ma-Yi Theater and The Play Company, and Denver Center in 2009. Finally, A. Rey Pamatmat had the world premiere of Thunder Above, Deeps Below with 2g in 2009 and has since had regional productions. It was recently published thru Samuel French. 

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