RALPH PEÑA

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Ralph Peña participated in the Creative Fellowships Initiative in partnership with School of Drama.

Ralph Peña

Ralph Peña has been Ma-Yi Theater Company's Artistic Director since 1996, helping to establish Ma-Yi as the country’s leading incubator of new works by Asian American playwrights, and reaping a number of Obie, Drama Desk Awards, and most recently, a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical (KPOP) and a 2018 Ross Wetzsteon Obie Award. Recent directing credits include Lloyd Suh’s The Chinese Lady, Hansol Jung’s Among The Dead, and A. Rey Pamatmat’s House/Rules. His work has been seen on the stages of Ensemble Studio Theater, the Public Theater, Long Wharf Theater, Victory Gardens, Laguna Playhouse, Children’s Theater Company, and La Mama ETC, to name a few. 

ABOUT THE PROJECT

During his residency, Ralph worked on a new musical about immigration, conducting interviews and other research centered around the waves of Asian immigration that settled in the West Coast from the early 1900s through the end of World War 2.

He also partnered with local and regional theater artists and arts leaders to organize TAKING STOCK: Asian American Theater in Puget Sound. 

Representation and visibility are big concerns for Asian American theater artists around the country. This convening is intended to take stock of the challenges faced by Asian American theater artists in the Puget Sound region, and to consider short- and long-termed actions that might address them. 

While the convening was directly aimed at bringing together Asian American artists, theater practitioners from every background were invited to participate in envisioning an American Theater that makes space for us all. 

With special guests Desdemona Chiang (Director), Kathy Hsieh (Theatre Artist/SIS Productions), Rosa Joshi (Director, Producer, Educator), Sara Porkalob (Artist Activist, Creator of the DRAGON CYCLE), Amrita Ramanan (Director of Literary Development and Dramaturgy, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Art Rotch (Artistic Director, Perseverance Theater), Roger Tang (Secretary, Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists; Executive Director, Pork Filled Productions), Jennifer Zeyl (Artistic Director, Intiman Theatre).