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ABOUT
Victor Malana Maog is a respected theater director, educator and arts leader with over twenty-five years experience directing projects, programs, and companies that boldly meet at the intersections of world-class art-making, popular culture, and forward-thinking community engagement.
He possesses national and international experience bridging the world of theater with diverse audiences and industries.
He was named one of American Theatre Magazine's PEOPLE TO WATCH (October 2015), shining "a light on theatre professionals across the country who deserve a bigger national profile".
Artistic Director of The Public Theater, Oskar Eustis, describes Maog as
“one of the leading lights of his generation - smart, talented, capable, and an artist with deep principles and integrity."
His award-winning work has reached over half the continental United States and has been cited as "Highly Recommended", "Must See", "Best of", "Critic's Picks" and "one of the year’s very best pieces of theatre" (Chicago Theater Review).
He’s directed and developed works at American Conservatory Theater, Public Theater, National Black Theatre, Magic Theatre, Hartford Stage, Intar, Folger Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Signature Theatre Company, Mabou Mines, Marriott Theatre, Working Theater, York Theater, Drury Lane, Cal Shakes, New Dramatists & The Lark. Earlier in his career, he had the privilege of working under directors Mark Lamos, Bill Rauch, Susan H. Schulman, Ted Sperling, Peter Dubois & Mary Zimmerman.
"One of the nation's rising theatre directors" (Asian Journal), he's equally at home directing classic plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Blood Wedding, The Visit, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and Cyrano as he is in the world of music theatre: Spring Awakening, South Pacific, Ragtime, Sweeney Todd, West Side Story and The Secret Garden. His new work creation has taken him from major institutions in New York City & Los Angeles to non-traditional projects in Chicago's south side & Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
From 2016-18, he served as Show Director for Disney Parks Live Entertainment creating and directing stage shows, large scale events, and spectaculars for millions of visitors.
He's considered "one of the nation's leading young Asian American directors" (Denver Post) and from 2012-20, he served as Artistic Director of Second Generation (2g) in New York City. Under his direction, 2g cultivated new works and performed at The New Ohio, Joe's Pub, La Mama, 54 Below, 2ST, and mentored hundreds of first-time writers through the "Community Voices" Playwrighting Program with Stuyvesant High School, often cited as the #1 public high school in the nation.
"A global creator for the individualist and no style, culture or trend is off limits" (Rocktown Weekly), Maog first gained visibility in 2004 as one of six directors in the United States to receive the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Award. He has also received the Paula Altvater Fellowship at Cornerstone Theatre Company, the Van Lier Directing Fellowship at Off Broadway's 2econd Stage Theatre, Sweet Briar Fellowship at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA) and The Presidential Award for Outstanding Academic Enrichment with the Theatre Arts Project of San Joaquin County, where he served as Artistic Director at age twenty. He's a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and represented the United States as a delegate to the International Theatre Institute/UNESCO's 31st World Congress in Manila.
In 2013, he received the Mu Performing Arts/Jerome Foundation New Performance Program commission to write his first full-length play, tot: THE UNTOLD, YET SPECTACULAR STORY OF (a filipino) HULK HOGAN. It received its world premiere in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2016.
Local reviews of that staging noted that the play’s "themes … resonate deeply as America’s presidential election becomes a referendum on the demonization of immigrants" (City Pages); and that it is "emotionally striking" (Aisle Say Twin Cities) and "emotionally rewarding" (TalkinBroadway.com)."
He's also a much respected artist/educator who's worked at schools such as NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, NYU/Program in Educational Theatre, Yale School of Drama, Brown/Trinity, University of Pennsylvania, Fordham University, James Madison University, West Virginia University, University of Miami, Emory, Delta State University and organizations including the American Theatre Wing, Theatre Development Fund, Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival, Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, The New Group, MCC, and New Victory Theater. Maog served five summer seasons (2008-2012) as Director of Theater at Perry-Mansfield in Steamboat Springs, CO -- the oldest such program in the country. There, he created the Original Works Initiative, leading to several world premieres and publications, and the P-M Winter Intensive at Juilliard.
Most recently, he served as President of the Board of Directors for CAATA (Consortium of Asian American Theatres and Artists), developing and mounting the National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival with recent institutional partners: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Victory Gardens Theater, and DePaul University.
During the pandemic, he pivoted to the digital realm to serve as Creative Director and Director for virtual celebrity charity events featuring Lin Manuel Miranda, Alan Menken, Bebe Neuwirth, David Cross, Noah Galvin, and Daniel Dae Kim. With the recent rise in anti-Asian violence, he was moved to use art as a tool to humanize AAPI’s by co-curating works by over 40 Asian American playwrights and actors to participate in The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues, which highlighted and supported the work of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, a platform that has reached millions of viewers.
Recognized nationally for his leadership and innovation, he's was an inaugural participant in the SPARK Leadership Program, funded by American Express, The Joyce Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group.
In 2022, he was appointed Professor of Performing Arts at Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in their BFA/MFA program.
Victor Malana Maog was born in the Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is a graduate of New York University's Gallatin School with a concentration in Global Leadership and Performance Studies.
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