Ma-Yi Theater Company
A New York-based nonprofit theater company devoted to developing and producing Filipino, Asian American, and broader contemporary Asian diasporic theater.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
Ma-Yi Theater Company is a professional nonprofit theater organization based in New York City. Founded in 1989 by a group of Filipino and Filipino American theater artists, the company initially presented Filipino plays, adaptations, and works rooted in the experiences of the Filipino diaspora. Its name and early identity reflect the importance of Filipino cultural production within New York’s Asian American theater community. The organization gradually developed from a collective of artists into an established producing institution. Jorge Ortoll joined Ma-Yi in 1990 and became executive director in 1991, the year the company incorporated as a nonprofit and established a board of directors. Ralph Peña, one of the founders, became co-artistic director with Betty Mae Piccio in 1995 and sole artistic director after Piccio relocated in 1996. Peña and Ortoll subsequently built the company’s administrative and artistic infrastructure, supported by production, marketing, accounting, and associate artistic staff. In 1998, Ma-Yi expanded its mission beyond Filipino theater to include works by other Asian American writers. This change responded to a shortage of developmental and producing opportunities for new Asian American playwrights. The company became known not only for fully staged productions but also for readings, workshops, writer development, and collaborations that connected emerging dramatists with professional directors, designers, actors, and producers. Ma-Yi’s artistic community has included Filipino and Asian American artists such as Loy Arcenas, Fabian Obispo, Ching Valdes-Aran, Mia Katigbak, Jessica Hagedorn, Behn Cervantes, Rody Vera, Marina Feleo-Gonzalez, Joi Barrios, and many others. Its repertory has included plays by Ralph Peña, Lonnie Carter, Qui Nguyen, Michi Barall, Michael Lew, Carla Ching, Lloyd Suh, Hansol Jung, and other contemporary playwrights. The company has also participated in major producing partnerships, including the development and presentation of KPOP with Ars Nova and Woodshed Collective. The Ma-Yi Writers Lab, founded in 2004 by Sung Rno through the Theatre Communications Group and National Endowment for the Arts Playwrights’ Residency Program, became a central part of the company’s identity. The lab provides an ongoing professional community and development structure for Asian American playwrights and has been described as one of the largest assembled groups of professional Asian American dramatists. Co-directors Michael Lew and Rehana Lew Mirza have led the lab in its later period. Ma-Yi has received recognition from the Obie Awards, Drama Desk Awards, the Off Broadway Alliance, and the Lucille Lortel Awards. Notable achievements include the Obie-recognized production of The Romance of Magno Rubio, a Drama Desk nomination for No Foreigners Beyond This Point, a 2010 Special Drama Desk Award for theater excellence, and recognition for KPOP, which received a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and a Drama Desk nomination. Its work has also included the National Asian American Theater Festival, which Ma-Yi helped establish in 2007 with the National Asian American Theater Company and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. The company’s role extends beyond production. Through its writers’ lab, artist network, literary activity, festival partnerships, and engagement with questions of representation, Ma-Yi has helped strengthen the institutional presence of Asian American theater in the United States. Its present-day profile is that of an artist-centered nonprofit producer and new-play development organization, with particular expertise in contemporary Asian American and diasporic voices.
History
Ma-Yi Theater Company was founded in New York City in 1989 by Chito Jao Garces, Ralph Peña, Margot Lloren, Ankie Frilles, Luz de Leon, Isolda Oca, Arianne Recto, Cristina Sison, and Bernie Villanueva. The founders created a professional theater collective whose earliest productions centered on Filipino and Filipino American plays and adaptations. Chris Millado was also important during the company’s initial development, advising its first performance and later returning as a writer and director. Jorge Ortoll joined Ma-Yi in 1990 and became executive director in 1991. That year marked an important institutional transition: Ma-Yi became a nonprofit organization and created a board of directors. Ralph Peña and Betty Mae Piccio served as co-artistic directors beginning in 1995. After Piccio moved to Philadelphia in 1996, Peña became the company’s sole artistic director. Ortoll and Peña developed a support structure that included administrative, marketing, technical, accounting, and associate artistic personnel. The company’s artistic network expanded through collaborations with Filipino theater practitioners based in New York and elsewhere. Participants included designer and director Loy Arcenas, composer Fabian Obispo, performers Ching Valdes-Aran and Mia Katigbak, novelist and playwright Jessica Hagedorn, director Behn Cervantes, playwright and performer Rody Vera, Marina Feleo-Gonzalez, and scholars and writers connected to Philippine literary and performance traditions. Joi Barrios joined the organization as literary manager in 2003. A major strategic shift occurred in 1998, when Ma-Yi widened its mission to include plays by Asian American writers who were not Filipino. The change reflected the company’s assessment that new Asian American playwrights lacked sufficient venues for readings, workshops, and full productions. Ma-Yi consequently became both a Filipino American theater institution and a broader platform for Asian American playwriting. The Ma-Yi Writers Lab was founded in 2004 by Sung Rno in connection with the Theatre Communications Group and National Endowment for the Arts Playwrights’ Residency Program. The lab became a resident community for emerging professional writers and a significant part of Ma-Yi’s contribution to new-play development. In its later period it was led by co-directors Michael Lew and Rehana Lew Mirza. The lab’s work helped establish a sustained institutional pipeline for Asian American playwrights rather than treating culturally specific theater as an occasional programming category. Ma-Yi’s productions have ranged from Filipino American historical and identity-based drama to formally experimental contemporary plays, family theater, musicals, and works addressing Asian diasporic life. Important titles include Ralph Peña’s Flipzoids; Lonnie Carter’s The Romance of Magno Rubio; Warren Leight’s No Foreigners Beyond This Point; Qui Nguyen’s Soul Samurai and Agent G.; Michi Barall’s Rescue Me: A postmodern classic with snacks; Michael Lew’s Microcrisis, Bike America, and Teenage Dick; Carla Ching’s Sugar House; Lloyd Suh’s American Hwangap, Children of Vonderly, Jesus in India, and The Chinese Lady; and Hansol Jung’s Among the Dead. The company has also developed notable partnerships. KPOP was produced with Ars Nova and Woodshed Collective and became one of Ma-Yi’s most visible musical-theater successes. Ma-Yi was one of three organizations that co-founded the National Asian American Theater Festival in 2007, together with the National Asian American Theater Company and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. In addition, the company participated in Artography, a pilot project launched by LINC to document changing arts practices shaped by demographic change in the United States. Ma-Yi has received substantial critical and industry recognition. Ching Valdes-Aran won an Obie for her performance in Flipzoids in 1997. The company received an Obie grant in 2002, and the 2003 Obie recognition for The Romance of Magno Rubio honored its creative team and performers. No Foreigners Beyond This Point received a 2006 Drama Desk nomination for Best Play, while its designers received Henry Hewes Design Award nominations. Ma-Yi received a Special Drama Desk Award for theater excellence in 2010. The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go! won the 2014 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Play. KPOP won the 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, while Ma-Yi also received the 2018 Obie Ross Wetzsteon Award. The company has documented part of its artistic legacy in Savage Stage: Plays by Ma-Yi Theater Company, a 2007 anthology edited by literary manager Joi Barrios. Across its history, Ma-Yi has combined professional production with writer cultivation, festival work, and advocacy for more accurate representation of Asian American artists and stories.
- 2018
KPOP receives Lucille Lortel recognition
[1]The collaborative musical KPOP wins the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.
- 2010
Special Drama Desk Award
[1]Ma-Yi receives a Special Drama Desk Award recognizing excellence in theater.
- 2007
National Asian American Theater Festival launched
[1]Ma-Yi co-founds and produces the first National Asian American Theater Festival.
- 2004
Ma-Yi Writers Lab founded
[1]The resident playwright-development program is created through a TCG/NEA residency initiative.
- 1998
Mission expands to Asian American writers
[1]Ma-Yi begins explicitly including works by non-Filipino Asian American playwrights.
- 1991
Nonprofit incorporation and executive leadership
[1]The organization becomes a nonprofit, forms a board of directors, and appoints Jorge Ortoll as executive director.
- 1989
Company founded
[1]Ma-Yi Theater Company is established in New York by Filipino and Filipino American theater artists.
Products and positioning
A nonprofit, artist-led producing and development company specializing in contemporary Filipino, Asian American, and Asian diasporic theater, with a strong emphasis on emerging playwrights and culturally specific representation.
Theatrical production
The Romance of Magno Rubio
Lonnie Carter’s play, produced by Ma-Yi, became one of the company’s most recognized works. Its creative team and performers received 2003 Obie recognition, establishing the production as a significant example of Ma-Yi’s Filipino American and diasporic theater repertoire.
Musical theater
KPOP
A musical developed and produced by Ma-Yi in partnership with Ars Nova and Woodshed Collective. The production became a prominent example of the company’s collaborative approach and received the 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, along with a Drama Desk nomination.
Playwright development · 2004
Ma-Yi Writers Lab
A resident company and professional development community for emerging Asian American playwrights. Founded in 2004, the lab supports the creation and refinement of new plays through sustained writer-centered activity.
Family theater
The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!
Lloyd Suh’s family-oriented play was produced by Ma-Yi and won the 2014 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Play, reflecting the company’s reach beyond adult contemporary drama.
Contemporary drama · 2006
No Foreigners Beyond This Point
Warren Leight’s play received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Play in connection with Ma-Yi’s 2006 production. Its scenic and sound design work also received Henry Hewes Award nominations.
Controversies
2015
Jesus in India production dispute
Playwright Lloyd Suh sought to stop a student production of Jesus in India at Clarion University after learning that the university had not obtained his direct permission, had changed the work into a musical, and had not followed the play’s stated South Asian casting requirement. The episode highlighted issues of authorial control, adaptation rights, and representation in educational theater.
Marketing campaigns
- 2007National Asian American Theater Festival
United States
Ma-Yi co-founded and produced the first National Asian American Theater Festival with the National Asian American Theater Company and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre.
Outcome. The initiative created a national platform for Asian American theater companies, playwrights, and performers.
- Artography: Arts in a Changing America
United States
Ma-Yi participated in LINC’s Artography pilot, a project examining new arts practices emerging from demographic and cultural change in the United States.
Outcome. The participation documented Ma-Yi as part of a changing American arts ecosystem.
Brand decisions
2004
Create a resident writers laboratoryStrategyBackground
The company sought a durable structure for developing emerging professional Asian American playwrights.
Action taken
Ma-Yi established the Writers Lab through a TCG/NEA Playwright’s Residence Program connection.
Aftermath
The lab became a defining part of Ma-Yi’s writer-development and artist-community work.
1998
Broaden the artistic missionStrategyBackground
Ma-Yi identified a shortage of development and production opportunities for playwrights from across the Asian American community.
Action taken
The company expanded beyond its original Filipino and Filipino American focus to include works by other Asian American writers.
Aftermath
Ma-Yi became a broader Asian American new-play institution while retaining its Filipino artistic roots.
Recent events
- 2018
KPOP receives major New York theater recognition[1]
Other
KPOP, produced by Ma-Yi with Ars Nova and Woodshed Collective, wins the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and receives a Drama Desk nomination.
- 2007
Ma-Yi helps launch the National Asian American Theater Festival[1]
Campaign · Other
Ma-Yi joins the National Asian American Theater Company and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in founding the first National Asian American Theater Festival.
- 2005
Ma-Yi receives a Carnegie Corporation-supported grant[1]
Other
Ma-Yi is among New York arts and social-service organizations receiving support through a Carnegie Corporation grant initiative backed by a contribution from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
- 2004
Ma-Yi Writers Lab is established[1]
Other
The company launches its resident writers’ development program through a Theatre Communications Group and National Endowment for the Arts playwright residency initiative.
- 1998
Mission expands to broader Asian American theater[1]
Other
Ma-Yi broadens its producing mission to include works by non-Filipino Asian American writers, particularly new plays needing development opportunities.
- 1991
Ma-Yi becomes a nonprofit organization[1]
Leadership change
The company incorporates as a nonprofit, establishes a board, and appoints Jorge Ortoll as executive director.
- 1989
Ma-Yi Theater Company is founded in New York[1]
Other
A collective of Filipino and Filipino American theater artists establishes Ma-Yi Theater Company and begins producing Filipino and Filipino American plays and adaptations.
Sources1 sources
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