As theatergoers ate dinner and sipped drinks at Joe’s Pub on June
As theatergoers ate dinner and sipped drinks at Joe’s Pub on June 24, one thing had to be made clear for them.
“Just fair warning everybody,” said Victor Maog, artistic director for the New York-based 2g (pronounced “Second Generation”) theater company.
“There’s going to be a lot of Asians on the stage.”
To celebrate 16 years of supporting the Asian-American theater community, 38 artists came together for a variety of original works 2g named Sixteen Going On Seventeen.
“Each of these writers tonight is answering a personal dare,” Maog told the audience. “Each of them said, ‘Yes,’ to their commission on the spot, and then they ran out and bought a very small yacht with their money.”
The evening showcased sneak peeks of five of the company’s upcoming plays and musicals-in-progress, including A Smooth Transition, by Mrinalini Kamath; Not Far From China, by Anna Moench; Galois the Musical, by Sung Rno and Aaron Jones; and Daddy Taught Me How to Woo, by Lolan Buhain Sevilla.
As the company’s newly appointed artistic director, Maog says that he has asked 2g’s artists to begin to question their place in society and the very definition of being an Asian in the United States.
“This night is about Asian representation,” Maog wrote in the events program. “More, it’s about how we can be leaders in artistic innovation and diversity and inclusion.”