Ralph Peña is a founding member and the current artistic director of Ma-Yi Theater Company

Ma-Yi Theater Company

Ma-Yi Theater Company is a professional, not-for-profit, Obie Award and Drama Desk Award winning theater company based in New York City that was founded in 1989. Ma-Yi Theater is headed by Executive Director Jorge Ortoll and Artistic Director Ralph Peña...

, an Obie Award

Obie Award

The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...

  and Drama Desk winning Asian American theatre

Asian American theatre

Asian American theater is theater written, directed or acted by Asian Americans.- Background :Asian American theater emerged in the 1960s and the 1970s with the foundation of four theatre companies: East West Players in Los Angeles, Asian American Theatre Workshop in San Francisco, Theatrical...

 group based in New York City. As a playwright, his works include Flipzoids, Project: Balangiga, This End Up, and Loose Leaf Bindings. He received an Obie Award

Obie Award

The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...

 for his work on The Romance of Magno Rubio

The Romance of Magno Rubio

The Romance of Magno Rubio is a play by Lonnie Carter based on a short story by Carlos Bulosan. Developed by the Ma-Yi Theater Company, it had its premiere in October, 2002 in New York City. The production and cast members were the recipient of a special 2003 Obie Award...

. Recent directing credits include Michael Lew's Microcrisis, Lloyd Suh's Children of Vonderly., and Nicky Paraiso's House/Boy for LaMama ETC, and the Singapore and Dublin Theater Festivals.

REFERENCES:

New York Times Interview
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/04/theater/theater-a-troupe-that-sought-an-asian-american-role.html?scp=23&sq=ralph%20pena&st=cse

Asian Theater Journal, Savage Stage
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/asian_theatre_journal/v025/25.2.foley.html

The Village Voice, Asian Equation
http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-05-29/theater/the-asian-equation/

MELUS Article, A Hunger For History
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-21580927_ITM