Actor • Director • Grammy Nominee

Hi! I'm an NYC-based director, specializing in developing new plays and musicals. I love the "soft power" of theater as a medium for live social influence, and I endeavor to work on shows that have educational and visceral impact on the audience -- especially with regard to the Asian American, Queer and other underrepresented communities. I also believe in radical inclusivity - consciously and thoughtfully done - in terms of cast and creative teams. 

As a (Grammy-nominated) performer, I am an "actor's director"/"singer's director" to a greater extent than most directors: I'm able to speak the same artistic and technical language as the performers in a play or musical, and coax out their best performances. I am also a former lawyer, with exceptional reading and analytical skills for script/book/lyric development; and a lifelong musician, able to collaborate with composers on the score of a musical.

With developmental budgets, my directing aesthetic thus far has been minimalist, but refined. I prefer naturalistic acting and staging, with restraint and tension, focusing on the material and performances. I like to use different levels in my staging, and basic elements such as colored lighting, sound effects and projections to create sensory interest in the absence of large technical budgets. I'm always thinking about what is most effective to communicate the story and themes with and to the audience. In the future, I would like to include subtle sensory elements into my work (like scents, wind blowing, treatments to audience chairs and flooring) -- I want to find ways to be subtly immersive, without veering into the experimental or interactive world of "audience participation".