Founded in 1997 by Welly Yang and other Asian American performers, Second Generation is a non-profit theater company dedicated to

• Creating contemporary, world-class Asian American theater that reaches across cultural, generational and racial boundaries;
• Cultivating the next generation of Asian American dramatic arts, by identifying and nurturing a vibrant community of actors, directors and writers from the established and emerging to the early-career and pre-professional; and
• Connecting with new and underserved audiences, especially young Asian Americans and other groups historically underrepresented in mainstream American theater, towards the establishment of a vital and effective platform for Asian American voices to be heard on the world’s stage.

HISTORY

The company first burst onto the nation’s stage with its acclaimed Off-Broadway musical Making Tracks in 1999. The show continued to develop over the next several years with productions throughout the U.S. and Taiwan, including a record-breaking 2004 run at San Jose Repertory. In the winter of 2002-2003, Second Generation unveiled its exclusive musical adaptation of Ang Lee’s award-winning film The Wedding Banquet in Taipei, Singapore, and Hawaii, with a World Premiere production at The Village Theatre in Seattle.

Second Generation has also produced and co-produced world premiere productions of new American plays with some of the country’s most exciting and prestigious theatre companies, including Masha No Home with Ensemble Studio Theatre and Youngblood, The Karaoke Show, directed by Diane Paulus with Project 400 at El Flamingo, and American Hwangap with the Lark Play Development Center.

Second Generation also created and produced the Concert of Excellence, featuring the Remy Martin XO Excellence Awards (now the AXA Awards) on some of New York City’s most important and historic stages, including The New York State Theatre, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall.

Click here for a detailed history of Second Generation productions.

2g offers free, public performances of new plays as part of its In the Works reading series, hosted at venues including the Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, HERE Arts Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Culture Project. These workshop staged readings have presented more than two dozen new plays by established, emerging and early-career writers since 1999, and provided early-career support for hundreds of emerging and pre-professional Asian American actors.

Click here for a detailed history of In The Works readings.

In 2005, former Managing Director Gladys Chen was appointed President of Second Generation after the departure of Artistic Producing Director Welly Yang (who currently serves 2g as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Founding/Honorary Artist). Playwright and director Lloyd Suh was named 2g’s Artistic Director.

Since that time, 2g has continued to emerge as one of the country’s most important incubators of young Asian American theatrical talent, developing new plays from a new generation of Asian American dramatists, providing early-career opportunities for young actors, and reaching out to newer and younger audiences.